Why is the Irish Labour party such a failure ?

There's no mystery to Labour's electoral performance. It traditionally got about 10% of first preferences but got almost double that on two occasions - 1992 (the Spring Tide) and 2011. It won liberal voters in 1992 but promptly lost them by getting into bed with FF (and then shafting Reynolds and getting into bed with Bruton). In 2011, as everyone knows, they won votes by claiming to have an alternative to austerity and lost them by getting into bed with FG i.e. the Troika programme. The problem is not the 6.6% they got in 2016 (that is in line with their performance in 1987) but the disastrous 4.4% in 2020. That proved that Labour won't get back to their traditional 10% because SF now offers a viable left-wing alternative.

The relevant question now is why they dumped AK47 so brutally? No one has suggested there was a policy difference. The pundits have no explanation except that there was unhappiness about a backroom appointment. If that is Labour's reason to switch leaders (and entrust their future to a media darling who failed repeatedly to win a seat until Eoghan Murphy opened the door in a leafy borough), Labour is doomed to irrelevance. The parliamentary party seem to behave like franchisees who are disatisfied with the CEO because he is not getting results. If the polls were moving in Labour's favour, there would have been no heave, regardless of what policies AK47 was pushing.

Labour's brand will retain the loyalty of ageing left-wing/liberal voters who can't stomach SF or People against Profit but that is a dwindling cohort. Labour will never again be the choice of swing voters as they were in 1992 and 2011.

Strumms

Quinn

Rabbitte

Gilmore

Burton

Howlin

5 leaders over about 23 years… none of the 5 had any redeemable qualities as regards leadership… and 3 out of those 5 had no redeemable qualities as politicians full stop….leadership has been the overriding issue… over my lifetime I’d never look at a Labour leader and think… “ you know what, they’d make a good Taoiseach “…. That’s a pretty damning assessment… others might disagree but I genuinely think that their leadership doesn’t resonate with the electorate.

Bacik to come….fresh from partying in the Merrion Hotel with the rest of them….hmmmm it’s going to be the same old story for Labour, more derisory and ineffective leadership….

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118736602#Comment_118736602

No point being in politics if you’re not prepared to go into power, even at the most difficult times. If some other people on the left were being honest, they’d be saying “Vote for me, so I can sit in opposition as the perennial hurler on the ditch, whinging about everything, and never making a hard decision in my life “.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118736889#Comment_118736889

The leader’s personality was not a problem for Labour in the past and a change now won’t help them.

Whatever you may think of them, Labour leaders have consistently polled better than the party and those you list were major political figures who gave the party a high profile.They also became targets for abuse but that would be the worst possible reason to abandon a leader.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118736776#Comment_118736776

You’re largely accurate here but the long term future may not be as dismal as you think. Wait until the Shinners actually get into power and find that they don’t have all the solutions and they have to make hard decisions with limited resources. Much of their support will decide that they’ve sold out and will be looking for a new home.

That could be 2 or 3 elections away, but it will happen.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737014#Comment_118737014

No point in voting for a party who behave like another party once elected.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737055#Comment_118737055

Thats unfounded party spin. You could say it about Labour just as easily. Maybe thats why they always rollover once they get in.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737113#Comment_118737113

It has already happened to Labour. Twice.

Shinners turn is fast approaching.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737109#Comment_118737109

No point in voting at all if you don’t understand how coalition governments work.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737015#Comment_118737015

As TDs they polled better…. Not as leaders.

they could have been efficient and effective locally but the electorate never had the confidence of them as leaders…

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737276#Comment_118737276

Not just in their local constituencies, their national approval ratings were consistently higher than their party’s rating.

Admittedly, each previous leader was seen as an electoral liability when they were jettisoned but, in all cases and especially with AK47, that was only part of the party’s deeper problems and the change of leader didn’t solve the problem. Gilmore was the last leader to increase Labour’s ratings and that was because FF took austerity measures in 2008 and FG backed the Troika.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737153#Comment_118737153

It's a give and take, program for government type of deal. Labour let FG away with too much and turned on the general public for protesting. Pointless being in power if you sell out your base.

