The Opposition

[Respvblica]

From the now locked "whats the point of FG?" thread I actually found one very interesting contribution by C&AG. This refers to what he believes the opposition should do. There are a lot of stupid threads but sometimes you find a gem like this.

by C&AG Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:50 am
I'd like to see them produce a detailed document of public spending - every penny that goes into everywhere which breaks down to people employed where (like Celia Larkin) and how much they're paid and - everything - money spent on contracts for infrastructure and how it even might compare to similar projects abroad - the € on every washer spent by the government etc. etc. etc. there in black and white in a booklet for everyone to see each year Charge a small fee for it - €2, €5, €10, something like that. They are a big enough organisation and they could achieve this. Could they even cost doing this or does the government have access to figures our other elected reps don't?

digout, Fine Gael have a job as Oppostion whether you vote for them or not. It's a very valid question as they are the main party in opposition and can/should play an active role as opposition but do they? I share your frustration with Fianna Fails history but that shouldn't stop the opposition doing their job. I believe it's about getting information out to people and communicating with people that's going to turn the tide against Fianna Fail. Especially now in this climate where people are starting to notice that there isn't money being spent (properly) on education for example, even though there was a lot of money sloshing around. And speaking of sloshing around there are infrastructural deficits that weren't addressed by Fianna Fail in their Mussolini-style roads building programme and that's namely sewage and water. Development has stopped in parts of the country because vital invisible infrastructure was ignored for too long. Those things are coming back to bite us big style on the ars€s now.

Fine Gael and Labour could make contributions to this even through a wikipedia type site of the vein "A lot done - A lot that NEEDS to be done" or a booklet and perhaps a list of events such as public meetings that people can go to. Not party political meetings but featuring guest speakers who might be neutral and could give amenable talks to the public. Perhaps debates. Sponsored by the Opposition. Anything - their point is just not getting across. In fact - what is their point?

Now lets forget about the names FF, FG Labour etc, for one minute and concentrate on what the tasks of the opposition should be regardless.

What do people here think they should be?

When the government(majority) takes executive power the power of the people is immediatley dimished because in our representative system we have effectively loaned them OUR power. They therefore should not give it away or misue it - but they do.
So we first need to know exactly what they are doing with the power. The role of the opposition, then can be seen as quite important. As we do not have pure democracy and there is no recall mechansm, the opposition takes on a special and in some sense sacred role of representing the people who are silenced. And I mean the people in the national sense and not just their constituents. Some would say that is obvious, but while there is lot of room for interpretation there is only one way in which the Peoples advocate can go about their business and that is by aggresively ensuring that no information or no action of the government is kept from the people.

If you were to list 5 tasks of the opposition, what would they be?

PS(please keep party politics out of this one-its essentially a question for an opposition in general)

[Supermanpolitician]

More trolling. This site just gets funnier.

Methinks certaiin trollers are trying to make it unworkable.

[Fr. Hank Tree]

I suppose "The Opposition" are one of the perks of democracy where goverment actions and policy can be freely and openly questioned and scrutinised without fear of repression. This would then lead me to believe that any opposition should take full advantage of this privileged position and question the government on the most fundamental and sensitive issues, not just managerial matters, but ideological matters including consensus issues. No question or position should be too outlandish, provided it is well motivated, credible and supported by reason.

This may come across as meaning opposition for the sake of it, but i don't mean that oppositions should necessarily be populist and demagogic. Sometimes challenging the consensus will be deeply unpopular, eg. raising income tax or a two-tiered health service (i'm talking about private healthcare in general). Sometimes it may involve speaking up for minorities, sometimes dragging up issues that people wish weren't there eg. rendition flights through Shannon. Soemtimes it might mean offending newspapers and saying our immigration policy needs to be changed. Also it may involve probing and holding to account a popular Taoiseach over matters of ethics. At the last election the opposition let Bertie off-the-hook ( iput my hands up now, i supported this approach).

In relation to the economy (sorry to bring up parties Respvblica but its necessary to illustrate my point) let's be honest here, apart from noises made be Richard Bruton after the budget every year, was there any real sustained and clear opposition from Fine Gael or Labour in relation to the number of houses we were building and how unbalanced our economy had become? Yes it was mentioned the odd time but there was no coherent set of policies and ideas communicated and presented to say "this is a bad policy. We oppose this. we stand for this export-led economic model as an alternative!" In fact, what we got in the last election was FG and Lab giving the government a carte blanche on the economy. Similarly, where has there been any coherent set of ideas in relation to the biggest elephant in the room, our long-term impending energy crisis. Look at the whole question of our infrastructural defecit, from schools to public transport to hospitals. The opposition makes a lot samll points about these things on a day to day basic, but never points to a big picture in the long-term.

Opposition shouldn't be afraid of polls, because then you'll only get a government that is afraid of polls. There'd plenty of discontent and discord in any system and it's the oppositions job to find it, mop it up and use it against the government, because that's its job and in turn makes government better!

[Respvblica]

I suppose "The Opposition" are one of the perks of democracy where goverment actions and policy can be freely and openly questioned and scrutinised without fear of repression. This would then lead me to believe that any opposition should take full advantage of this privileged position and question the government on the most fundamental and sensitive issues, not just managerial matters, but ideological matters including consensus issues. No question or position should be too outlandish, provided it is well motivated, credible and supported by reason.

This may come across as meaning opposition for the sake of it, but i don't mean that oppositions should necessarily be populist and demagogic. Sometimes challenging the consensus will be deeply unpopular, eg. raising income tax or a two-tiered health service (i'm talking about private healthcare in general). Sometimes it may involve speaking up for minorities, sometimes dragging up issues that people wish weren't there eg. rendition flights through Shannon. Soemtimes it might mean offending newspapers and saying our immigration policy needs to be changed. Also it may involve probing and holding to account a popular Taoiseach over matters of ethics. At the last election the opposition let Bertie off-the-hook ( iput my hands up now, i supported this approach).

