Why is Brian Crowley not taking losses in the polls?

sceptre

Try to post smarter, guys - neither of you are doing yourselves any favours.

howie2008

howie2008 wrote: »

Otherwise we'll have a front bench of amputees & speech impediments shortly.

On that logic, there was no swing to de Rossa in Dublin. People just find that Porky Pig impression so damn cute. Dabbaday dabbaday indeed.

Or how about FG running plain jane with the thick glasses in Leinster, a poll topper no less. Yes, the looks to melt the hardest heart. Well she's not gonna make much modelling now is she? Or does the cynic in you suspect that there's no lens in those bottle end thick glasses?

Yes, our public representatives should be flawless to meet your requirements. Its all about the handicap, not the hard work.

techdiver

techdiver wrote: »

That's a nowhere argument. People don't give a crap about whether he runs his own campaign or not. He represents Fianna Fail, defends Fianna Fail policy and has not suffered in the same way as other candidates.

In my area the local FF candidates increased their first preference. They both have full use of their limbs.

You see, sometimes voters do just vote for the hardworkers who clock in the hours, run good campaigns and steer clear of controversies.

howie2008

In fairness I saw "plain jane" out the other night in heels and she was wearing contacts, a pair of leather hotpants and a boob top! Quite the head turner!

getcover

Doubt if the wheelchair got him more than a few thousand votes at best, his record and work must have something to do with it.
Not an FFer, but he seems like a nice guy, and doesn't go in for the arrogant sneering that seems to be a requisite for any FF bigwig these days.

howie2008

Ya thats a fair point. Working off a VERY VAGUE memory when he was first canvassing and it came to vote day he got something like twice the vote of the nearest candidate and he was up against. A figure that was totally unheard off. He was totally unheard off bar his unique selling point of the wheelchair. To be honest I would love to see him on Prime Time, Radio 1, Newstalk etc...He is very much out of the limelight. Never hear of the guy til voting time. Reckon the wheelchair gets him 2/3 to 7/8 of his votes if u compare historical newcomer votes without family connections in his age bracket. Back then anyway when he was first canvassing.

akaredtop

If he had lost his seat he would definitely be feeling "DEFLATED".

howie2008

howie2008 wrote: »

He was totally unheard off bar his unique selling point of the wheelchair.

That's the Nth post in which you've mentioned his wheelchair.

I think you are just on a trolling campaign at this stage.

You have ignored my questions, to make just a few more remarks about his wheelchair.

howie2008 wrote: »

Never hear of the guy til voting time.

Not sure where you are based.

Profile very high around these parts.

howie2008 wrote: »

Reckon the wheelchair gets him 2/3 to 7/8 of his votes if u compare historical newcomer votes without family connections in his age bracket.

Please show how you came up with 7/8s, apart from your obvious (and slightly sad) desire to troll.

As for newcomer, well yes in everyone's first campaign they are a newcomer, I'm not sure what else he could have been. But are you seriously posting on a politics forum and saying you didn't know of the Crowley family in FF?

Anyway, even if you are right, yet again it wasn't even close. Yep, he's fooled 120,000 yet again with his sympathy routine, and you are the only kid in the crowd seeing through the charade. Medal in the post.

howie2008

Never heard of the Crowley Political Dynasty. Most people don't. I lend no credence to the idea that becuse somebody's father, uncle, cousin or great grandfather twice removed was good that it makes them quality vintage also. How can u compare the Aherne brothers. Its like saying Roy Keanes son will be a Man Utd captain! No interest in family ties. All down to the individual! Will leave bloodstock references to the Equine Industry.

howie2008

howie2008 wrote: »

Never heard of the Crowley Political Dynasty.

Didn't you?

His father was elected FF TD at least 3 times afaik.

howie2008 wrote: »

I lend no credence to the idea that becuse somebody's father, uncle, cousin or great grandfather twice removed was good that it makes them quality vintage also.

That's not the point I made at all.

Not sure how you managed to misread my post so much. The point I was making is not that this made him 'quality vintage' but in response to your suggestion that he was a complete newcomer to the political scene in his first election. He is the son of a 3 time election winner. For a fellow who has analysed it so much as to come up with a '7/8ths of his vote' calculation, you don't seem to have much of an idea of the subject of your analysis.

howie2008 wrote: »

All down to the individual!

