Sinn Fein and how do they form a government dilemma

Do you want to see them back or Stormont or not? Fairly simple question.

The pragmatic unionists clearly want to get back in and make NI work as a long term project.

Sinn Fein a no show on the Tonight Show on Virgin Media.

Didn’t do Enda any harm😁 he tefused Tonight Show and other debates. Legendary for it.

You should google first before the ranting.

It’s a TV show not the Dàil.

It is a fairly common thing to hear ‘ xxxxx had nobody available for comment’

The View From Stormont is where it’s at tonight.

Neale waffling again? No thanks.

Yep, I think that is the most lukley outcome, though probably indies rather than GP.

Lot of water to pass under the bridge before talking about government formation.

The immigration debacle has the potential to sunder relations in the coalition. 81% unhappy with the government is gonna rile the backbenchers and some frontbenchers too.

We can talk about that when we figure out where FF and FG end up on the matter. Sands will shift somewhat I reckon.

Yep, dog-whistling and 'tough talk' about immigration are not going to win over those who are seriously concerned about that issue in the absence of policy 'red meat'. All it's likely to do is alienate middle-class liberals...

trouble doesnt really beckon if no other party is championing an alternative approach.

People might not be happy with the immigration situation, but they have to vote for someone (and no party has an alternative stance) or dont vote at all.

That would only make 80, which is short of the 88 required for a majority.

Even FF and SF would fall short in that scenario with only 86.

I really struggle to get my head around what SF's strategy for winning the next election actually is, in my most generous moments I think they have some good ideas or strong changes that they are holding back for now so FFG don't steal them but then I think back to how lackluster they were in the last election and think its more likely they just have nothing and their whole strategy is to pick holes in what FFG are doing without saying what they would actually be doing different.

It really stumps me how there is a clear open goal for them to win big but they cant come up with anything to win voters over from FFG

Immigration is a clear one, would anyone be surprised if SF came out with a strong agenda to fight immigration? I wouldn't, I don't think their base would either and FFG would struggle to counter it but yet we here are. They could pretty much just copy paste what the Tories have been up to in the UK for the last decade except, you know, actually then do something when in power 😄

If the immigration issue continues to degenerate the way it is, you could likely see a situation where a government can't be formed at all. We were not all that far away from it last time out and there was no immigration issue.

I am sorry, but I am not sure how you can contend they sit on the fence on climate change, cost of living/inflation, budget/spending, employment, crime/gardaí and the Israel-Palestine conflict?

You may not agree with them (that's an entirely different argument), I don't on everything they proprose, but it isn't hard to find their position on these key concern (as per IT poll) for voters.

Genuine question.

Whose 'base' has one view?

We see the problem with the online supporters on this very thread. They are even emptier of ideas than the SF political representatives, if that is possible. The only thing they are full of is "look over there" stuff, and vitriol towards all others.

There is no big idea associated with Sinn Fein. Since the last election, they have sat back and thought it will just come to us. However, since then, the government have worked hard, brought the country through the pandemic, a lot better than other countries, and kept us on the rise. Big projects like BusConnects, DART+ and Metrolink are about to come on stream (and we don't even know what SF policy on those is). Even housing is getting better with record numbers of first-time buyers, the key demographic.

Immigration is the big one, but maintaining that balance between being welcoming and having good rules is the challenge, but SF again, are all at sea on the government's main weakness.