IRELAND: The Soldiers of Destiny are floundering out to sea far from
the coast of Donegal; or at least they don’t seem to be in the same
place as the voters. A report in the Irish Times today
quotes a RedC poll carried out on behalf of Paddy Power which indicates
that FF support in Donegal South West has collapsed from 51% to around
19% since 2007.
The Soldiers of Destiny are floundering out to sea far from
the coast of Donegal; or at least they don’t seem to be in the same
place as the voters. A report in the Irish Times today
quotes a RedC poll carried out on behalf of Paddy Power which indicates
that FF support in Donegal South West has collapsed from 51% to around
19% since 2007. FG have risen from 23% to 25% while Labour have risen
from 3% in the last General Election to 14%. But the likely winner of
the by election on November 29th is Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin who stands on 40%.
Time and tide are well known for not waiting for
any man. While the European Commission have ostensibly been trying to
pour oil on the disturbed waters at Leinster House; workers across the
whole of Ireland have been looking on with dismay. The government seem
to have completely lost their way and the last couple of days have seen
Brian Lenihan performing some strange dance of the seven veils, trying
to hide the mess that the Irish bourgeois have landed the state into.
Of course Brian Lenihan is confident for the future
and keen to get his budget in place, everything is fine and dandy;
grand indeed. But as one commentator remarked on RTÉ
earlier today, the only people that could possibly believe that are
those who don’t read the papers, watch the TV, listen to the radio, talk
to other people or actually leave their houses.
The pantomime is accentuated by the fact that one
of the reasons that Lenihan is talking such nonsense is that he is
terrified that the speculators will spot that the Irish economy is in
meltdown and that it threatens to bring down the whole house of cards in
the euro zone. But the key thing at present is the fact that the weak
link in the chain… and it is a particularly flimsy chain at that is
that the coalition has a wafer thin majority. There are now 4 by
elections pending and at least one FF TD says he will vote against the
government if they cut pensions in the budget.
The IMF and the EU are banging on the door but now we hear that British Tories are willing to jump in to save Ireland…. “by their friends shall ye know them”.
The game is up and the people of Donegal South West
know it. If SF win and Labour comes second with a big vote this by
election will represent a big shift underlining the sort of opinion poll
figures that Labour has had recently. Gilmore and the party leadership
don’t have a clear idea of where they are going and don’t have a
socialist position but despite this Labour will make huge gains in the
next election.
FF are marooned without a paddle and drifting
slowly into the middle of nowhere. But there is more pain to come for us
and them before they eventually crash into Rockall in the cold waters
of the North Atlantic.
