Will the Social Democrats ever go into government?

Shan Doras

With yesterdays announcement that Roisin  Shortall and Catherine Murphy won't contest the next general election, it would make one wonder if the party has any intention of ever "playing senior hurling" , Holly Cairn's retainng her seat isn't a safe bet and regardless, she's going to be on maternity leave in the coming months, so Shortall and Murphy would be certain to be instrumental in negotiating a program for government and bag themselves senior cabinet posts if the party went into government so the fact that they are retiring makes it look likely that it will be another term on the permanent opposition benches beside Richard Boyd and Paul Murphy.

ELM327

No

/thread

keeponhurling

It's very unlikely after the upcoming election.

But never say never. To be in government they don't necessarily need to be a senior coalition partner.

If they could win 3-5 seats and the numbers fall nicely for them, they could be kingmakers.

archfi

Hopefully not

Galwayguy35

No.

Much easier for posh Cairns to read off her hymn sheet over on the opposition benches.

Silentcorner

They've no need to really, there's an army of NGOs who push policies closely aligned with SD policies….they get to sit on the fence and moan about the lack of women in politics knowing the NGOs have direct control on Government policies…it's both clever and completely dishonest at the same time.

You'd imagine they got a shock back in March but instead they became vocal about the HateSpeech laws….

It's like those morons who go on about the "oppression" of the patriarchy at the same time as actively shutting up political opponents. (there was a pro life march on in Dublin yesterday, and you know who had to counter protest it, they counterprotest everyone they disagree with and scream oppression at the same time, like children really)

ednwireland

looks like the social Democrats aren't too keen on free speech in their party

https://www.thetimes.com/world/ireland-world/article/social-democrats-use-of-ndas-limits-freedom-of-expression-says-legal-expert-w9wrgpljp#:~:text=One%20NDA%2C%20used%20by%20the,office%20of%20the%20Social%20Democrats

Photobox

Fingers crossed they won't 🤞

archfi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122351943#Comment_122351943

Surprise, surprise.

Not.

4-6% of voters think they're great, regardless.

Jim2007

No, because no party serious about being in government would waste time trying to negotiate with them when there will be a couple of independents happy to vote with the government in exchange for addressing a couple of local issues so they have something to crow about in the next election.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122353315#Comment_122353315

Fine if (as is looking quite likely) FF/FG are only two or three TDs short of a workable majority. But when you're looking at a government dependent of the support of 8, 10, 12 independents things get hairy. FF/FG could in theory have put together a government with the support of independents in the current Dail but AFAIK the prospect was never seriously considered. Far preferable, apparently was to recruit a solid, pragmatic soft-left party with a sizeable bloc of TDs that could be (largely) relied on to provide unified support for the government on difficult votes. For the Greens in the 33rd Dail read the Soc Dems in the 34th?

dulpit

I hope they go into government if the opportunity is there. If they had say 5-10 TDs and that was needed to get a majority, they can legitimately use that to get key policies into a programme for government. But they'd have to acknowledge that they are a small cog then in the larger government and that means compromising on other policies.

The greens have done this, the PDs did it in the past.

I can see them being too pure though, and will prefer to remain in opposition with none of their policies being implemented rather than going into government and getting some done.

I can see a scenario where the greens, labour or the Soc Dems could form the last bit needed for the government to be formed. If that was the case (where only 1 party is needed) then I would view it that labour will be first volunteers, greens 2nd and Soc Dems last.

If I saw that Soc Dems were actually keen to govern I'd strongly look at giving them a number 1. As it is, labour is where I'm at.

Babyreignbow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122353256#Comment_122353256

The article is behind a paywall, however Cairns discussed the issue with repect to GDPR and party members having access to sensitive information via their branches and implementing policies in alignment with gdpr guidelines to protect other peoples private and personal data. It is in the process of being amended as a result of reviewing it to ensure it doesn't intrinsically affect anyones rights. The rest of the stuff about gender based violence and hate speech laws really sums up the direction of the narrative here though. Best of luck gents.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122354175#Comment_122354175

I can see a scenario where the greens, labour or the Soc Dems could form the last bit needed for the government to be formed. If that was the case (where only 1 party is needed) then I would view it that labour will be first volunteers, greens 2nd and Soc Dems last.

Yeah but even if this is the case it's quite likely, notwithstanding the departures of Shortall & Murphy, that the Soc Dems will have more seats that Labour and Greens put together. So even if there is this greater reluctance on the part of the Soc Dems than the other two to soil their hands with the business of government, it's quite likely they would be the ones making up the last piece of the jigsaw…

hoodie6029

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122351321#Comment_122351321

What’s the problem with having a counter protest at any demonstration? It’s par for the course with protesting really.

csirl

Murphy and Shorthall retiring will be a huge blow to the party. They may struggle to survive. PDs didnt survive Harney and McDowell taking a backseat. DL merged with Labour when their old guard started to retire. History is against their long term survival. They're also in a very crowded space competing with Greens and Labour.

Babyreignbow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122355010#Comment_122355010

According to Shorthall it's about providing choice for people.

“I think in for the foreseeable future, we’re going to have coalition governments where it’s a broader spectrum of views represented, and it allows for more collaboration at political level, and that’s a good thing.

“That’s what we’re about in the Social Democrats – providing better new choice for people. We’re following  the traditional social democratic model, which is about really honest politics and the fairest society,” she added.

Of course it's going to offend people who want to limit peoples choices though.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122353979#Comment_122353979

The Greens are no different to independents a limited number of issues, no infighting or dogma, so easy to deal with.

Bobson Dugnutt

The Labour Party for slow learners.

Silentcorner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122354627#Comment_122354627

I've no problem, altho it often goes further than a counterprotest and borders on harassment. But you can't counter-protest every protest you don't like and simultaneously claim to be oppressed.

If you are oppressed you wouldn't be able to protest, let alone counter protest.

On another note, I'd recommend tuning into them during their Ard Fheis for a good skit. Last time, the slogan was "Sex, drugs and Politics"….one of their senior party members describes herself (on her twitter account) "Feminist, Socialist and an absolute ride"…. they remind me of the singing priests back from way back when!!!

You can't take these people seriously when they don't take themselves seriously.

Babyreignbow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122355682#Comment_122355682

source?