Lovely Girls, Greens and Ganley
I suppose I should probably write something about the European Parliament and local elections here in Ireland, which I’ve been following in various media in between failing to score decent points in the Fantasy Lions tour, watching the RoI team draw itself closer to the World Cup one point at a time (because that’s how we roll), and playing more Call of Duty 4 than is perhaps healthy.
The big news is, of course, of how the Lovely Girls of Fine Gael and Labour have routed the government parties of Fianna Fail and the Green Party (hey, if you wanted meaningful election analysis, you’re in the wrong place. Irish Election is that way).
There’s been a lot of glee at the plight of the Greens and much talk of dogs, lying down and fleas. In fairness the the Greens though, their downfall has been a combination of being too nice, being too naive and being too much a single issue party. Too nice in that they were willing to row along to get along with Fianna Fail; too naive in not realising they had more bargaining power over FF than they thought; too much of a single issue party in that they grabbed the Environment and Energy briefs that were central to their platform and seemed to then wall themselves off from all other policy decisions. The mental picture you get that they were a group of right-on, birkenstock-and-bicycle helmet-wearing guys from South Dublin trying to get along with a shower of gombeen cute hoors out to take the eejits for everything they could get.
The Greens also suffered from the inevitable clash between the idealism of opposition and the gritty pragmatism of government. It’s easy to make grand promises when you don’t have a pile of budgets, tenders, vested interests and legacy issues served up to you every morning by stony faced civil servants.
Many people have wondered why they’ve stuck with Fianna Fail so far, rather than standing by their principles, upping sticks and collapsing the government. While that might have been the right thing to do – bringing down a government in the middle of a recession is easier said than done and not guaranteed to reflect well on you at the ballot box. John Gormley and Eamonn Ryan may also have thought that they could better serve the Green agenda by holding onto their policy briefs, rather than risk losing their shirts (and seats) in an electoral throw of the dice. Like it or not, their only chance of survival now is the same as Fianna Fail’s – put off an election for as long as possible, hope the economy recovers a bit in the meantime and claim credit for steering the country through the hard times, while pointing out that Enda Kenny has all the personality of a lump of mahogany, while having none of the class.
While I can muster some small modicum of sympathy for the plight of the Greens, I have nothing but schadenfreude for the travails of Libertas. Their grand vision of becoming massive Pan European force has deflated like an untied party balloon: two of their three Irish candidates eliminated with pitifully small numbers of first preferences, their leader, Declan Ganley looking increasingly unlikely to take a seat in the North West and only one of their candidates elected anywhere in Europe (veteran French Eurosceptic and Polish-plumber-phobe, Phillippe De Villiers).
Ganley was apparently so dismayed at getting fewer votes he thought he deserved that he’s been kicking up a stink in the North West count centre, first complaining about the procedure for sorting votes and then claiming that some of his votes may have been misplaced. As a result, the count’s been suspended so that the vote bundles can be rechecked. That’s his prerogative, of course, but it does little to dispel the suspicion that Ganley is a petulant asshat.
Also having a bad day at the office: Sinn Fein’s resident wasp-chewing bulldog, Mary-Lou McDonald, who did her bit to reduce the role of faceless Eurocrats in Irish life by selflessly losing her seat in the European Parliament to socialist Joe Higgins. Mmmm…sweet, sweet Shinner schadenfreude.
Meanwhile in Ireland South, the woo-tastic Kathy Sinnott is locked in a life and death struggle for transfers with Shinner blonde bombshell suspect device, Toiresa Ferris and the man with a mind like McGyver, Alan Kelly. I know who I’m rooting for.
Finally, if you’re befuddled by the intricacies of PR-STV – or think that PR-STV sounds like something that might involve an embarresing trip to the gentio-urinary clinic – the RTE website has an enlightening set of articles explaining the wonkish beauty of our electoral system.
Update:
It looks like Ganley’s snit fit has backfired. In checking the votes in NW, they found 3,000 that had been assigned to Ganley by mistake. So his petulance actually lost him votes. Asshat.
Oh and in South, election officials defused the suspect device with a controlled elimination and the last seat is now between Sinnott and Alan Kelly. Bad day for the Shinners south of the border. Which makes me immensely happy.
Update II:
The inevitable Ganley Downfall:
via Irish Election.
Update III:
And it gets better, Alan Kelly unseats Kathy Sinnott in South, while Ganley not only concedes defeat in NW, but says he’s retiring from political life. See ya!
June 8th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Frankly, I’m trying to remember the last time a set of election results afforded me this much amusement. Nothing’s springing immediately to mind. I could watch Sinn Fein and Libertas flounder all year without getting bored.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
And it keeps getting better – Alan Kelly is elected in the South, and Declan Ganley takes his ball and stalks off in a huff.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Freakily, I didn’t read your comment before posting my past update, C. Great minds/fools seldom.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
I think now is not the time to take pleasure in others’ misfortune. Instead, I’d like to wish Kathy Sinnott a very long and happy retirement.