Irish elections. "Waaah. It's not faaaair! :("

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Irish people: "Waaah. It's not faaaair! :("
vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote
Me: "Waaah. It's not faaaair! :("

Good to see FF down loads.
However Green Party have been decimated in the local councils.
(I'm a bit sorry FF people, actually I'm liking the current FF government (heavens forbid!) compared with the opposition! However you have a long history to overcome before I would trust you.)
IMHO you need a good scattering of crazy green people especially at local council level.
This is why I'm Waahing.

And who has gained? Labour (Which is okay by me, I think.)
And FG have gained who I view as being the same as FF (except for not being in power for last long while so perhaps more innocent).
But one definate thing is I don't hear anything about solutions or politics from FG or Labour.

Dammit.

Bah.

Meh.

One thing I think I can say for sure is that the voters are expressing displeasure.
I think that might be all that I'm sure about.
What exactly are they displeased with?
The current state of the economy right now I think.
Did people vote in council people based on their performance in this council term and the past ... ?
I think even some very solid local people suffered this time just through association with being in government.

Why have the Greens been punished so much?
Perhaps their vote is not that strong anyway so when you're in a negative place you are going to be decimated.

IMHO Greens in government is good. If you are out and always stay out you're irrelevant. If you are in you can influence policy and make a real difference and influence the people you're in government with and make them greenish left liberal honest too. I don't quite see why the banks have to get such huge support when they are still inclined to squander but apart from that I think this government is generally doing okay. I think on the Environment with the roads through Tara and with Shell in Mayo the Green agenda has had to hold it's tongue in government and that's hard but you can't just stay out of government and leave FG/Labour allow things to be even worse for planning generally as well as worse for Tara and Mayo.

It's too late to vote this government out of office!
2 years ago was the chance to do that!
There were plenty of people, Greens especially warning about the economy, about wasting money, about the overinflated property bubble 2 years ago.
And what happened 2 years ago? I would have loved for FF to be booted out.
FF got quite a nice proportion of the vote, not quite 50% seats but a very comfortable amount.
The people spoke (and sure it was a nice sunny day as well).
Did FG/Labour want another election then?
They seem to want another election now.
Isn't that like voting a few times on the Nice Treaty? (or abortion, or divorce, or contraception)
A necessary thing actually! :-) In time.

If it was a national election would people really bash FF?
I don't see any good proposals from FG and Labour.
If the running of the country was really on the line would people see the lack of anything solid from FG or Labour?

FF === FG as far as I can see so to increase the vote for FG is surely a stupid reaction.
They are the same with regards policies (which they generally don't write down/publish and keep vague!)
Their policy on honesty and corporate donations are the same (yes, we'll have that €€€€ thank you very much ka-ching!).
They've a long history in local government (and across the country planning decisions especially have suffered from bad decisions from many councils).

Labour are also playing the sure we are green anyway and we we do planning as well card now, which is a bit annoying seeing as they've a long history in government and on local councils without making a difference. Come on Labour! Put your money where it matters and show you can be honest by supporting strict regulation of donations.

I have been looking to FG or Labour for something and would have liked to support them but they have put nothing sensible forward. SO I found in this election I voted Green and for a couple of good local councillors and then there was nobody else worth a vote :(.

What should the Green party especially do now?

The morally correct / honourable thing would be to stay in and influence this government as much as possible in the right direction. If they stay in government green voters and people could get more disillusioned with the party "selling it's soul". We're not "selling our souls" guys! We're taking evil parts of FF souls and making them a little bit green, a little bit pink and generally more colourful. If the Greens go out of government ... well, I think there is no good reason to go out of government (no good moral reason!). I also think Greens could be just decimated by an election now and even if not the government dynamics would probably make it that we have 1 or 2 big parties in power (the parties with the vague not-written-down poolicies!). A National Government fills me with that warm squirmly horribly sick feeling - but that's okay - it looks like it gives the same feeling to FG and Labour.

What would be the thing to do for the green party if they just wanted to grow in size and power?
People (I hope I hope) will vote for good candidates people who work hard on local issues for councils.
People are a bit stupid when voting quite often maybe? And will vote for celebrity. Will vote AGAINST things much easier than voting for things. Do people really not care about party policies just about more single issues that crop up.
So appearance/media is everything. To get elected by Irish voters you must look and sound good, make good impressions and manipulate the system to stay looking good. I don't think Green people want even to be thinking about this!
Maybe the best policy for greenish-pinko-liberal people is to hide their good policies and agenda and work on that in quiet and on the surface manipulate the system as much as possible in whatever political vehicle is handy.

Maybe(Hopefully!) good people working away locally (2 greens left with council seats! :() and nationally, out of power and in can build up a good reputation which would be apparent to people generally. And maybe that would translate into votes and into a good influence in the right place.

Hopefully.