In relation to the economy (sorry to bring up parties Respvblica but its necessary to illustrate my point) let's be honest here, apart from noises made be Richard Bruton after the budget every year, was there any real sustained and clear opposition from Fine Gael or Labour in relation to the number of houses we were building and how unbalanced our economy had become? Yes it was mentioned the odd time but there was no coherent set of policies and ideas communicated and presented to say "this is a bad policy. We oppose this. we stand for this export-led economic model as an alternative!" In fact, what we got in the last election was FG and Lab giving the government a carte blanche on the economy. Similarly, where has there been any coherent set of ideas in relation to the biggest elephant in the room, our long-term impending energy crisis. Look at the whole question of our infrastructural defecit, from schools to public transport to hospitals. The opposition makes a lot samll points about these things on a day to day basic, but never points to a big picture in the long-term.

Opposition shouldn't be afraid of polls, because then you'll only get a government that is afraid of polls. There'd plenty of discontent and discord in any system and it's the oppositions job to find it, mop it up and use it against the government, because that's its job and in turn makes government better!

Thanks Fr. Hank - I totally agree with regarding the last election. We did not offer the people a real alternative, right at the time when they really needed one. The small gimmicks, the slogans, the piecemeal attack were all tactical and small minded. Your're right the opposition needs a larger strategy. FG (and Labour) can and should do an awful lot more. Hopefully they will.

Overall the opposition does need to provide alterantive or to at least play the devils advocate, otherwise all the people are provided with at election is just a change in personalities. Incidentally, in the interests of democracy I think its important to not allow the executive to remain in power for an excessive amount of time - something like a term limit, but thats another story even though it illustrates yet again how we really did pick up the worst excesses in british pseudo-democracy.

Supermanpolitician - if I'm a Troll, you are an unthinking Drone, a sidekick that reacts instinctively to support and defend the party no matter what. I always support FG because I truely believe that its ethos has always been to put the country first and not the party unlike what appears to be the case for FF. Honestly this country does not need another FF.

[C&AG]

Thanks Repvblica. As Fr. Tree says above, Opposition benches are the perks of Democracy and should give good thinkers and politicians who care about the country some breathing space to criticise the government freely and openly, and the leisure to formulate their policies. Ideally speaking that is. Politicians are there to serve the needs of people whether in Government or not so being in opposition is as valid as being in Government but you obviously can't exert any immediate power. That's not to say you can't exert pressure on the gov. and leverage support from the people if the Opposition feels it necessary.

Fine Gael have been instrumental in Opposition in the past during the Tallaght strategy and are at present instrumental at least in forming an opposing viewpoint to government spending. They have been roundly critical in terms of infrastructure such as sewage and broadband and it would be interesting to hear their views on the likes of the Shannon slots (without wanting to wake up a sleeping monster), public transport in Dublin, Europe, etc. etc. Thus one of the jobs of Opposition is to get it across to voters what is actually going on in the country.

So there is an instructive role in which they may act critically or not - if the Government implements a policy that is worthwhile in the Oppositions eyes then it's also the Oppositions job to acknowledge that - I don't think they should necessarily play the Devil's Advocate. But mainly they should be about demonstrating themselves as an alternative to the Government but what is the Government doing in the first place? There's a process of education for us to go through as a democratic society and the Opposition could facilitate that process of education. Lately we've seen everday issues that touch peoples lives in the areas of energy, environment and water, banking issues - shouldn't our elected people take it upon themselves to discuss and debate the best ways to deal with these things in the most cost-effective and sustainable ways? As Fr. Hank says, what about the housing "boom"? If I was a concerned private citizen in Dublin in 1998 with the problem of having to rent a place in the city area but there being little in the market yet there are thousands of houses being built around Blanchardsdalkinford then was there anyone to listen besides the lads on the property pin (who spotted the demise of the bubble long before official experts despite Dick Roche the other night asking who could have foreseen it)

Will our democracy really be the same as it is now for the foreseeable future? Those unburdened with the worries of being in charge could be looking around for the next democratic upgrade too ... should we devolve more power to local areas? should we join a bigger bloc? - what are the pros and cons of either? etc.

Ultimately it's about looking after people and a huge part of that is information and education. It should be the Oppositions job to get that information across to let the people judge.

[Respvblica]

Will our democracy really be the same as it is now for the foreseeable future? Those unburdened with the worries of being in charge could be looking around for the next democratic upgrade too ... should we devolve more power to local areas? should we join a bigger bloc? - what are the pros and cons of either? etc.

Ultimately it's about looking after people and a huge part of that is information and education. It should be the Oppositions job to get that information across to let the people judge.

Well democratic reform is the crucial point as far as I am concerned, but there is a huge consensus in not just Ireland but over in the UK and Europe that democratically we have reached the most enlightened state. This I feel is utterly wrong and contemptuous and indeed I see as analogous to the French elites of the 17th century gloatingly regarding their own system as Absolute Monarchy as being the most Godly and Just system that could ever be.
We are equally wrong, and the place to articulate and develop the need for reform now is on the opposition benches.
There is so much to do, and to me it is so obvious that it is promoted incompetance and unaccountability that is holding us back(never mind robbing us of our rights and our fortunes). But would FG dare to do what no one anywhere in Europe would dare do. Enda Kenny is a good and decent man, but I cant see him taking the necessary steps in this regard. Would even a more radical leader do so and if he/she tried how long would they last. If its a hard argument to sell to the people it will probably an even harder argument to sell to FG TDs. I'm worried that we are caught in a vicious circle with no other way out.