SocDem leadership

loyatemu

https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2023/02/22/social-democrats-to-hold-leadership-election-as-murphy-and-shortall-step-down/

They have some good representatives, but what is the point of the SDs, what do they represent that Labour does not?

They'll almost certainly end up merging with Labour eventually, maybe they should just get on with it...

blanch152

It will be interesting to see what they do.

A merger back into Labour was not possible under the leadership of Murphy and Shortall, and while Kelly was leader of Labour not a possibility either.

However, say Cairns and Bacik might view things differently. LSD party maybe?

Calahonda52

LSD party maybe... indeed

Lysergic acid diethylamide

scrumqueen

The POINT of the SDs is that they arent Labour, and for a good deal of people that actually means something.

Cairns is popular and incredibly capable, and I hope her recent harassment she has experienced doesn't stop her from running. Gannon is also a strong contender. I do hope though that the party moves away from this joint leadership nonsense.

Danzy

It would be tolerable if they merged into the SDLP.

loyatemu

I do hope though that the party moves away from this joint leadership nonsense.

surely they will, a party that can't even decide who their leader is doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275952#Comment_120275952

Yup, that would be nice. Create another truly all-Ireland party and tidy things up on the left.

Shame that the SDLP have already thrown their lot in with FF for some reason.

Bishop of hope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276042#Comment_120276042

Not unbelievable that such a jump coymuld be made by an SD TD, wasn't Stephen Donnelly in the SDs, enough said

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276042#Comment_120276042

The SDLP-FF relationship is over; it never passed a party conference either so was really only a proposal.

SDLPs sister party is Labour, most senior SDLP members are Labour members; it wouldn't be fully reciprocated but there are still some senior Labour members also in the SDLP. A three way merger may be possible, but SD-SDLP won't happen.

AlanG

The challenge for the SD and labour to a degree is that they should be attractive to middle income workers but they are viewed as pandering to social media when it comes to border security and welfare for the free forever home brigade. This approach may insulate them for abuse on twitter but it pushes their natural base to FF and FG as they really don't want to be funding these policies with no limits. Meanwhile SF already have the market sown up among those who believe in the money tree.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120294635#Comment_120294635

There's an awful lot of projection going on here.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120294750#Comment_120294750

Yeah poster wants SDs to adopt policies that would position them to the right of FF and FG. How would that work out for a party called the Social Democrats?

Sleepy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275932#Comment_120275932

Bacik is Labour's biggest electoral problem imo. You can't win a significant part of the electorate when you hate half the population on the basis of their gender.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120294874#Comment_120294874

Oh I agree, remember her from student politics, back then she was divisive too.

Sleepy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120294926#Comment_120294926

Divisive is a nice way to put it. She deliberately and knowingly mis-represented her electorate.

loyatemu

she's an improvement on Kelly who came across badly in pretty much every appearance he made (and by most account is a d*ck). Most people aren't that aware of her past as a student leader and senator. She's unlikely to provide much of a boost for Labour though.

Anyway, SDs have decided that leadership elections are for other parties and Cairns has got the job by default unniversal acclaim.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120297121#Comment_120297121

In fairness - they've only got 4 eligible TDs so the fact that there's going to be no leadership election is more a matter of practicalities than some kind of democratic deficit. When you only have a handful of TDs then you're probably all going to have a good sense of who the natural leader is and cohesion is going to be more important than it would eb for larger parties. Labour faced the same issue themselves last time around and dealt with it the same way.

L1011

I actually know of someone who left Labour and joined the Soc Dems specifically and solely because of Howlin being appointed without a leadership election; claiming that there should always be an election for such a role. I wonder if they're going to move on again now!

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120297344#Comment_120297344

If they don't jump ship again then you'll know for sure that they just didn't like Brendan Howling but wanted to sound like they were leaving for more high minded reasons.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120297408#Comment_120297408

I think they wanted Alan Kelly; but didn't come back when they had the chance to have Alan Kelly.