Your argument is that it is all (or 7/8ths) down to the wheelchair, not the individual. I note change.

sceptre

I don't know anything much about Flor Crowley as I only barely remember the 1981 elections (I was six and it was the first time my parents took me along to the East Cork count which is obviously nowhere near Bandon).

Having met Brian Crowley a few times though, I can see how he gets a large personal vote. The guy has charm, charisma and an ability to listen and that's nothing to do with whether he spends all his time sitting or standing. I didn't give him a first preference this time out because I was 100% sure he didn't need it. But had I been in any doubt about his election (or that he'd top the poll in Ireland South), I'd probably have handed it to him. he's got a good reputation around Brussels with good reason. I don't agree with some of the major stances he's taken, particularly on software patents, but he's a good representative nonetheless - Fianna Fail representatives are notoriously bad at answering communications with anything more than a cursory acknowledgment of the receipt of the communication (if even that) but again Crowley bucks this trend by being willing, in my experience, to explain his stance and the rationale behind it. And that's useful for two reasons - you can understand the rationale and more importantly you can argue against it if you don't agree with it.

Then again, I'm not your common or garden voter - I keep up with Dail and European legislation and when I read it I can understand it (except for the Anglo-irish nationalisation Act, parts of that were completely unintelligible even with the legislation being amended right beside it). But what impresses me about Crowley is that as far as I can tell, he does too (because like most elected politicians I've met, I ran my standard tests to check without being noticed). And let's be honest, that's (unfortunately) pretty rare in a legislator, especially an Irish one.

Two-thirds or seven-eighths of the guy's vote by virtue of him wheeling himself around the country? You've got to be kidding me. You may not like the guy (and by the looks of things you don't) but regardless of - and I'd pretty much say despite - the political party that for (presumably) family loyalty he's a member of, the guy picks up votes because those who vote for him want to vote for him, not because he's the poor disabled kid in the chair with wheels.

Pick on his policies or lack of them or pick on his membership of Fianna Fail (because heaven knows, there's enough room for that these days) because while I'm sure he may have picked up a small few thousand extra votes in the early days out of half-sympathy, Irish people haven't exactly been known in the past decade as being the kind of people to keep choosing the shortest guy for the football team just to give him a tryout. If the wheelchair was a significant factor in any way, every party in the land would be finding their own Joe Swanson or Charles Xavier to run.

Here's another candidate who is wheelchair bound, Labour's Terry O'Brien in Tralee.

I would imagine he would be annoyed at the suggestion that most of his votes were out of sympathy. He is a decent public representative, though did not get enough in the last GE.

http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?id=5252

lostexpectation

people going out of their way to ignore the td flor crowley factor

where did crowley get his own operations from?

when first up he was against an old limerick guy, who lny got 40,000 and he got 80,000

so he was picked by the party for name recognition.

so who else would ff'ers in cork vote for but crowley?

FlutterinBantam

When did you ever see Brian Crowley batting for FF on controversial issues?

When did you ever see Brian Crowley on RTE defending FF

When did you ever see Brian Crowley taking a national interest in Irish Politics.

When did you ever see Brian Crowley appear on the national media in a pressurised /unpopular situation.


If your answer to all those questions is "rarely if ever" then I think I have answered your question:cool:

FlutterinBantam

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

When did you ever see Brian Crowley batting for FF on controversial issues?

When did you ever see Brian Crowley on RTE defending FF

When did you ever see Brian Crowley taking a national interest in Irish Politics.

When did you ever see Brian Crowley appear on the national media in a pressurised /unpopular situation.

Didn't even know de Rossa was still alive until he popped up on the campaign trail.

Colm Burke? Liam Aylward? Marian Harkin? Hello? Hello? Anyone there?

This is what MEPs do. They go as fast and as far from national issues as possible. Kathy Sinnott collects every penny spent on that running. To say it is only Brian Crowley is blinkered in the extreme.

Fuascailt

Deleted User wrote: »

Not sure where you are based.