If Labour supported the tax payers not earning enough to buy a home and generally looked after tax paying workers, as is their tradition, they'd be up in the top two right now. The squeezed and forgotten tax payers are looking elsewhere because of how Labour act when they get in. If they had of refused going in with Kenny they'd be were SF are today.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737348#Comment_118737348

“turned on the general public for protesting.”

When did the “general public” protest?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737361#Comment_118737361

Water charges. Was the government spin merchants made it all about Paul Murphy. They saw how pissed off the public were and tried to make it all about him. Burton passing comments about them having mobile phones and the like. Before you go off on the usual playing dumb rabbit hole, I've no interest in discussing the whole Irish Water thing. I'm commenting on Labour's attitude.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737348#Comment_118737348

Where would those taxpaying workers be if they had refused to go in with Kenny in 2011? What would Kenny and Noonan have done to tax rates, social welfare rates, public service salaries and state assets if Labour had taken the easy option of sitting in opposition?

You do remember that the country was bankrupt, right? This wasn’t a business as usual scenario.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737392#Comment_118737392

But it was a business as usual result. Thanks in part to Labour.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737388#Comment_118737388

Trapping women in cars while terrorising them wasn’t done by the general public. It was done by a baying, feral mob.

Ballycommon Mast

Back in 2014, just after the count in the local and European elections, many labour TDs had the strange idea that they could solve all their problems by getting rid of Eamon Gilmore as leader, That'd made absolutely no sense to me.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737410#Comment_118737410

That’s true. They did get the country out of bankruptcy and back on something close to an even keel. And they got slaughtered by the electorate for doing so.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737422#Comment_118737422

*slow hand clap* bring your faux misplaced outrage elsewhere would you? Its been done to death.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737498#Comment_118737498

Nope they got slaughtered for being FG's henchmen and women. This idea that parties get punished for doing an unpopular but good job is a complete myth.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/michael-mcgrath-and-simon-coveney-top-poll-as-the-publics-preferred-choices-for-ff-and-fg-leadership-41415381.html

Labour on 3% and no Bacik bounce in the latest Indo poll. The change of leader could actually worsen their position!

Did AK47 appoint his disgraced brother Declan to a job in the party’s HQ? That would go some way towards explaining the reaction within the party.

fryup

^^^ it will worsen their position and a 'bookish feminist' is the anchor that will sink the ship

...kinda reminds me of their counterparts up north (the SDLP) i.e. lost in the political wilderness

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737836#Comment_118737836

Try telling that to Labour (twice), the Greens, the PDs. It’s how things have worked since we started having coalition governments.

And don’t forget this question please- Where would those taxpaying workers be if they had refused to go in with Kenny in 2011? What would Kenny and Noonan have done to tax rates, social welfare rates, public service salaries and state assets if Labour had taken the easy option of sitting in opposition?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118738200#Comment_118738200

Pure speculation, right? Do you not think that would have hit the press on Tuesday evening if it were true?

votecounts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737151#Comment_118737151

you're forgettig that SF will be more than likely the lead party which Labour never has had or will ever have.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118739251#Comment_118739251

Yes, they probably will be the lead party, which will raise expectations even higher for them to actually fix things.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118739251#Comment_118739251

In a way it might not be a bad thing, two years under them…

prisoner amnesty

soft on violent crime

tens of thousands of new arrivals

cuts to Gardai…

but…

Last June when the vote happened to abolish the special criminal court, Sinn Fein TDs abstained, left the chamber, didn’t have the courage of their convictions ( no pun intended ) yet the same year they said when asked …”it has no place in modern Ireland, “… but they couldn’t stand beside opposing it via actions, a step too far…

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118739233#Comment_118739233

Going in with FG and doing their bidding? We can do without Labour. How's the PD's doing? Greens set for another wipe out.

There's right and wrong. Roisin Shorthall left for a reason.