Irish Election are pleased to announce our collection of Irish 
Cllr Seamus Ryan: The View from the Left
Read more about: Columns, Government, Labour Party
Seamus Ryan is a sitting Labour Councillor from Waterford. He actively blogs at seamusryan.blogspot.com and for the forseeable future will be writing a weekly column for IrishElection.com, looking at politics from the front line, as it were. In the interests of balance, his column is part of a pair where the second column is written by Damien Blake. Seamus will usually appear on Monday with Damien on a Thursday. They will receive and respond to all your comments, so get involved.
When Cian contacted me recently and asked me to contribute to a weekly column on the forthcoming election, I initially had some reservations about the project but then came to the conclusion that it would present me with a unique opportunity to articulate, as best as I can, how I feel about the current administration and the direction they have brought this country over the period of the last 10 years or so.
But, more importantly, it also allows me an opportunity to set out what the Labour Party believes in and what we would bring to an alternative government.
As to the election itself, people often ask me how I feel about the current arrangement between Labour and Fine Gael. I am reminded of when I was canvassing back in 2002 for the Labour Party that it came clear early on in the campaign that the public were not impressed with our “go it alone” policy. They felt that we were hedging our bets and waiting to see what way the numbers fell after the election before doing a deal with Fianna Fail.
I believe that the electorate deserve to be treated with more respect than that. It is important that the Labour Party offer a clear direction and a clear and distinct message to the people. This is why I believe, on this occasion, that it is correct to offer the electorate a clear alternative to the current government. Whether this alternative is a Labour/Fine Gael or a Labour/Fine Gael/Greens option remains to be seen. Personally, I would like to see greater links develop between the Labour Party and the Green Party, as I believe that we have a lot in common with the members of the Green Party particularly in the areas of social policy and the environment.
The Labour Party has invested quite a considerable amount of time and effort over recent months in producing policy papers across a wide range of areas. These policy documents are outlined in detail on the Labour Party website so I don’t intend to go into them in detail here, however over the next few weeks I will outline some of these policies in order to illustrate how we differ from other parties.
Single Party Government? No thanks!
Remember the slogan so effectively used by PD leader and Tanaiste Michael McDowell at the last election? It would seem to me that we now have that very thing that Michael Dowell warned us all about: single party government where Bertie reigns supreme and the PDs have been put back in their box.
Recent events have made that slogan redundant and we now effectively have a single party government. But the challenge to all of us who vote Labour and, indeed, think Labour is to convince the electorate that there is another way and that it is in the interests of the country to vote for a change.
The choices are clear: do we want five more years of this centre-right government, or should we change direction as a nation and vote for the proposed Labour/Fine Gael alternative. As members of the Labour Party, we cannot be satisfied with just changing the faces around the cabinet table but rather, in my opinion, it is time that as a society we change our priorities and invest more in what Pat Rabbitte terms “the Fair Society.”
In the run-up to the election, I hope to outline for you what we in the Labour Party mean by the Fair Society and to convince you that we can make a difference to the direction of the next government and ultimately make a difference to the quality of life of all our citizens.
The Labour Party is committed to making this country a better place for everybody and over the course of the next few weeks, I intend to show you how we hope to achieve this.
centre right government You say it as if it is a bad thing
They felt that we were hedging our bets and waiting to see what way the numbers fell after the election before doing a deal with Fianna Fail.
From what i hear they are none to pleased with this option either. I may be wrong but some labour people tell me that the response on the door of labour homes is mixed rergarding FG. I think the current incarnation of FG which labour is in with is quite reactionary and this discomforts natural labour people.
Single Party Government - No thanks!!
Really?
The choices are clear - do we want 5 more years of this centre right government or should we change direction as a nation and vote for the proposed Labour/Fine Gael alternative.
I’d be interested if you expanded on what ideaology the Fine Gael/Labour consisted of; would you say it is centrist, centre-left, left-wing, extreme-left, or even centre-right, right-wing or extreme-right?
They felt that we were hedging our bets and waiting to see what way the numbers fell after the election before doing a deal with Fianna Fail…I believe that the electorate deserve to be treated with more respect than that.
On that note, do you think public pre-election pacts should be made mandatory? Do you think it is undemocratic that people may be forced into accepting a Government they don’t support (Even if they had voted for one member or another) and they should know when voting what they are voting for?
For example, many may vote for Labour this year as the best option in the Anyone-but-Bertie category; can Labour assure these voters that they will respect their reasons and not help Bertie back into power?
‘In the interests of balance…’
Rubbish. Give Damien Blake a column on his own merit, not to reproduce any kind of fake balance. If seventy opposition elected representatives start contributing to your site and the government can’t muster equal numbers, will you be turning them away unless they’re paired off?
No. The positive side of the site’s complete lack of editorial control or oversight is that interested parties can speak without having to be balanced by an opposing view by a mock-independant arbiter.
apologies; meant to say next year, rather than this year.
thats true simon, i did it also for reasons of merit, both blog well and i thought i would add to the value of the site. If there was no ff blogger i wouldnt be that bothered.
