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The Believers
Read more about: Environment, Green Party, Irish Election, Irish Election 2007, Irish Politics
Cork South Central TD Dan Boyle led the chorus of merry Green Party members as he strummed his guitar in the wee hours at the Galway Bay Hotel and sang that famous Monkees tune: “I’m a believer. There’s not a trace of doubt in my mind.”
Which, as I suggested in my previous post, would sum up the party’s mood quite well. Here was a party with it’s biggest convention ever and it’s best poll numbers ever, a party that has just stepped over the line from the periphery into the mainstream, and a party that is confident of entering government, but also one that is ready for the hard work that will be needed to get there.
Not everyone was in a celebratory mood though. One or two supporters expressed concerns at the was the party was handling its growth. One gentleman suggested the convention was designed to be more a staged spectacle than the kind of grassroots debate and discussion he had expected.
Indeed, there was little by way of heated discussion all weekend, save for some nitty gritty consitutional motions. Most of the policy motions were quite straightforward, and as time ran out the assembled members agreed to simply go straight to a Yes/No show of hands rather than actually hear proposals on policies motions which did not have any opposition or amendments.
So what policies did the party’s members vote to push for if in government? Members voted to investigate the possiblity of introducing personal carbon quotas, to halt work on the Tara bypass, to provide grants and financial aid for an indigenous recycling industry, to reject the idea of making Irish optional for the leaving cert, to commit to creating a new national children’s hospital at three locations nationally (two of them in Dublin), to remove tolls from town bypasses on a phased basis, and to promote the introduction of carbon ratings on foods. The party’s members also voiced objection to US and British foreign policy in Iraq.
This was a party united, or at least one that worked very hard to appear to be, with most voting passing quickly with near-unanimous approval.
When you say that gentleman was expecting something else, is that because he has been at previous conventions that were like that or because he was a newbie who thought it would be different?
Watching the rapt adoring faces during the Tv coverage of Mr Sargent’s Saturday evening conference sppech, my attention drifted, and for a brief few moments I was reminded of ‘He’s Alive’, the episode of The Twilight Zone in which, according to IMDB.com, ‘Dennis Hopper is perfect as the leader of a tiny group of neo-Nazis, whose efforts to achieve success are laughed at by jeering hecklers. The desire for total power by the powerless is well represented in Hopper’s tearful, neurotic misfit character. But things begin to change with startling speed when a mysterious benefactor speaks to Hopper one night from the shadows, and offers advice on how to sway a crowd.’
Dan, it was said supporter’s first time at an Irish Green Party conference I beleive, though he had been to many in another country, I believe.
CBC, I get ya. Sadly, all conventions are much more about show than substance these days. You can’t think on television.