Irish General Election 2011 thread

1-2-3-4 FG I filled out the rest of the ballot paper except for a couple of independents, a couple of FF and SF

Edit: With 17 candidates the Galway west count could take a while.
 
Aren't you allowed to vote for nobody?
 
You can spoil your vote if you want. There is no "none of the above" options.
 
Oh. There is here, but a different system is used.
 
Is exhaustive preferencing necessary or can you just put a 1?
 
No majority for FG. FF annihilated in Dublin, beaten to a pulp outside it. Best ever showing for the leftwing and nominally leftwing parties.
 
RedRalph said:
No majority for FG. FF annihilated in Dublin, beaten to a pulp outside it. Best ever showing for the leftwing and nominally leftwing parties.
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Let's hope that Labour get the balls to stand up to FG on financial issues at least, as it seems at the moment that Varadkar is the brains behind FG finance wise, and I wouldn't trust him with my penny tin never mind the economy.

But as an eternal pessimist I believe they're going to be the Lib Dems to Kenny's Call Me Dave.
 
Brian Shanahan said:
Let's hope that Labour get the balls to stand up to FG on financial issues at least, as it seems at the moment that Varadkar is the brains behind FG finance wise, and I wouldn't trust him with my penny tin never mind the economy.

But as an eternal pessimist I believe they're going to be the Lib Dems to Kenny's Call Me Dave.
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Quite possibly, sadly. Joe Higgins in, good stuff. SF doing very well too.
 
Although it might not seem apparent to the uninitiated in Irish politics, this election has finally brought about a massive change. Fianna Fail may not even be the main opposition! I'm absolutely delighted. Its a pity Brian Lenihan scraped a seat in Dublin though. A Dublin wipeout would have been awesome.

I think FG will be more than happy to have Labour in with them when the dust settles. They're going to have to make some big economic decisions and it will be nice for them to pass the buck after the fact.

I would have liked to have seen FG in on their own too though, but not because I think they're particularly the best at the job. I see this election as being the turning point for Irish political culture, and it would have been good for that to have FG as the government and Labour as the main opposition. Hopefully over time that would've led to Labour/Fine Gael being the Irish political dichotomy. I dunno, that could all be bs. I just hope that some sort of left/right divide develops.

Brian Shanahan said:
Pity about that, too. They're left wing in the same way I'm a ruthless dictator.
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Thats unfair. You can't expect a Marxist party to get far in Ireland. They are left wing relative to the majority of the electorate.
 
Shekwan said:
Thats unfair. You can't expect a Marxist party to get far in Ireland. They are left wing relative to the majority of the electorate.
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I wouldn't even go that far, they're a right-wing party masquerading as a left-wing one, just like FF under the TaliBertie. And the 15,000 who voted for that Belfast Butcher should hang their heads in shame too, though I never expect much from Louth.
 
RedRalph said:
In what respect are they right-wing?
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Look at the way policies swung in 2007, when the Nordies realised what way the young idealists were going. There was a sudden massive swing to the right, from their previously held moderate left stance. And then look at their record in the Stormont government.
 
they are more rightwing in the north, but im talking about here... How are they rightwing here?
 
Shekwan said:
The civil servants and other Ministers can implement policy but the Taoiseach is first and foremost a representative of the Irish people. A fundamental part of that job is being persuasive and confident in public, with a certain dose of charisma. These qualities are even more important internationally, I would want an affable and charismatic type fighting for Ireland's interests within the EU and further afield.
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I don't know why anyone would want that job:

As Irish voters headed for the polling booths on Friday, the European Commission bluntly declared that the terms of the EU-IMF bailout "must be applied" whatever the will of Ireland's people or regardless of any change of government.

"It's an agreement between the EU and the Republic of Ireland, it's not an agreement between an institution and a particular government," said a Brussels spokesman.

A European diplomat, from a large eurozone country, told The Sunday Telegraph that "the more the Irish make a big deal about renegotiation in public, the more attitudes will harden".

"It is not even take it or leave it. It's done. Ireland's only role in this now is to implement the programme agreed with the EU, IMF and European Central Bank. Irish voters are not a party in this process, whatever they have been told," said the diplomat.
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(source) So, do the irish really expect anything to be renegotiated, or did they just wanted to change the puppet?
 
innonimatu said:
(source) So, do the irish really expect anything to be renegotiated, or did they just wanted to change the puppet?
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I wouldn't expect a single detail to change, even if we were being let. FG want this kind of action to be taken anyway. Think a whole party made up of George Osborne clones and you've got the biggest part of our government down pat.

Oh, and if the government were really willing, they'd be able to renege it if they wanted. But then the EU/IMF wouldn't like the magicians curtain pulled away now would they?
 
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