Labour is shooting itself in the foot by continuously propping up Fine Gael in the interets of minor short term gains. A rainbow coalition needs 25 extra seats to win. This would be the biggest swing in history - bigger than under grret fitzgerald, jack Lynch or Dev. Since the Mullingar accord support for Labour has dropped, the Government has recovered ground. Seat wise FG would be the biggest beneficiary of any coalition pact. Labour should stop supporting partys of the right if i ever wants to become the leader of a coalition. Labour along with DL nearly ran second in 1992, it was second in the polls, briefly, three years ago. Generally after entering a right led cgovernment, Labour loses seats in the next election. In the European parliament FG is with the christian democrats with labour in the socialist group. What ideologically do the 2 have in common? The obvious long term goal should be to stop supporting FG or FF for as long as it takes for labour to have the chance to lead a government. What kind of alternative are labour? Economically they’re the same as FF on tax ffs. An FF/FG coalition makes more ideological sense anyway. Rabbitte will be gone after the next election when FF/PDs get back in. Howlin will become Labour leader…little will change.
oh yeah one more thing
“I was canvassing back in 2002 for the Labour Party that it came clear early on in the campaign that the public were not impressed with our “go it alone” policy.”
it was not a “go it alone policy”, it was a go with anyone policy, FF or FG. Enough with the wishful revisionism. Irish Labour desperatley neds someone like Tony Benn
Thanks to everyone for your comments. A couple of points - In response to Cian I would like to point out that the it was a Labour Party conference which took the decision to support the Party Leadership’s current electoral strategy. This strategy was adopted by a huge majority of Labour Party members following a very open and interesting debate at the conference. “I may be wrong but some labour people tell me that the response on the door of labour homes is mixed rergarding FG.” I have seen no evidence for this on the doors here in Waterford.
Adam makes a very interesting point regarding pre election pacts. My own view is that political parties should make it clear to the electorate which direction it intends taking before an election. Whether this can be made mandatory I am not so sure. And the decision as to who Labour would enter government with, if the situation allows, will be decided by Labour Party members.
Bucky refers to the ideological diffences between both parties. Of course there are ideological differences between Labour and FG. We are after all two diffent parties. Coalition government is about finding the common ground that exists between both parties and putting forward agreed policies to enable good government. This is what Labour / Fine Gael are currently working on.
Im not the only one who has heard rumblings that what is taking place at the moment is more than what was voted on in Tralee. I wasnt at tralee so i dont know the exact motion but the rum blings are becoming pretty public (raised in the Business Post recently). The labour people i talk to are finding it in the leaders constituency among other places. It may well be a small number and its not surprising to see a mixed response.
I agree that parties need to give a general intention of where they are going to go, I dont think labours 2002 campaign fell on that sole point. As a person naturally drawn to labour i worry that the problem may be a lack of something solid to hang your vote on. While Rabbitte has overtly done this in an election pact, i worry that he has done so at the expense of a solid labour identity. Im glad to hear that this isnt the case in waterford though.
Cian
This strategy was always going to be frought with danger. It is paramount that the Party retains its own identity in the current lead up to the election. I have heard however that members of Fine Gael are concerned with the performance of Enda Kenny in comparison to Pat Rabbitte. It is clear that Pat is outperforming Enda Kenny.
ive heard that, and ive also heard people in FG suggest they are happier with labour than themselves in all of this. do ye know something we dont
?
I don’t believe that pre-election pacts are that vital in Ireland PR-STV system. For a start, they remove something of the proportionality of the system.
I believe all parties should stand alone, putting their own manifesto and agenda forward. It then falls to the voters of Ireland to decide who they support, and in what proportion.
For example, let’s assume Fianna Fail gets the largest number of seats in ‘07, but not enough for an overall majority. This would be an indication that the people, proportionately, wanted a strong “centre” core for the Government. Whether the Government became a centre-left or centre-right Government would depend on the will of the voters of Ireland- whether they support the PDs or Labour with the right numbers.
It’s a very simplistic illustration, but I think it gets to the core of the issue. The Mullingar accord serves only to reduce the options available to Irish voters. I still believe that a FF/Labour coalition is the most likely outcome from the next election, but it will mean a change in Labour’s leadership.
For example, let’s assume Fianna Fail gets the largest number of seats in ‘07, but not enough for an overall majority. This would be an indication that the people, proportionately, wanted a strong “centre” core for the Government. Whether the Government became a centre-left or centre-right Government would depend on the will of the voters of Ireland- whether they support the PDs or Labour with the right numbers.
But that’s not how the system ever works; if it were the case that the Government consisted of the most popular party (and ideology) - in this case Fianna Fail - mixed with the next most popular ideology then it would be a FF/FG coalition, or even a FF/Lab coalition. The PD’s are one of the smaller parties in the Dail and are only representing a tiny amount of the public, and yet they are in Government.
So by your logic the minority of Irish people should support their representative party to the right degree, not too little, not too much?
You can be sure that many people voted for FF and not the PD’s (although they’d have been a bit foolish to assume a vote for FF wasn’t a vote for the PD’s). We all know that on paper the PD’s would be better suited to FG and Lab to FF (not so much perhaps), but you can be sure that when I vote next year it certainly won’t be for the PD’s and by extension it won’t be for FF (were it not so obvious who their first choice in Government is that might have been different).
This is a very fruitful debate and well done Séamus on an excellent column. As one of those who spoke and voted in favour of the current strategy in Tralee, I believe it’s disingenuous of an Labour members to suggest that they didn’t know what was coming. There’s a rump in the party (Probably no bigger than it was at conference) which is continuing to use this issue to undermine the leadership. They forget however that over 80% of the membership at conference voted in favour of the strategy. I supported entry into Government with FF in 92 because of Bruton’s Hari Kari act in the Shelbourne hotel when he ruled DL out. I agree that we should aim to provide a major left option to the electorate, but it’s a matter of tactically offering a choice NOW-not after another generation of centre-right government, whish is actually a bad thing Cian. Like Séamus, I have encountered no mixed feelings on Labour doorsteps in Kilkenny-it’s much more about the famous phrase-’Get the Bastards out!’