So other than the PDs has anything really happened ?

[adrem]

The info below is taken from Guthanphobail.net. It shows that over the last 20 years (yeah that's pre, during and post celtic tiger)

If you look at the 3 main parties there has been very little in terms of major change over the period. There were 2 majort events the Spring Tide in 1992 and the FG collapse in 2002 - both clearly one off events


24/05/2007 FF 78 FG 51 Lab 20 PD 2 Green 6 SF 4 Others 5
17/05/2002 FF 81 FG 31 Lab 21 PD 8 Green 6 SF 5 Soc 1 Others 13
06/06/1997 FF 77 FG 54 Lab 17 DL 4 PD 4 Green 2 Soc 1 SF 1 Others 6
25/11/1992 FF 68 FG 45 Lab 33 PD 10 DL 4 Green 1 Others 6
15/06/1989 FF 77 FG 55 Lab 15 WP 7 PD 6 Green 1 DSP 1 others 3
17/02/1987 FF 81 FG 50 PD 14 Lab 12 WP 4 DSP 1 others 3

[Las]

The rise and peaking of SF.

[seedot]

02 - vote out the opposition
07 - vote the opposition back in - but only as an opposition

and people say its meaningless?

[Paddylekker]

Not much has changed.

Over those six elections FF averages out at 77 seats per election, Fine Gael at 48 (badly affected by 2002) and Labour 20 (not including DL seats).

[Sligoboy]

Nothing at all, depsite the decimation of the PDs and thatcherite cut-throat individualism being dismissed by the electorate we will still have a FF/PD government with Harney back as Health minister and FF wedded to the co-location programme despite its many flaws.

I mean for god sake, why not just build extensions of the public hospitals. It will take the exact same time?

But one thing is for sure. If I hear a FF'r moaning about the state of the health Service, or rising inflation, the collapse of the property market, the hamfisted attempt at an intergrated national infrastructure, the resultant traffic jams, ************************ty schools, appalling serivces for special needs children, rising prices, lack of investment in R+D and a knowledge base economy, the scandal of the sell off of our natural resources in a deal done on tha back of a brown envelope in the Dail bar, more privatisation, Berties curruption etc etc....i'll f*ckin throttle him.

[morryah]

Nothing at all, depsite the decimation of the PDs and thatcherite cut-throat individualism being dismissed by the electorate we will still have a FF/PD government with Harney back as Health minister and FF wedded to the co-location programme despite its many flaws..

You could also say that the electorate voted in favour of Harney/co-location by her personal vote and the reelection of FF.

I mean for god sake, why not just build extensions of the public hospitals. It will take the exact same time?..

Nice use of question mark, indiciating that you know quite well that it wouldn't.

[Whig]

The rise and peaking of SF.

But you could almost say, looking at those figures, that SF have the old SFWP/WP votes and seats. They're not in the same constituencies, I'll grant that I'm looking only at figures between 1987 and 2007 and not the fact of DL drifting into Labour, but adrem has some point if we use that to explain that particular difference.

[Sligoboy]

Nothing at all, depsite the decimation of the PDs and thatcherite cut-throat individualism being dismissed by the electorate we will still have a FF/PD government with Harney back as Health minister and FF wedded to the co-location programme despite its many flaws..

You could also say that the electorate voted in favour of Harney/co-location by her personal vote and the reelection of FF.

I mean for god sake, why not just build extensions of the public hospitals. It will take the exact same time?..

Nice use of question mark, indiciating that you know quite well that it wouldn't.

Morryah. The PDs and whatthey stand for where roundly rejected by the electorate. Even in leafy DSE.. You're party is hangin on by a thread. If Co-location goes ahead and all the inherent problems associated with it arise nothing wil save Harney next time out (which could be in 18 months or so). That is if she runs. She may well be on one of the lucrative Beacon Health board of directors by then.

Grealish is going back to FF, Harney will probably follow shortly after when she sees she has no party to lead and no political leverage with FF as a result.The PDs are dead.

BTW building a building takes the same time as building a building whether its privately owned or not.

[Las]

The rise and peaking of SF.

But you could almost say, looking at those figures, that SF have the old SFWP/WP votes and seats. They're not in the same constituencies, I'll grant that I'm looking only at figures between 1987 and 2007 and not the fact of DL drifting into Labour, but adrem has some point if we use that to explain that particular difference.

1989 - WP 7, Others 3
1992 - DL 4, Others 6

Given the constituency differences, I'd say it's more likely that they went into DL, and then weren't bothered enough to go back to tiny-party-radicalism when the merger happened.

Plus, apart from the broad Border support for Ó Caoláin, isn't a lot of nouveau SF's support from first-time voters?

[adrem]

The rise and peaking of SF.

Fair enough. I'd accept that the WP/DL vote is pretty much gone into Lab. So the breakthrough of SF is a development