Why doesn't anyone call the current government a "Rainbow Government" ?

It's a 3 party government like the 94/97 one

At the time of the government formation in 1994, there were tangible differences between Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left; Democratic Left had not long split from the Marxist Workers Party, Labour had just hoofed Reynolds out the door and John Bruton was hanging a photo of John Redmond on his wall.

Whereas, nowadays, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are the same party and the Greens are the vegetarian option.

RandomViewer

Shades of blue is hardly a rainbow

AllForIt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909868#Comment_117909868

Exactly. I understand the FF party had a conference recently to create an identity for themselves, because nobody knows what they are anymore.

I hope they come up with something coherent, because I don't want to vote for SF but I might to kick out our current directionless incoherent government.

Incidentally, proportional representation is what has led to this disastrous government. Our PR system has to be reviewed, because noone actually had a say in what government we ended up with. How ironic is that. It either has to be tweeked, or get rid of PR altogether.

Jinglejangle69

Yawn.... zzzzzz

AllForIt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909894#Comment_117909894

What? You don't think the state of our government is important? Have a nice sleepy life then; I envy you in a way.

Jinglejangle69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909902#Comment_117909902

The government isn't here to guide you through life and hold your hand.

You will realise that soon.

KaneToad

Not LGBTQI+ enough?

StupidLikeAFox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909892#Comment_117909892

What would you replace PRSTV with?

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909937#Comment_117909937

PRSTV is one of the best things we have in this country. I wouldn't touch it at all.

J.O. Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117910385#Comment_117910385

It works well, take the last election almost a 3 way tie for first preferences reflected in seats won. It's about as fair as proportional representation gets.

From now on Fianna Fail and Fine Gael coalitions are a genuine possibility and voters will know that. It will be interesting to see how it affects elections in the coming years.

First past the post delivers majority governments in the UK but in that case you get huge majorities that only a minority actually voted for.

If we ever binned PRSTV I'd never cast another ballot again.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909868#Comment_117909868

Brilliant! 😀

McMurphy

Coalition of chaos and confusion has a better ring to it.

AllForIt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909937#Comment_117909937

I have a few ideas on improving on PR. Deserves a thread of it's own.

As it is, the greens are in gov and SF arn't. How can that be right, given their respective votes?

StupidLikeAFox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117913047#Comment_117913047

You need 80 seats for a majority and sinn fein only ran 42 candidates - how did you/they expect it to turn out?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Three different shades of the same colour is hardly a rainbow! It's more likely a monochrome government.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058209454/why-doesnt-anyone-call-the-current-government-a-rainbow-government

We had three-party government in 2007-2009 as well. And of course we had governments of three (or more) parties in 1948-51 and 1954-57.

This is a common enough occurrence that it's not remarkable enough to require a special term. The "Rainbow Coalition" was one particular three-party government, not any three-party government.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909892#Comment_117909892

Coalition governments are the norm in democracies.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_coalition_governments

we do of course have a say the coalition represents the voters. This is unlike many FPTP systems

in parliamentary democracies we elect members to choose governments, we don’t directly elect the government

fly_agaric

I think "rainbow" was meant to represent fact that the coalition members at that time spanned the available political spectrum.

There is no left wing party in current coalition. All 3 parties are centre right. FF/FG are almost identical. Used to be said jokingly, but now it is undeniable. Greens are often a left wing party economically, but not really in Ireland. Our Greens are centre right IMO. They are for FF/FG/former PD voters who worry about the environment (or in some cases, affect that they do!).

UsBus

It's not a rainbow because the majority of the country don't give a stuff about the Green party.

J.O. Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117914003#Comment_117914003

The greens in Ireland probably are the furthest left of the 3 however in government negotiations they have to sacrifice any real input on economic policy to the larger partners and focus on the green policies. It's the green policies rather than economic ones which got them elected.

fly_agaric

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117914755#Comment_117914755

Yes they are probably the furthest left. Esp. on "social" issues (feminism, the Catholic Church, immigration etc), but then there is a near consensus on that stuff among the parties in Ireland now (they've all robbed a few of Labour's old clothes or the entire wardrobe). I just look at the constituencies that vote Green/where alot of the elected reps. are, and it suggests strongly to me that whatever they want from their Green TDs, it is not left wing economic policies!