I think it will be FF/FG again with god knows who. Hopefully a left wing party
It will be November 15th
Mod: Unless posters are going to discuss immigration policy in the election then the immigration discussion stops here. I'm not having this thread hijacked or veering off topic.
Not when they got their candidate strategy wrong and ended up in opposition afterwards...
Mod: stop with the insulting of politicians with derogatory names. Next poster will face a one week forum ban. This will apply even if in another thread!!!
You need to qualify the result - ah they won most votes but we won most seats (they didn't) SF don't need to qualify the result - 'we won the most votes'. They can legitimately say they won the election, which is to see who can win most votes.
I am still awaiting an apology. It's being covered on several forums now. Have you seen a denial?
750m buys you no comment.
The debate wasn't what moved the needle though.
It hardly inspired people to vote violet Anne Wynne for example.
People realized it was going to be FFG unless they voted elsewhere and SF filled the void.
It's similar now. I'm decided to vote against FFG.
I'll vote for independents that have a chance then SF No. 3.
Now if that becomes any sort of a national trend it could clobber FFG for all those final seats.
I don't think we will see SF topping polls all over the place like 2020 but we could see them pick up a lot of last seats.
For me it's a straight choice. I either vote FFG or not.
Yes they should have run more candidates, and if they had more confidence in themselves they would have but from the point of view of % FP votes and gained seats they won and were joint winners on number of seats won
If you took a coalition consisting of SF, Green, Labour, SD, PBP, Aontú, I4C and every independent they would have had 87 seats, 6 more than the 81 needed for a majority in 2020, so by your logic those 7 parties and 19 independents were the real winners?
The winners of an election are those who end up in government.
Patently not. An election is held to see who gets most votes. What happens after an election in government formation is separate and often has little to do with who won the most votes. Quite possible (and it was on the cards last time) that no government can be formed, that doesn't remove the wiinner of the vote contest. That is how our democracy works.
The point of an election is not to win votes, it's to win seats.
Not when Sinn Fein get the most votes.
Don't worry though that was last time and the rules will change for this election when Fianna Fail get more.
On that basis Fianna Fáil won every election from 1927 to 2007 so?
The FG pressure to bury the Kanturk story and video will be the first question on the debate tonight. Or will it…
"needs to show how sincere he is"
If that happens he's finished. He doesn't have a sincere bone in his body.
He'll be trying to scaremonger about SF.
Yes, in terms of votes. It's entirely legitimate to say they won them in that context. On the basis of current polling they look set to win this election too and will claim it.
What Harris needs to turn it around is actually showing some humility. You'll find with Harris, it's never his fault but that's not going to cut the mustard at this point.
We all see how snarky and defensive he gets when he gets politically attacked over the likes of the Children's hospital, broken promises to children with scoliosis
If it's asked Harris will be ready for it. All humble and apologetic.
Turn the negative into a positive.
Any answers to the three questions I posed?
I literally first saw it on the RTE 9 o'clock news - one of the most watched TV programmes in the country.
Of which SF and FF jointly topped and SF had the best improvement
It's not just Harris, I think it's the whole FG mantra. I had FG canvasers call to my door over the weekend and when I raised the issue of the conditions in UHL, they blamed them on the IMF bailout. 10 years ago the bailout ended and they've been in power since but what's happening there isn't their fault.
It might sound laughable but actually Harris is the most FG leader that FG have ever had
Ya it's not being downplayed by RTÉ or the other media outlets.
Having said that, a lot of people don't engage with the news too.
RTÉ aren't hiding this, people are happy in their own ignorance of what's going on. That's all.
Doesn't for a second excuse the alleged attempt to control RTE's handling of it.
That's often the case but there's often more nuance than that in it
Sometime parties end up in shot-gun wedding arrangement type coalitions purely to keep another party out or for fear of having to compete in an immediate re-election.
Do I work in RTE? Am I a FG advisor? The truth will get out. RTE were asked and clearly refused. Or it was too late.
Paschal on the backfoot and forgetting Leo Varadkar threat to sue over something he apologised for later.
Any idea who it was who pressed him on the issue specifically around the national broadcaster comment? Good on her anyway.
Until I see answers I’ll regard it as a made up story.
Even who started the rumour would be helpful.
Could be Jennifer Bray…not sure though.
I was listening to the Irish Times podcast last night. Jennifer Bray was saying how her phone was lighting up with FG TDs freaking out about that incident. Their specific fear was that voters, who up until then had a positive opinion of Harris and believed he was earnest, would see it and believe that they had been deceived and that this was a glimpse of the real Harris.
I'm not sure if there are any more polls between now and the election so we may just have to wait until Saturday, when the boxes are opened, to see if it had an affect. There will likely be an exit poll as well where they ask people why they voted a certain way - perhaps it may surface in that.
