PickYourParty.ie

28064212

nesf wrote:

...on some parties are at 2.4 or something similar

So? Some parties have extreme views. As for information on how they decided where each party stood, they give a pretty good account of it on the main page, as well as some follow-up links

The_Minister

I question most of where they have placed the actual parties. Absolutely useless.

EDIT: Oh, and, if you don't answer any questions (Ie. leave it in the centre), you are apparently in FG. Now, we all know thats wrong.

nesf

28064212 wrote:

So? Some parties have extreme views. As for information on how they decided where each party stood, they give a pretty good account of it on the main page, as well as some follow-up links

I know that but I'm thinking more along the lines of it's only going to be accurate if the way I translate my views is the same as the way they'd translate my views. It's the failing of numerical based systems on this kind of thing, it introduces a lot of measurement error.

King.Penguin

I found it strange that abortion and homosexuality were basically group together. I'd be very liberal with regard to homosexuality but much more conservative towards abortion. Which party would be closest to that view?

I got aligned with the Greens but most of my answers corresponded with Fine Gael. Probably putting Environment down as most important factor tipped the scales.

Dirk Gently

King.Penguin wrote:

I found it strange that abortion and homosexuality were basically group together. I'd be very liberal with regard to homosexuality but much more conservative towards abortion. Which party would be closest to that view?.

Good question, The two are usually grouped together because most parties would be liberal towards both or else have conservative views on both. I suppose vote labour or left of labour on homosexuality and FG on abortion. Result = nothing will happen anyway. Most parties will be afraid to legislate on these issues anyway for fear of a backlash. Off the top of my head I can't think of any party who are both anti abortion and also in favour of greater gay rights.

Agent Smith

The party closest to your choice is: Fine Gael

atho i'm closest to SF when it comes to social policy according to this, unusual tbh

Dirk Gently

King.Penguin wrote:

I'd be very liberal with regard to homosexuality

agent smith wrote:

The party closest to your choice is: Fine Gael

really

In fairness to the penguin I don't think it's as black and white as agent smith makes out.

Agent Smith

no, what i ment is it said that my party would be fine gael

PH01

So far I've gone back and forth and still I haven't got FF. I got ALL of the other parties on this but no FF.

Has this survey been rigged or what do you have to select to get FF?

joolsveer

I got Fine Gael. Is noone an FFer?

Cardinal

Of course not. How can anyone's opinion align with a party without any?

FTA69

Greens for me. My arse.

28064212

PH01 wrote:

So far I've gone back and forth and still I haven't got FF. I got ALL of the other parties on this but no FF.

Has this survey been rigged or what do you have to select to get FF?

Don't start with that conspiracy sh*t. They tell you exactly how they calculate it on the results page:

Based ONLY on average value of your position on the 3 most important issues the party closest to you is...

It's simple to get Fianna Fáil, just look at the breakdown of the answers

Time Magazine

I was afraid that might happen. Fianna Fáil based on my three most important issues. In the other questions it was 3 FG, 2 Green, 1 Lab, 1 FF.

Stephen

It gave me Labour, with FG, Greens and SF (:eek:) in the other questions. Fairly spot on I think besides SF.

Nothingcompares

It's obvious that SF represents or claim to represnent a lot of things people are interested in. but due to their bad reputation, nobody would consider being associated or represented by them.

all the ppl that got sf as their party, what did you put down for northern ireland? Very important?

FF, Green, FG, PD, Labour, Labour, PD

So basically, i don't agree with sinn fein, which i already knew

westhammer

I got Greens, but SF for most of the issues! Ill be voting FG and Labour though

redspider

Here are the values for discussion purposes ....

