Fianna Fail Crowing Over Poll Results and Condemn Opposition of “Ugly, Attack Politics”

Bertie-hooray, Enda & Eamon-boo. Below is the Fianna Fail response to the gains it has seen in the Irish Times and Sunday Business Post over the week. As you can see, it is thrilled with its performance but it strikes me that this is also a boot that they have been waiting to apply for a while.

The SBP/RED C poll was taken after two months of planned, sustained personal attacks by Fine Gael and Labour on both Fianna Fáil and An Taoiseach. The results indicate that Fine Gael and Labour, yet again, have got it wrong.

For the past two months, both parties have engaged in ugly, negative, personal and attack politics, focusing specifically on An Taoiseach.

Fine Gael particularly refuses to face up to the facts. It lost the General Election but cannot accept that. It continues to make the same mistakes it made last May. The public rejected Fine Gael in last year’s election and the people are now showing again that they simply do not want Fine Gael’s style of negative, partisan, opportunistic politics.

Such attack-style politics have proven time and again to be a turn-off for the majority of the Irish electorate.

Not for the first time, the Opposition parties have badly miscalculated the mood of the public. Fianna Fail, clearly unlike its political opponents, will continue to focus on the substantive issues such as the economy, employment, health and education and on building this country for the future.

The Opposition should learn once and for all from these poll results that vulgar, petty, personalised politics do not work and have no place in Ireland of 2008.

Without doubt those number represent a positive message for Fianna Fail, polling 34%-36% and seeing a recovery on both polls just over six months into their government term. However these are still significantly down from the support which won them the election, although Vincent Browne argues that they are close enough considering the adjustments made for “dont-knows”. I’m not sure if its reasonable to assume the people “don’t want Fine Gael’s style of politics” however, they too are at their highest rating in the polls since the Red C polls began.

What is happening here is not the unification of the country behind the persecuted Bertie Ahern rather the dissolution of the country into two roughly equal camps of those who agree with the Fianna Fail position and those who agree with the opposition’s. That this is the case is backed up by the findings of both polls, the Irish Times has 44% wanting him to resign versus 46% who think he should stay while the Business Post has this split in the other direction. That support for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael has grown in the polls presents further evidence of this pattern.

There is no doubt that the Fianna Fail party are entirely sick of the opposition attacks on the Taoiseach as well as the leaks and the continuing trips to Dublin Castle, however their statement that Fine Gael are not facing facts by continuing to attack the Taoiseach is not an argument that is 100% grounded. Fine Gael have cemented the gains made at the election precisely through this tactic-spearheaded by a variety of figures within the party rather than relying solely on Enda Kenny.

Its my take on this that the performance of both parties is proving more divisive that at any other time and tactical press releasing like this from Fianna Fail feeds into this by attempting to convince more support to come into the pro-Bertie block. The forthcoming weeks will see Bertie in the Dail answering questions again, no doubt a chance for him to put these forceful points to the opposition in person. Previous outings at Leader’s Questions have been choc-full of ‘negative politics’ on all sides of the floor and it looks like next week will be no different. One wonders which Ministers will be on the talk-shows tomorrow and in what order.

If Fianna Fail succeed in moving the agenda beyond this issue, something they have singularly failed to achieve in the past six months, they may well get further traction or perhaps see the support for Fine Gael slip back. However that doesn’t look the likely outcome, it is more likely that this will continue up to the middle of Spring at least (until the Mahon begins to wind up public hearings) and as a result prevent the government from action on the economy, transport and the other issues mentioned above and on top of that a campaign for the ratification of the EU Treaty.