If the government called a general election tonight

Liberal is not left wing. You seem to be trying to apply the incorrect US usage of the term.

And yes there policies are fairly similar because the two political creeds they share are close on the political spectrum.

Let’s see overt hostility to the EU (a position that most European Far Right parties have abandoned), signing and then breaking the terms of the treaty (on withdrawal) that they signed, the serious attempts to withdraw from the ECHR because human rights are an inconvenience, the willingness to send people to Rwanda (a country with a poor human rights record), overt willingness to scapegoat others (EU nationals who moved to the U.K., people who cross the Channel (despite the majority of them qualifying as bona fide refugees once the Home Office actually processes them)).

...id argue our traditional left parties are lost in the wilderness, they got themselves wrapped up in modern, more right leaning ideologies such as neoliberalism, and now they dont know what they are, who they represent, you can clearly see this with older left parties such as the labour party, the greens, well theyd be lost also, theyre simply unable to collate their own thinking and ideologies, even to try meet their own primary objectives, i.e. the environment....

The problem with these, 'which parties are on the left/right' discussions is that an awful lot of posters start off with the belief that their views are more centrist than they actually are, ironically it becomes more prevalent the further left or right these posters tend to actually stand.

It is fairly pointless discussion when one cohort is arguing that we've never had a right wing government and another arguing that we've only had right wing governments; by right wing both cohorts just mean, 'to the right of me'.

Speak out, is it? Is that what it takes?

And what about their other policies? What about leaving the EU?

Because their immigration policies would require us to leave the European Union. And even then, Ireland has international obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Refugee Protocol, both embedded UN policy. Should we bow out of the UN too?

International protection policy, asylum policy, economic migrant policy and war and climate refugee policy all need global examination and action, thats beyond question. But that'll only be successful with global cooperation and trickle down policy changes from the UN, OECD, EU, AU, ASEAN etc.

Not by a bunch of dumb f*** face donkey dick yellow pack fascists like the National Party acting unilaterally.

I mean Jesus Christ, if they were even half way convincing and had the courage of those convictions as fascists, I'd have some respect for their commitment and tenacity, but they're actually just a bunch of pathetic useless pricks. Every last one of them.

There is no such thing as a protest vote. You're either voting for them, or voting for someone else, or you're not voting at all.

I counted votes for 18 years. There was always spoiled votes, twats who wrote essays on their ballots, as if anyone cared. No one has time to read them in an 18 hour count marathon. And even if they did, its the wrong audience. The parties never get to see them.

If you vote for the NP, you vote for the NP. Its no skin off Leo Varadkar's nose, or Mary Lou's nose. Its just you, voting for them.

If Bertie grew a beard and ran as Bert, he'd win....people are fickle and forgetful... and Bertie's a charmer