Any views on what the likely candidates will be for Cork East in the GE?

[davehiggz]

Cork East | David Higgins

I've given my predictions for Cork East above.

2 FG, 1 FF, 1 Labour

[Murph]

One thing that Mclellan and SF will have on her side should be the growing realisation by voters that Labour wont be offering a real alternative government by its aparent preference to prop up an FG administration.
This will become more and more aparent as time goes on and as Lab will be asked to set out its stall. If an election is called soon Labour probably will capitalise but if its drawn out for another year or 18 months, they will lose ground again and SF will work to expose it for its failure to grasp the opportunity to work for and lead an true left alternative.

The Quinlan V Mulvihill question is a very interesting one too and will be interesting in terms of personalities V party common sense!

[bprob]

It doesn't matter because until Cork East gets a Government minister who is in office for at least two terms the towns of Mallow Mitchelstown Fermoy will continue to stagnate.
There badly needs to be a Minister for North Cork i.e from the Kerry border to the Wateford border who is tasked with development of the region particularly from a tourist point of view.
The Brittany model of Gites, Use of forset and mountains for hillwalking, cycle paths etc is ideal for the North Cork region Forset

this is exactly the type of rubbish that is partly to blame for gombeen politics in ireland.

you do realise you've just basically implied that we should have a cabinet of over 50 ministers: 40 odd for each constituency plus all the other national stuff like finance, justice, defence, foreign affairs.

if we all vote for idiots who prioritise just their constituency, above all other considerations, then all we end up with is an uncoordinated, expensive mess of white elephant projects. your post is basically arguing for a dail full of muppets like ned o'keeffe and mattie mcgrath.

the dail should be composed of legislators and policy drivers, who set an overall agenda for the country, and if they are successful, then all the country, including cork east benefits

[bprob]

The Quinlan V Mulvihill question is a very interesting one too and will be interesting in terms of personalities V party common sense!

what are your impressions of quinlan?

[Murph]

Dont know him personally but he seems to be very popular, especially among young voters -some of whom were or are his pupils.
He has only been tested in one election but was very impressive how he soaked up a big first preference in that one.
Can he repeat that outside of Cobh? -thats where the Mulls have the upper hand -but the other side of that argument is Mull snr doesnt seem to clock up as many votes from other towns outside of Cobh -the 2007 results were disapointing in that regard.

personally, I'd say Quinlan would be the safer bet for Labour if he starts getting his face known outside of Cobh, but if either he or the mulls are relying on Cobh alone and or a Gilmore Gale then they will be disappointed. Pity too that they will hitch their wagon to the FG Tories (no change).

[Murph]

We know that FG are confident of taking the extra seat just like Labour are. Enda's tap on the back to Stanton is proof of this but can anyone predict which FF'r will fall.
Many seem to think Ahern will be the fall guy but he topped the poll last time out and Ned is really the silver fox (no stunt will be too costly).

Any predictions?

[hiding behind a poster]

The situation with the second FG candidate is going to be very interesting. I would say that it is far from certain that the future Mr. Creighton (Paul Bradford) will get on the ticket.
He has now failed twice in a row to get elected and would not, I suspect, be in favour with the Kenny leadership after the heave.
Added to this there are two recently elected Councillors ,Tom Barry in Mallow and Pa O' Driscoll in Fermoy, who are interested in getting a run.

Bradford was within 350 votes of winning a second seat for FG in the last two general elections, so with FG polling better, and FF worse, than 2007, it'd be monumentally stupid not to run Bradford. Anyway, Kenny is a far cleverer politician than to go round settling scores at the expense of the Dail seats he needs to be Taoiseach.

[hiding behind a poster]

We know that FG are confident of taking the extra seat just like Labour are.

Labour wouldn't be that confident of two seats here. They were within 300 votes of no seat at all in 2007, while FG were within 300 votes of two seats. And there was no sign of any great surge to Labour here in the locals, despite national polls showing them at 23% at the time.

[Red_93]

Labour wouldn't be that confident of two seats here. They were within 300 votes of no seat at all in 2007, while FG were within 300 votes of two seats. And there was no sign of any great surge to Labour here in the locals, despite national polls showing them at 23% at the time.

Why exactly are you hacking into HBAp's account, if you're gonna do it atleast make it seem more realistic (hint he uses Redc)

[hiding behind a poster]

Why exactly are you hacking into HBAp's account, if you're gonna do it atleast make it seem more realistic (hint he uses Redc)

Eh?