Comments on: Talking Turkey: Winning Seats in 2007 http://www.irishelection.com/2006/09/talking-turkey-winning-seats-in-2007/ Coverage of Irish Politics, News and Current Affairs Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:43:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: Where Did Sinn Fein go Wrong in This Election? at Irish Election http://www.irishelection.com/2006/09/talking-turkey-winning-seats-in-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-51125 Where Did Sinn Fein go Wrong in This Election? at Irish Election Sat, 26 May 2007 20:00:47 +0000 http://www.irishelection.com/09/talking-turkey-winning-seats-in-2007/#comment-51125 [...] mentioned a long time ago that I thought this strategy would help to break up the huge cross-class vote structure which [...] [...] mentioned a long time ago that I thought this strategy would help to break up the huge cross-class vote structure which [...]

]]> By: Real Debate Needed at Irish Election http://www.irishelection.com/2006/09/talking-turkey-winning-seats-in-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-8144 Real Debate Needed at Irish Election Sun, 31 Dec 2006 18:19:28 +0000 http://www.irishelection.com/09/talking-turkey-winning-seats-in-2007/#comment-8144 [...] Fianna Fail are in principle pro-everything. Depending on who is calling for it, how loudly they do it and what stage of the electoral cycle it is, they are willing to carry out a great deal. This stems from a beneficial cross-class vote, one assiduously cultivated by appealing to the average voter. The effect of this has been that other parties ape the successful animal in the jungle and attempt to cultivate a cross-class vote. I’ve written about this before. [...] [...] Fianna Fail are in principle pro-everything. Depending on who is calling for it, how loudly they do it and what stage of the electoral cycle it is, they are willing to carry out a great deal. This stems from a beneficial cross-class vote, one assiduously cultivated by appealing to the average voter. The effect of this has been that other parties ape the successful animal in the jungle and attempt to cultivate a cross-class vote. I’ve written about this before. [...]

]]> By: Dan Sullivan http://www.irishelection.com/2006/09/talking-turkey-winning-seats-in-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-2077 Dan Sullivan Fri, 22 Sep 2006 16:15:43 +0000 http://www.irishelection.com/09/talking-turkey-winning-seats-in-2007/#comment-2077 I agree with the benefits of specifity for the newer parties. I would make one point which I've written about more over on p.ie which is that people forget that Fianna Fail was formed as an opposition party and their policies and support was necessarily drawn from those disappointed by the Cumann na nGaedhael government. So taking one example of this small farmers, farm labourers and others disappointed by the general lack of land reform in the 1920s found a home in FF. This in turn meant that Cumann na nGaedhael and subsequently Fine Gael got support from the larger farmers. It is not that CnG or FG started out to protect the larger farmers of electoral reasons, rather that they were unable to deliver on land reform in the manner that many people had come to expect. And so they ended up with the support of larger farmers by default. I agree with the benefits of specifity for the newer parties.

I would make one point which I’ve written about more over on p.ie which is that people forget that Fianna Fail was formed as an opposition party and their policies and support was necessarily drawn from those disappointed by the Cumann na nGaedhael government. So taking one example of this small farmers, farm labourers and others disappointed by the general lack of land reform in the 1920s found a home in FF. This in turn meant that Cumann na nGaedhael and subsequently Fine Gael got support from the larger farmers. It is not that CnG or FG started out to protect the larger farmers of electoral reasons, rather that they were unable to deliver on land reform in the manner that many people had come to expect. And so they ended up with the support of larger farmers by default.

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