General Election 2020, who would you like to see be elected? See Mod note in Post 1

Del.Monte

This group were in Rafter Street this afternoon protesting about Paul Kehoe and also stickered his office on Wafer Street. Another bit of bad publicity which will hopefully see him lose his tenuous hold on his seat.

I Am The Law

Howlin, 'Labour' party leader, supposed to represent workers, he's worth 4 Million?

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/revealed-half-of-irelands-tds-are-millionaires-and-heres-how-much-theyre-worth-36901002.html

man98

I Am The Law wrote: »

Howlin, 'Labour' party leader, supposed to represent workers, he's worth 4 Million?

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/revealed-half-of-irelands-tds-are-millionaires-and-heres-how-much-theyre-worth-36901002.html

Sorry, but this is an unfair shot. The report says that's an estimate of his pension included. The man has been in a Senator, TD, Leas-Ceann Comhairle, Minister for the Environment, Minister for Health, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in his 38 years in the Oireachtas. Of course he has a big pension. Not saying the size of his pension is fair or otherwise, but those are the Oireachtas guidelines for pension sizes, and you can't expect anyone to turn down the money they're entitled to in retirement.

gmurphy70

Tell me a hospital in the country that wasn’t upgraded in the last 10 years? If Howlin was so good for the hospital where is our 24hr Cardiac unit? MRI is a joke,the people of Wexford funded it but it’s not available 24/7,why?Howlin has been our only minister for the last decade. Where is his investment for jobs? Have a look at the N11 daily and see what people have to do to go to a job. Not 1 was created in Wexford for the last 15 years. Yet people want to vote the same old back in? What did Labour promise us a while back when looking for votes? Liebour

McLoughlin wrote: »

Howlin did nothing ? Ah here twice when
as a minister he got major investment into Wexford General Hospital granted he shouldn't have had to do that the Government should have reconsidered the importance of the hospital and allotted funding its self. There is a small little regular thing I needed doing and it was on the chopping board in 2010 but do to Howlin's funding into Wexford Hospital I don't have to travel to Dublin or Waterford.

I understand peoples criticisms of Howlin but to say he did nothing its a silly statement to make

Don't forget it was Howlin's bill and vote that trigger the end of Haughys government so ya know that is also something good he did.

gmurphy70

Will certainly vote, vote for who ever will be best for Wexford. Looks like Byrne 1, Murphy 2 just to piss off the blue shirts

Del.Monte wrote: »

Agree with most of the above but will you be voting?

Marhay70

gmurphy70 wrote: »

Will certainly vote, vote for who ever will be best for Wexford. Looks like Byrne 1, Murphy 2 just to piss off the blue shirts

I think the reason D'Arcy is spreading his tentacles further in the County is that he's not confident of topping the poll in Gorey. I think Byrne will easily retain his seat and though I won't vote for either, I think Byrne would be much more effective in Gorey.

Del.Monte

Although I never heard back from the Green Party it seems that we do indeed have a candidate in the Wexford constituency - Paula Roseingrave - https://www.greenparty.ie/people/paula-roseingrave

Without wishing to be ageist - she's too old for this race to attract the younger voters who are the future of the Green movement - as well as having no 'green' profile or political experience.

McLoughlin

Del.Monte wrote: »

Although I never heard back from the Green Party it seems that we do indeed have a candidate in the Wexford constituency - Paula Roseingrave - https://www.greenparty.ie/people/paula-roseingrave

Without wishing to be ageist - she's too old for this race to attract the younger voters who are the future of the Green movement - as well as having no 'green' profile or political experience.

She was rushed in over a week ago after Karin Dubsky pulled out. The Greens have improved their first preference vote over the past ten years from a few hundred to a few thousand but this time I can't see them doing that well if you can't find a suitable candidate then don't run any random person you can find.

McLoughlin

South East Radio will have all candidates on next week from around 11 o'clock with three on each day
Monday Verona Murphy, Paula Rosengrave and Jim Codd
Tuesday Michael Darcy, Bart Murphy and Lisa McDonald
Wednesday Brendan Howlin, Ger Carthy and Malcolm Byrne
Thursday Paul Kehoe, James Browne and Deidre Wadding
Friday Johnny Mythen, Michael Sheehan and Seanie O ‘Shea

swejaysus

Johnny Mythen going from losing his council seat to taking a Dáil seat because of the mooted Sinn Féin Wave would be a hell of a story.

I'm saying Howlin (probably will top the poll but where will his transfers go?), Browne, D'Arcy, Byrne and a tossup between Kehoe, Carthy or Mythen. Don't think the others will be close.

Del.Monte

swejaysus wrote: »

Johnny Mythen going from losing his council seat to taking a Dáil seat because of the mooted Sinn Féin Wave would be a hell of a story.

