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About LinkBacksIt's Soporific Enda tonight.
It's Soporific Enda tonight.
A couple of quick comments about the conference today, I might post more later.
The political reform session was odd in that we didn't have the actual detail of The New Politics document available to critique. Abolition of the Seanad has plenty of support in principle though a few people noted the need for policy deliberation such as this to be more bottom up rather that top down. One interesting aspect of that is that this policy which is to be launched on Monday can't actually be presented as party policy because the parliamentary party has not seen it as yet and so can't approve it nor has it been voted on by an Ard Fheis which are the two sole policy adoption mechanisms according to the party constitution. So this will have the substance more of a Green paper rather than a more concrete white paper. As for the list system that has been heavily trailed, well the replacement method of election by a means other that PR-STV after the demise of the Seanad looks like it could be moved into the realm of the Citizen's Assembly for consideration. It is a known unknown, with the party not having too firm a view on it. At least for now.
The debate on OMOV was good but a number of people missed the point (deliberately so) in some cases, no one proposed a return to a delegate system and frankly even I would be opposed to such a system. I think that unless any new system preserves the principle of OMOV that it will be not be adopted by the membership but there are weakness in it that do need to be addressed. This is a problem common to all parties that use OMOV. Anyway, it's off to a sub-committee of the wise and the worthy for further consideration (and who knows perhaps some consultation with the membership!) before any proposal is likely to darken the door of any future Ard fheis.
Dan Sullivan. I was back but we still couldn't all have a vote.
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no i think it is mrs enda kenny that wraps the jacket around her torso she must eat all the food of course he is up in dublin dining for irelandOriginally Posted by Tomas Mor
oh god i just woke up what happened at the festival
Just going back to this. As far as I can see the plan was only discussed not unveiled. It seems like this is always to be published next week. Any plans for a list system have been fired out. Hardly radical so when the chances of the seanad being disolved will never get past a program for government negotiation
It's actually being published today at 2.30.
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Continuing with the evidently riveting thoughts on the conference overall, .
OMOV, we don't have One Member One Vote, we have a modified version of same with the requirement that someone be a member for at least two years continuously prior to being able to vote. That is not One Member, One Vote, It's more like One Member, One Vote Eventually, OMOVE.
I do not favour delegate systems for the sensible reasons outlined by others on the day but I would favour changes to the conventions process as the single event convention process is too easily open to manipulation. I use the term ward but it's not the term used in rural areas and for the moment what I suggest is more applicable to rural areas.
Map the branches to clearly defined district electoral divisions and then in the lead up to the main convention for the entire ward have separate primary meetings for the divisions (grouped geographically) to be attended by the members of branches in that area at which votes are taken and allocated in proportion to the electoral size of the area. So in South Kerry for the Dingle Council Ward with 20 odd DEDs and say 350 members we might have 4 primary conventions, if the eastern DEDs have 20% of the population of the ward then on that primary night the votes of members are counted and 20% of the number of the total votes in the ward area allocated accordingly.
This would counter the problem of the inordinate size a single branch located in only one part of the ward overwhelming all others, and give some counter weight to the areas of the ward that the party might not be so strong in but in which we obviously need to win the votes from the electorate in order that a candidate might be elected. It would mean that going into the night of the main convention that candidates would have been seen by the members and their abilities to some degree tested.
I would largely dispense with speeches from nominators and seconders by confine both to 1 minute in total. I would even go so far as to allow the chair to impose overrun penalties with minus votes for people who talk too long.
Then we should require that the candidates open themselves up to a Q&A from the members. After all, if you can't hand an audience of fellow party members then what hope have you against partisan members of public meetings or members of the fourth estate.
Dan Sullivan. I was back but we still couldn't all have a vote.
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Somewhat intriguing point if likely to be cast as anoraky is that whatever is launched today can't be FG policy as the parliamentary party has not seen the detail and voted to approve it. And only they or an Ard Fheis can approve policy. It can be what Phil Hogan would want to form the basis of party policy but that's not the same thing as party policy.
Dan Sullivan. I was back but we still couldn't all have a vote.
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So FF are allowed plan for a majority, but FG aren't? Why?
"Elite - a small superior group; esp one that has a power out of proportion to its size." (Oxford English Dictionary)
The majority cannot therefore be the elite.
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