European Parliament Elections

Irish Freedom Party. Herman Kelly is the main man here. He has worked for a Romanian MEP, but is strongly anti-immigration. They seem to have some links with Ireland First, they planned to run candidates together, but that appears not to have worked out. Definitely on the Far Right as well.
 
The Irish People. These seem the least organised of the Far Right parties, but they have a very effective job of postering done. Which must have cost significant money. Its not clear where that came from.

The leader is a David O Reilly from Galway.
 
So if his former boss wanted to immigrate to Ireland, he's be against it. Despite himself having worked overseas for a number of years in the EU.?

Odd thing about their website is that it's structure is very similar to Ireland First. Maybe it's just a coincidence or there is a generic template for political party websites
 
Nicely put. I suppose you could assign that to most significant Irish political parties since the foundation of the state
Yea, but the guys who killed the kids aren't still running the other Parties and the other Parties unequivocally condemn the murdering of children. The other parties don't have links with terrorists. You get the picture. If we were having this discussion in the 1940's I'd agree with you.
 
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The EU parliament has become more powerful and imposing incrementally.

This website shows the most influential MEPs. I guess few of us have ever heard of any of them.

Frances Fitzgerald, (EPP), Billy Kelleher, (Renew), Ciarán Cuffe, (Greens/EFA) and Maria Walsh, (EPP) are in the top twenty in certain policy areas.

It’s hard to judge how influential Irish MEPs are overall and how to measure influence, which could be shouting from the rooftops or quiet background persuasion.

I don’t believe that constant social media posts by an MEP is a measure of his/her influence or achievement.

The UK's departure was a loss to our bargaining power. As a peripheral country, we often found ourselves aligned with the UK against the more strident policy proposals of the big three,
 
In the Dublin Euro elections, I will be putting down a lot of preferences with the intention of keeping a particular candidate (Clare Daly) out.

Something to keep in mind with the Euros... don't just do a 1 & 2 if there's someone you really don't want to see elected who might be in running for one of the later seats.
 
I don’t believe that constant social media posts by an MEP is a measure of his/her influence or achievement.
I think it is intended to be a way to report to constituents what their representative is doing on an on-going basis.
 
Good job we moved on and didn't allow old prejudices keep us in the 1940s
 
Good job we moved on and didn't allow old prejudices keep us in the 1940s
When Parties are run by their Parliamentary Party and registered members and not an Army Council then we should absolutely let the past stay in the past. When the child killers are still pulling the strings in the present then it's a problem.

Someone recommended a good book on Sinn Fein recently called The Long Game. Have you read it?
 
Having looked at the right wing parties I wanted to say a word about the left wing types.

Rabharta https://rabharta.ie/ is a Green Left Eco-Socialist party. These people are almost painfully well intentioned, just look at what they say about themselves. Its refreshing. If these were my kids I would be immensely proud of them.They see a better world and are getting involved to try to achieve it. I know this sounds patronising, that's because their economic ideas are for the birds and if they are serious about their politics they will need to face some reality, but they deserve encouragement.

The Social Democrats probably see themselves in the same vein, but with a number of IDs and councillors they need a bit more scrutiny. I listened to their Housing spokesperson Cian O Callaghan TD recently, he had nothing to say beyond 'We need more public provision and affordable housing', He had zero suggestion as to how this might be achieved. No opinion on planning reform, on financing for development, on training for construction workers, nothing. Its not good enough for a TD.
 
Outgoing: FG 5, Other 3, FF 2, Green 2, SF 1.
My prediction: FG 3, FF 4, SF 3 Other 4

That would be

FG (-2)
FF (+2)
SF (+2)
Other (+1)
Green (-2)

That would put the wind behind a FF SF coalition after the next election.

Although rather than the public's preference all it actually reflects is good FF candidate selection and management and improved SF candidate selection and management
 
What Party has a realistic "solution" to the Housing "Crisis"?
All of the opposition parties have policies what are predicated on the assumption that the problem has been caused by the actions of the Irish Government and the solution is within the gift of the Irish government, if only they really wanted to solve the problem. That, of course, is nonsense.
 
That would be FF4, SF 3, FG3. That's equally a wind behind the current government.
 

You imply that the current Govt is helpless in the face of the housing crisis. That is not true.

There is lots that they could have done to reduce demand and/or increase supply.
 
You imply that the current Govt is helpless in the face of the housing crisis. That is not true.

There is lots that they could have done to reduce demand and/or increase supply.
There's not that much, certainly not that much that would actually help. I substantial increase in property tax would reduce prices but it wouldn't increase supply. Anyway, we're off topic.
 
My prediction Lynn Boylan, Regina Doherty, Barry Andrews, Bríd Smith. That's a loss for the Greens, and a switch on the left from Claire Daly to Bríd Smith.

Worth checking the odds from Paddy Power


You can get 10/1 on Brid Smith. I would certainly have her a higher preference than Claire Daly - but still just ahead of the far right candidates.

 

 
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I've heard their bombs go off so they owe me an apology, if I'd worked in another office in London back in the 90s. it could have been me killed in Canary Wharf. And as a father with daughters, they have a bit of work and explanation to do regarding child abuse and abuse of young women as they'd give the Catholic church hierarchy a run for their money on how they dealt with that. But hey, all in the past.........