I'm saying Howlin (probably will top the poll but where will his transfers go?), Browne, D'Arcy, Byrne and a tossup between Kehoe, Carthy or Mythen. Don't think the others will be close.

The thought of SF getting a seat would be almost enough to make me give Paul Kehoe a vote. Word on the street (the Antique Tavern) tonight was that Grizzly Adams was in Enniscorthy today and that Johnny Mythen will get in.

McLoughlin

Sinn Fein need to get at least 30 plus out of the 40 odd candidates they are running and also get seats in rural areas that the have never had seats before such as the Midlands and the West. Will Wexford be one of those areas ? Wexford is a rural county aswell.

Its hard to know where the protest anti government left vote will go if those people actually vote from experience Shinners in Wexford always whinge about the "gubberment" but they don't show up at the polling station.

Howlin, Byrne and Browne and you would expect at least one FG.

Two seats though I reckon will depend to transfers such as Howlin but the South of Wexford will have an impact with several people going neck and neck

ITDept

I understand the 'protest vote' sentiment but it would be really disappointing to see Sinn Fein getting in here. Protest votes have backfired badly in other countries and I hope we're not next to make that mistake.

My opinion is that they offer nothing positive to politics. A mixture of fanciful economics, open hostility towards our legal and policing systems and their willingness to flip-flop on matters of principle (e.g. repealing the 8th) are absolutely not what Wexford or Ireland needs.

So, much as we might complain about the state of things, and some of those complaints are fully justified (problems in healthcare, public transport etc.), things could and would be much worse.

kneemos

This poll is almost the opposite of what you'd expect.
Don't believe this SF resurrection I must say.

https://wexfordtoday.com/2020/02/05/election-poll-springs-huge-surprise/

Marcusm

An online poll does not reach a representative sample of voters.

McLoughlin

Marcusm wrote: »

An online poll does not reach a representative sample of voters.

Exactly and plenty say they are voting one way but on the day they may vote different.

swejaysus

I feel like the biggest protest vote in Wexford would be Verona 'Give *insert area name here* It's Own TD' Murphy. Yknow the like. She has posters up in my nearest village saying 'give *village* its own TD'.

She's from Ramsgrange, about an hour's drive off.

kneemos

swejaysus wrote: »

I feel like the biggest protest vote in Wexford would be Verona 'Give *insert area name here* It's Own TD' Murphy. Yknow the like. She has posters up in my nearest village saying 'give *village* its own TD'.

She's from Ramsgrange, about an hour's drive off.

What's she even standing for? Apart from herself.

Aska

kneemos wrote: »

What's she even standing for? Apart from herself.

Christ knows tbh, I'm a haulier so at the beginning I was somewhat supportive of her as the locals began then she said her piece which was ok but then retracted it as we know and dissapeared from all media in the final week of the locals so I thought to hell with her, now the GE is on and Ivan Yates and these other asses can't give her enough airtime so I wont waste my time on her, Johnny M will get my vote in the hope he unseats Kehoe, who from another haulage family weirdly has two nieces in the army and a third one of them a guard and he minister for defence? call me cynical

EverythingGood

gmurphy70 wrote: »

Tell me a hospital in the country that wasn’t upgraded in the last 10 years? If Howlin was so good for the hospital where is our 24hr Cardiac unit? MRI is a joke,the people of Wexford funded it but it’s not available 24/7,why?Howlin has been our only minister for the last decade. Where is his investment for jobs? Have a look at the N11 daily and see what people have to do to go to a job. Not 1 was created in Wexford for the last 15 years. Yet people want to vote the same old back in? What did Labour promise us a while back when looking for votes? Liebour

Not one job was created in Wexford in the last 15 years? Are you mad? My place has gone from 120 to 350. My brother in laws business has gone from 2 to 5 people. Crazy lie.

McLoughlin

Murphy like Codd, Carthy and Macdonald are all beating the poor rural south of the duncannon line being ignored by Government and most of their points are valid.

To be fair Murphy has said that FG did there best to "silence her" at the Bye Election and she is running an anti FG campaign as well so she is potentially getting both south FG and Anti-FG votes.

Del.Monte

EverythingGood wrote: »

Not one job was created in Wexford in the last 15 years? Are you mad? My place has gone from 120 to 350. My brother in laws business has gone from 2 to 5 people. Crazy lie.

Yeah, the South East is just booming - not! And we're about to hit the next downturn but things are so dire here that we won't notice the difference.

ITDept

Maybe not where you are, but north Wexford is definitely booming. Employment, both skilled and unskilled, is growing significantly and consistently. There are very few vacant retail or business park units, and a very large proportion of businesses are currently hiring. Property prices are increasing faster than the national average - now that's not necessarily an advantage, but it's a sign that demand is high so people are interested in moving into the area.