Issue 1 Taxes and Spending (20= Cutting Spending to Cut Taxes)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 13.8
Fine Gael 12.5
Labour Party 6.6
Progressive Democrats 17.4
Green Party 5.8
Sinn Féin 4.9

Issue 2 Social Policy (20= Liberal Policies on Abortion and Homosexuality)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 14.8
Fine Gael 11.5
Labour Party 6
Progressive Democrats 7
Green Party 5.6
Sinn Féin 9.6

Issue 3 EU Enlargement (20= Opposed)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 7
Fine Gael 5.2
Labour Party 5.6
Progressive Democrats 6.4
Green Party 9.8
Sinn Féin 12

Issue 4 EU Strenghtening (20= Opposed to more powerful EU)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 12.7
Fine Gael 8.3
Labour Party 10.2
Progressive Democrats 13.2
Green Party 17.1
Sinn Féin 17

Issue 5 Environment (20= Economic growth at cost of Environment)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 16
Fine Gael 13.8
Labour Party 9.5
Progressive Democrats 15.5
Green Party 2.3
Sinn Féin 10.1

Issue 6 Immigration (20= In favour of policies to help immigrants return to their countries)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 14.7
Fine Gael 12.9
Labour Party 6.7
Progressive Democrats 14.1
Green Party 5.8
Sinn Féin 8.6

Issue 7 Northern Ireland (20= In favour of UK presence in NI)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 6.4
Fine Gael 11
Labour Party 9.1
Progressive Democrats 11
Green Party 8.7
Sinn Féin 1.5

rainbow kirby

I got Green Party overall, was planning to vote Labour/Greens anyway.

nesf

Were you involved in creating it redspider?

28064212

You should take into account:

pickyourparty.ie wrote:

...as the survey was administered in 2002-2003 any policy-shifts that have occurred since that point in time are not accounted for on this website

nesf

28064212 wrote:

You should take into account:

That introduces a nice bit of error. It's like predicting who you should have voted for back in the last election or something and then you extrapolate forwards and try to figure out if you'd have changed allegiances...

28064212

nesf wrote:

Were you involved in creating it redspider?

The breakdown is posted on every results page

nesf

28064212 wrote:

The breakdown is posted on every results page

I know, I'm just curious as to him putting it up here. I wouldn't mind knowing the methods used/not used for accuracy and all that. Edit: nevermind I missed the link to their paper.

Senator

Glad to see the post-grads at Trinners are working so hard.

redspider

nesf wrote:

Were you involved in creating it redspider?

No, I wasnt, no link at all.

However, I am interested in systems/studies like this. What I would like to see are say 50 relevant questions, well structured and phrased, say scaled 1-6 or something (ie not allowing an exact middle ground), and then have all the parties officially answer them. Then a voter can go to the site, put in their answers (with an option to view the parties/independents answers whilst filling it in, or doing it blind) and then seeing which party their own wishes are closer to.

I dont think the parties would want to nail their colours to the mast in such a public fashion though, but its something that should and could be done.

Redspider

matt wakk

hey guys, i'm one of the students involved in the website, just writing to say that i read ur posts, and there are some really interesting comments, the last point made by redspider is a good one, it's really difficult to get parties to respond honestly to questionnaires. anyway, the site's been reasonably successful thus far in terms of hits, and we're thinking of expanding the project to include other european elections - i'd be interested if anybody has suggestions as to how we could improve the site. cheers.:)

redspider

matt wakk wrote:

hey guys, i'm one of the students involved in the website, just writing to say that i read ur posts, and there are some really interesting comments, the last point made by redspider is a good one, it's really difficult to get parties to respond honestly to questionnaires. anyway, the site's been reasonably successful thus far in terms of hits, and we're thinking of expanding the project to include other european elections - i'd be interested if anybody has suggestions as to how we could improve the site. cheers.:)

I'm sure there are plenty of suggestions for improving the site and perhaps the methodology. You could try and get RTE involved to push the Parties into answering their current positions. However, some of the questions/issues posed, for example the mixing of Abortion and Homosexuality, two completely separate issues, into one question, wouldn't go down so well or be very palatable to them. Also, there are lots more issues out there apart from these two 'contentious' ones, which as can be seen from the current debate (Miss D case apart) are not major issues in this general election. So my advice would be to get a better set of issues defined.

Getting politicians/parties to commit to positions is very difficult as they live the life of fud, obfuscation, talking past each other, and avoiding the points, so getting past that exterior and getting a party opinion is very difficult. Keep asking and in time, they may answer. But do keep asking.

Good luck,

Redspider

McSpud

Rubbish website. Seems a bit irresponsible too...

Unable to understand why they picked those 7 policy areas included 2 about the EU (which is unimportant & has political consensus).



If parties won't answer questions properly then you can't just guess their position.