Presidential Election 2025

He has 40 years of political experience so I do think he has his finger on the nations political pulse sometimes.

P2P gone woke. They’re refusing to give the subscribers the recorded episode today. I think that’s disgraceful. I disagree with what Ivan did. But withholding content is pathetic.

I think he should set up his own podcast. I think it would get a good audience.

On the thing about him coaching Gavin, Gavins campaign only lasted a few weeks anyway.

A big lesson for FF and FG from this is they need to really up their game on social media. The Irish Left, unlike in the US, are dominant in social media.

I'm somewhat surprised given FGs recent tendency to have young leaders that they were so unprepared for this. Even if you are in your 40s you would have been late teens early 20s when the internet started. You would remember how The Drudge Report started the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Its not like social media is just launching into space or something.

I mean that his campaign only lasted a few weeks. Not that this was his intention at the start

I hope something is worked out and he can return. But I'm sure we havent heard the last of him. He is an expert on Irish politics - at least as it was when he was in the Dail. A lot of his political generation though retired especially in FG. Enda Kenny, Michael Ring for example.

I think that not only was there a young-old divide in this election, but also a bit of a gender divide too. The person who explains the Ireland Thinks poll says that young men were the main group involved in spoiling their votes.

Does anyone have exact numbers on that? How did young men break down between voting for Connolly and spoiling their votes?

This mght come as a bit of a shock to you.but the Internet existed before 2000. The Drudge Report's most successful time, including the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, was in the 1990s. For most people using the Internet then, it was dial-up access. FF's Social Media game sucked in this election as did FG's game. In the early 2000s, FF used Blue State Digital to advise it on the developing Social Media and online presence. It was the same US company that advised Obama. After the crash, it could not afford it.

FG had a much more unfortunate experience with early Social Media and its first Social Media "guru" ended up in federal prison in the US. FF's Deirdre of The Sorrows campaign video used in the Dublin Bay South bye-election is legendary for all the wrong reasons. This election was fought and won on Social Media. That's the biggest problem for FF and FG. For a long time, FFG has been criticising SF's Social Media operations without understanding why they are effective. With more younger voters becoming eligible to vote, Social Media is becoming a more importan issue in elections as this one has shown. It has neutralised FFG's advantage with the legacy media by effectively bypassing it. If Connolly had run in 2011 or even 2018, she would not have been elected. There are three reasons: the changed electorate, the decline of FFG, and Social Media.

Yates is a showman and effectively a shock jock. His political analysis, as with this election was always interesting. Replacing him with Coleman (who is simply not in the same category of political expertise) would be a mistake. It looks like Yates was a victim of FFG's election disaster.

Let's not be making Yates the victim here. 100% the cause of his own removal.

He was leaving in January anyway so he wont be looking for any pity.