I'm not saying that there aren't issues, and I'm also not claiming that the whole county is doing fantastically well. All I'm saying is that government policies over the last while have generally benefited this area (and probably quite a few other areas, I just don't know them well enough to comment) so I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the voters here voting in a very similar way to the way they did last time.

Uncle Pierre

gmurphy70 wrote: »

Not 1 was created in Wexford for the last 15 years.

Around 250 jobs created at Eishtec in Wexford when it opened five to six years ago.

Innovate in Gorey opened around the same time and I believe now has more than 100 people there.

There's just two I can think of straight away.

Uncle Pierre

Think all would agree it’s looking more and more likely that Johnny Mythen will win a seat for SF. Which I think is a bit bizarre given that the people of Enniscorthy didn’t support him enough last year to even allow him hold his council seat.

Basically looks like a case of people in his home base not voting for him in any great numbers because they know what he’s like, but that he still has a great chance of winning a seat because people in other areas who know nothing about him will vote for him purely because he’s the SF candidate.

I don’t want to make things personal but honestly can’t see him being a very effective TD if he wasn’t even an effective enough councillor to hold his seat there.

McLoughlin

Can't see Johnny Mythen getting enough votes in the first few counts he will probably need allot of transfers from other but where ? Only possibly is Wadding the two of them have had a sorta little pact going on as the only "genuine working class socialist left candidates"

kneemos

Could see Murphy getting the SF protest votes,Lord help us.

Vargulf

Uncle Pierre wrote: »

Think all would agree it’s looking more and more likely that Johnny Mythen will win a seat for SF. Which I think is a bit bizarre given that the people of Enniscorthy didn’t support him enough last year to even allow him hold his council seat.

Basically looks like a case of people in his home base not voting for him in any great numbers because they know what he’s like, but that he still has a great chance of winning a seat because people in other areas who know nothing about him will vote for him purely because he’s the SF candidate.

I don’t want to make things personal but honestly can’t see him being a very effective TD if he wasn’t even an effective enough councillor to hold his seat there.

As someone living in South Wexford can you enlighten me as why people in Enniscorthy won't vote for him because they know what he's like?

Uncle Pierre

kneemos wrote: »

Could see Murphy getting the SF protest votes,Lord help us.

Murphy should write Mick Wallace a big “thank you” card, because if he hadn’t gone to Europe, she wouldn’t be in with a shout at all.

All she was ever intended to be when she was first selected for the FG ticket was a token third candidate behind two sitting TDs. Furthermore, she was to be a token female candidate, to help the party meet its gender quota obligation, in the same way that the last General Election had Julie Hogan on the party ticket. Remember her? The vast majority of people would say no. Which proves the point I’m making.

But then Wallace went off to Europe, the by-election happened, and she was suddenly thrust into the limelight a hell of a lot more than anybody ever envisaged.

If it hadn’t happened, she’d never have had the same platform to speak on the immigration issue or get such attention for it. Instead, there’d be no more focus on her than there is for the likes of the FF “additional” candidates like Lisa McDonald or Michael Sheehan right now.

And after being stood down by the party, she’s now seen as an anti-FG candidate too, so she’s likely to win votes from two significant quarters:
1 - People inclined to agree with her on the immigration issue (same sort of people who voted for Peter Casey in the Presidential Election)
2 – Protest voters who want to give FG a “kick” and who see her as the ideal choice since “a vote for Verona is a kick in the teeth to FG”

If it hadn’t been for Wallace and the by-election, neither of those things would apply. So as I said at the top, she has a lot to thank him for.

Uncle Pierre

Vargulf wrote: »

As someone living in South Wexford can you enlighten me as why people in Enniscorthy won't vote for him because they know what he's like?

I said I wouldn't make this personal so I won’t comment on things I’ve heard about the man himself, and will instead just suggest that the figures speak for themselves:

In 2014, when he first ran in the Local Elections, he swept in with more than 1,800 votes.

Last year, when he stood for re-election, his vote collapsed to only a little more than 800.

That means that in just five years, some 1,000 people out of 1,800 (or 55% of them) saw, heard, or experienced enough of him to think “I’m not going to vote for him again”.

He’s done nothing in Enniscorthy since the Locals last year to suggest there’ll suddenly be a huge upswing of support for him again. So if he’s going to be in the shake-up for a Dáil seat, it’ll be down to votes received from the rest of the county. And as I said, those votes will be coming mainly from people who vote for him purely because he’s the SF candidate, rather than them knowing anything about the man himself.

Those who know him best, in his home base, spoke pretty loudly last year on what they think of him after seeing him in action.