The Weekend On One With Brendan O'Connor

I don't find O'Connor funny or humorous in the least. (I put it down to his unfortunate accent and the little teenage girly uplift at the end of his sentences.) There was one time when I thought he was funny however. It was when he was interviewing Nigella Lawson. Lawson is suave and to hear a thick fawning Cork accent was hilarious. 'It's been great talking to ya Nigella and I hope ye come down to Cark one day by'.

Yes she was, to be honest, I thought we were done with that lady who’s voting successes depended on SF surpluses.

She would have the country living in caves if she got her way.

I think that was just after one of the guests said something to Brid along the lines of "well other than being perpetually annoyed, have you actually got any solutions".

Thought it was a quality line. The likes of her haven't a clue how the world works and talk in sound bites which wouldn't actually work in the real world. But the small number of people who actually vote for these types think they are geniuses. Think of Coppinger too, she was/is exactly the same.

Thanks for sharing how suave and sophisticated you are.

I think it's unfair to include PBP's views as representative of the broader left. PBP are far left and are way out there on a lot of their beliefs. They also seem to prefer a system where they never end up in government, it's easier to shout from the outside than make decisions on the inside.

Labour and the Greens have shown themselves as willing to go into government in the past. Sinn Féin (although debatable if they are actually left wing and not just populist) and Soc Dems haven't had the chance yet but I'd like to think they'd go in too if the numbers worked. But I think PBP would struggle massively to ever go into government. I could see a scenario where SF + SD + Lab + Greens or similar end up a few seats short of what they need and PBP would stay out but in confidence & supply. The second they go into government their voters would desert them.

Because the solutions are worse than the problem, and they know that. It's all built to be like that.

Alisson O'Connor did not make an appearance, but Brendan gave a shout out to her article in the paper that day.

No kidding ……I did not know that.

Couple of points on Bríd Smith's political career:

1. She ran for the Dáil 5 times. In 1997 and 2002 she only got a couple of hundred votes and in 2007 she was over 2,000 votes but still well back.
2. She ran in 2016. She received 10.2% of the FPV, which was 5th (in a 4-seater). She got ~350 transfers when the first SF candidate (Máire Devine) got eliminated, but this would have included transfers that had initially gone to the SF from other candidates. When Aonghus O'Snodaigh was elected she picked up another 400ish votes, but these would have come from the top of O'Snodaigh's pile - some would have been from the eliminated SF candidate, others from other candidates. She was finally elected on the final count, beating FF's Catherine Ardagh by 35 votes.
3. She ran again in 2020. Her share of the vote increased to 11% but SF's share jumped from a combined 23.3% to 39.3%, and ~4,800 votes all went from O'Snodaigh's surplus to Smith, so she was elected on 2nd count. Yes, this was on the back of an SF surplus, but it was also a reduction in the FF and FG voteshare (combined 27% in 2016 down to 22.7% in 2020) and a reduction in Joan Collins's vote from 14.5% to 6.5% (she still got elected too).

You can say that she was elected in 2020 on the back of an SF surplus, but (a) the SF vote was distributed all over the place in 2020 due to poor candidate selection and she likely gets in anyway if SF had run 2 candidates and (b) we have a system of PR-STV which means candidates get elected in various counts based on transfers of eliminated candidates and surpluses from elected candidates. Every TD elected has the same mandate as every other, to question this proves you don't understand our politics (it's like when SF supporters were banging on about Leo getting elected in the 5th count as if that proves anything).

It was good to hear Brid Smith called out on her far left lunacy. She wanted Martin to go to Minneapolis instead of meeting Trump. Was funny when one of them pointed out about the Uighars when she tried to claim China hasn't committed genocide. People like her are far more dangerous than the apparent far right in Ireland, these people actually have some power in the country.

Nigella is the one who is suave and sophisticated.

What is really ironic and somewhat tragic is that 20 to 30 years ago, the likes of Brid Smith would have been a big supporter of the Tibetan people, another group who have been subject to genocidal action by China. However, the Chinese government has won over the Irish left and they now see no wrong in what China does. They are driven by rampant anti-Americanism.

It’s very unusual to have two ‘conservative’ voices on a panel in Ireland. Usually it will be a token conservative surrounded by progressives who drown him/her out.

JJust Tuned in, is that Stephanie Preissner doing vacuum reviews?