Profile very high around these parts.


.

Where are you based? I live seven miles from Bandon, I didnt get so much as a leaflet in the post from Brian Crowley. The only stuff i've seen on him in the media was that he didnt want to go to the liberals. No idea what he's been doing in Brussels for the last 15 years...

In South Kerry. We're nearly sick of him, he seems to pop up every few weeks down here.

For their sake's pity the same couldn't be said for Sinnott or Burke, but I guess that's why the electorate wasn't too kind to them.

CantGetNoSleep

Brian Crowley was on Saturday Night with Miriam last night, I think this interview showed quite clearly why he continually does so well in elections, seems like a genuinely nice chap, and much more of a personality than other Irish politicians, I mean can you imagine Brian Cowen singing a song on national TV

Scofflaw

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Brian Crowley was on Saturday Night with Miriam last night, I think this interview showed quite clearly why he continually does so well in elections, seems like a genuinely nice chap, and much more of a personality than other Irish politicians, I mean can you imagine Brian Cowen singing a song on national TV

Regrettably, yes.

NB - content advisory.

regretfully,
Scofflaw

Spudmonkey

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Brian Crowley was on Saturday Night with Miriam last night, I think this interview showed quite clearly why he continually does so well in elections, seems like a genuinely nice chap, and much more of a personality than other Irish politicians, I mean can you imagine Brian Cowen singing a song on national TV

Saw him on with Miriam, have to say, he was a really nice guy. Hard not to like him. Had a very positive outlook on live!

Mario007

i live in youghal and i havent seen crowley at all. i even sent him an email as a head of youth organisation EUnifying Europe to come down to talk to us in the school before the elections so that young people would get interested in the eu elections and he didnt even write back. After that i sent him a private email, asking hims some issues about eu and which way he'd vote in the parliament and didnt get a reply either.
i'm wondering why is he getting such an amout of votes, some are surely sympathy and some are, as i see here, for being a nice guy, which is cool but in politics you want more than a nice guy to be honest. i even looked up all the sites to see what has he ever done in the EP and nothing to be honest, he didnt even vote much for irish issues or his group's issues...

Aidric

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

When did you ever see Brian Crowley batting for FF on controversial issues?

When did you ever see Brian Crowley on RTE defending FF

When did you ever see Brian Crowley taking a national interest in Irish Politics.

When did you ever see Brian Crowley appear on the national media in a pressurised /unpopular situation.


If your answer to all those questions is "rarely if ever" then I think I have answered your question:cool:

This sums up my feeling on the matter. It's a good point raised by the OP and one which I found myself asking during the course of the last European elections. It's true that the guy has charisma but as FB says when has he ever been pressed on the hard issues. The fact that his vote held up so well would suggest he hasn't been tainted by the FF membership. That in itself is staggering and would suggest an everpresent sympathy vote.

solice

I was disgusted with Miriam on the show. She had a FF MEP on and all she could talk about was his accident, that he would love to get married and the band he was in as a kid! Not a single political question of any kind. We are in the worst economic situation we have ever been in and there is a referendum coming up on Lisbon and not a single question on either! Poor form on RTEs part. It looked like a Brian Crowley "love in".

I think its clear that Brian Crowley will be running for presidency next time around. He was forced to give up the leadership of the grouping that FF was in because FF left the group, he gave up being leader of the FF MEPs (i know there are only 3) and he appeared on a (so called)topical chat show and wasnt once asked a political question. He is settling his affairs in Europe and begining a presidential campaign, either as the FF nominee or an independent!

evercloserunion

BERBA wrote: »

What has he ever done fro the south? except wrack up serious expense bills like they all do i might add. He defo gets a number of sympathy votes imo

Rubbish IMO, as is any post that claims Crowley is supported by sympathy votes. Sinnott is every bit as much a sympathy case with her severely disabled son who she has fought hard for; I would think that sympathy votes would go to her before Crowley. Yet she lost her seat.

solice

evercloserunion wrote: »

Yet she lost her seat.

Thank god!

I dont think Brian Crowley gets sympathy votes, he seems to be well liked in most parts of Ireland south.