Another SF Councillor going?

[umbrey]

True, but again the issue is that while the vote in East was up more than it was in 2004, it was still nowhere near what was needed to be even considering challenging for a seat in the medium to long term
An even bigger indictment was that despite the profile of running as a Euro candidate, Kathleen didn't win a Kilkenny council seat.. that should have been the first priority

You neglect to say that she near doubled the sf % vote this time around tho.

[wysiwyg]

You neglect to say that she near doubled the sf % vote this time around tho.

In Kilkenny council ?

Really Umbrey... I can only respond to that with.. so what ???

Given the huge resources put into a European campaign, you'd expect that a candidate would at least win a seat on a local authority

And just so you know, this isn't to have a pop at Kathleen, I'm sorry she didn't win a seat, but I'm also a political realist... walk before you run and all that

[umbrey]

Yes really.
She was the candidate selected by the party, that's the way it works,she got a good vote and next time round she will have an even bigger profile to build on, Rome was'nt built in a day and all that.

[onlyasking]

We're talking about this country here. There's a separate forum for Northern Ireland and its elections.

Sorry Keith, he's talking about this country, Ireland, and you're talking about this state, the republic.

SF is the third most popular party in this country, and the fourth most popular in this state. The hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens who voted for the party are well used to demonisation and to being told they are untouchable. The unionists who kicked an innocent man to death in Coleraine a few weeks ago hungrily lap up the perpetual demonisation of SF emanating from the body politic and the media here, don't you worry.

As Factual and others have pointed out, the spin is this:

SF, a party that has been declared officially untouchable by FG, FF and Labour, scored 11.2% of first pref votes amongst the electorate of this state in the EU election. They lost a seat in a constituency that also lost a seat (I'm sure you're aware that Dublin fell from 4 to 3 seats). Of course, amongst the pro-Lisbon ABC1s in the media that was presented as a total disaster. A colleague of mine was ecstatic when he told me that SF had been "wiped out". His ecstasy lasted as long as it took me to give him the figures.

Meanwhile, Labour, in a politcal environment that could scarcely have been more benign, scored 13.9%. To Labour's pro-Lisbon middle-class cheerleaders in the media, that was a resounding success. The fact that Labour ended up with 3 seats was in part due to its continuing appeal to centre-right voters, unsurprising in that Labour is working alongside IBEC to promote Lisbon ll. The better-off will reward those who campaign to keep them in the lifestyles to which they've become accustomed.