2 More Years now = 2nd term in opposition ?

[beamish2010]

I wonder is anyone in Fianna Fail considering or questioning the stratagy of hanging on for the final 2 years till 2012 ?

I don't think there is any chance at all of any economic turnaroud filtering down to the general public in time. Indeed for the national economy to get any better on paper actually requires the citizens / voters to become a lot poorer. That means that many people will perceive 2011 and 2012 as being years when the recession gets worse.

Hanging on as a lame duck government trying to introduce more deeply unpopular tax rises, charges and cuts will just alienate more people. By then the party will have been in power for 15 years, and by that stage voter hostility will be such, that the party will face a very tough battle trying to get re-elected after just 1 term in opposition. Remember what happened the British Conservatives when they hung on through those last 2 years from 95 to 97. Those last 2 years (the period known as sleaze) created such hostility among voters that they have been punished in opposition for 13 years. Is that whats going to happen Fianna Fail if the party hangs on till 2012 before allowing the people a chance to have their say on whats being done ?

Is nobody in Fianna Fail looking further ahead than the next two years ?

I believe that Zanu-FF and the turncoat Greenies will slug it out until 2012.
They maybe greedy and incompetent,but there not stupid,they are hardly
going to cut their own throats by calling an election this year or next year.
I have a feeling that FF and the GP will go for the full 5 year course.

Turkeys never vote for an early Christmas...

[bored and fussy]

If FG are in power in 2016 I think they would be mature enough to ensure all parties are given a role.

Perhaps if there is a re-enactment of Easter '16 FF could supply some of the participants. I always thought Bertie Ahern would make a fine Padraig Pearse. I just hope they remember to use blanks.

Of course they will use blanks isnt enda kenny firing blanks all the time just ask lucinda

[florin]

I wonder is anyone in Fianna Fail considering or questioning the stratagy of hanging on for the final 2 years till 2012 ?

I don't think there is any chance at all of any economic turnaroud filtering down to the general public in time. Indeed for the national economy to get any better on paper actually requires the citizens / voters to become a lot poorer. That means that many people will perceive 2011 and 2012 as being years when the recession gets worse.

Hanging on as a lame duck government trying to introduce more deeply unpopular tax rises, charges and cuts will just alienate more people. By then the party will have been in power for 15 years, and by that stage voter hostility will be such, that the party will face a very tough battle trying to get re-elected after just 1 term in opposition. Remember what happened the British Conservatives when they hung on through those last 2 years from 95 to 97. Those last 2 years (the period known as sleaze) created such hostility among voters that they have been punished in opposition for 13 years. Is that whats going to happen Fianna Fail if the party hangs on till 2012 before allowing the people a chance to have their say on whats being done ?

Is nobody in Fianna Fail looking further ahead than the next two years ?

I wonder if FF ever consider the country's interests over that of the party? Surely Ireland being in a mess in 2016 is a greater tragedy than Cowen's fat arse being on the other side of the Dáil chamber in 2016.

[RichardDeClare]

I believe that Zanu-FF and the turncoat Greenies will slug it out until 2012.
They maybe greedy and incompetent,but there not stupid,they are hardly
going to cut their own throats by calling an election this year or next year.
I have a feeling that FF and the GP will go for the full 5 year course.

Turkeys never vote for an early Christmas...

I would have agreed with you a few weeks ago, but with all these scandals coming out there have been calls to end the pairings arrangement. If thats happens its game on!!

NAMA and the Budget were strike 1 and 2, if this farce in the Ministry of Health contines that could be strike 3

[Toland]

or lost at sea
or FÁS
or tribunals
or reshuffle rebellion
or strategic decision by FF
or ínternal strife in Greens
or backbench desertion
or burnout of will to govern
or new scandal
or ...

[hiding behind a poster]

No problem remembering the Somme seperately. Just so long as 1916 is remembered by the British. Quid pro Quo.

Why should the British commemorate 1916? Very few British people or soldiers died in it. (The Rising, that is - not the year)

[Toland]

Why should the British commemorate 1916? Very few British people or soldiers died in it. (The Rising, that is - not the year)

That reminds me of my run-in with Gay Mitchell. He offered to give up our Angelus in an arrangement by which, as a quid pro quo, the Brits would also give up their ban on Catholics becoming monarchs.