Should Pat Rabbitt return to lead Labour?

[JohnCallaghanWill]

Should Pat Rabbitt return to lead Labour?


Now that the Labour strategy of courting Fianna Fáil has been set aside out of Public view at least by the current leader under the current circumstances, should Labour dust down their old chest which contained "The Mullingar Accord" and beg Pat Rabbitt to return as leader, crying in unison "Come back Pat all is forgiven"

The only problem is there is no Mullingar Accord II. Labour need a Mullingar Accord where as Fine Gael do not.

Strangely now Gilmore is now left walking the road that got Rabbitt to the end of his leadership.

[SIZE="4"]Can Gilmore still turn to Fianna Fáil if he can not meet Fine Gael's terms for responsible management of the economy?[/SIZE]

[outwithcorruption]

Gilmore must be doing something right.The FG sorry FF lite spin doctors are working overtime.

[LeftOfCentre]

There won't be a general election for some time ,,,,

Gilmore made a very good move by distancing himself from FF.

I believe Ff + Lab would make a much more effective government, , , but at this stage FF would be lucky to come out with 45 TD's ,,, and will be incapable of forming any government !

Therefore this announcement is very clever ,,,

nothing being ventured ,,, voters being gained !

[Victor Meldrew]

It's a tough call. Golmore's repositioning of Lab has been interpreted as "Honest FF" where as before they were FG -lite under the Mullingar accord.

In any event, Lab are not seen as the "Get them out" party they were. Which is what the Polls are reflecting.

it's a tough one...

[JohnCallaghanWill]

It's a tough call. Golmore's repositioning of Lab has been interpreted as "Honest FF" where as before they were FG -lite under the Mullingar accord.

In any event, Lab are not seen as the "Get them out" party they were. Which is what the Polls are reflecting.

it's a tough one...

Rabbitt was acknowledged as tough on Fianna Fáil where as Gilmore's preferred coalition partner is Fianna Fáil

[mccafferty cat]

Gilmore supports the Lisbon Treaty, then opposes it (for about 10 days), now supports it again.

Gilmore (and Alex White) attack Fine Gael, and then seem to row back on it 48 hours later after a bad poll result.

Gilmore continuously talks up Labour's electoral chances, making the same mistakes that Spring and Quinn made, by building themselves up for a fall.

With self-defeating leadership like this within Labour, why should anyone in FF or FG hope for a change?

[toxic avenger]

Rabbitt was acknowledged as tough on Fianna Fáil where as Gilmore's preferred coalition partner is Fianna Fáil

Yes, so much so that he ruled it out entirely today...
RTÉ News: Gilmore rules out coalition with Fianna Fáil

[mccafferty cat]

where as Gilmore's preferred coalition partner is Fianna Fáil

I don't think this is true. Gilmore's rhetoric on this issue seems to be simply an effort to stave off trouble from the sectors of his own party that plagued Rabbitte when he entered the alliance with FG.

You know - the usual sadcases like Jack O'Connorr (closet FFer), Roisin Shortall, Willie Penrose, and others.

[Observer]

Lads, there's many a slip between 38% in an opinion poll (29% of 80% before adjustments were done) and the result of a general election.

I have a very good memory of how confident Fine Gaelers on this site were of 30%+ and of being in government in 2007, based on the Irish Times polls during that election campaign, and as we know, 30%+ didn't materialise on the day of the count.

Some of the more exuberant posters of that campaign, such as The Analyser, seemed to expire in shock as a result.

Fine Gael has good reasons to be very happy with this result, but it would be very unwise to start burning bridges with Labour just yet.

[JohnCallaghanWill]

No one believes gilmore is serious about not going into Government with Fianna Fáil.

Yester day FF were an option ofr Gilmore to day he says otherwise. Fianna Fáil had about the same support 2 days ago as today.

What changed since?