The wondrous adventures of Sinn Fein (part 3) Mod Notes and Threadbanned List in OP

Not really, it's extremely on brand for SF.

Making big bank over there too.

Sinn Féin are leading popular polls but everyone has doubts about them.

Are they as bad as we fear?

My biggest fear from SF would be that they would start chipping away at our democracy.

They are fans of Castro after all.

And look at their own internal elections, none of Mary Lou or Michelle O'Neill actually were elected as party leader, they were both nominated and ratified.

And there was never a heave against Adams regardless of how much baggage he had.

Other party leaders would not have survived what he survived.

So I'd be very cautious of any moves they might make when it comes to elections, courts, the constitution etc.

That being said the same concerns surrounded FF when they came in from the cold in the 1930s and thankful they were unfounded.

It's opinions like this that will get SF into government.

But whether the poster quoted will be happy with a few years of SFs performance in government is another thing.

Fair point.

Does that not apply to Northern Ireland too though?

Sinn Féin has been up there for a while and I don't see anything they've done there that we need here.

I think SF leading a government would be great as they'd be shown up for the populist they are. Any talk about the IRA is mostly redundant now, though there some still serious dodgy figures within their ranks.

An organised crime gang in government ?

no thanks

I don’t think they are a party for the average working man, seem to lean very towards the “free **** for everyone” mindset and seem to be a wet dream for the layabouts who have never worked and have no intention of working. It’s an absolute no from me on those grounds alone.

I will definitely be voting for SF in the next election. I actually had this discussion with my intake of trainee solicitors recently and there were maybe 2/40 who would vote for a candidate from one of coalition parties in the next election.

The majority of us come from fairly affluent backgrounds and we are likely have six figure salaries once we qualify + have a few years of experience under our belts. The risk of not being able to afford a nice home for a reasonable price far outweighs any reservations about SF's past.

I'd love to watch them crash and burn in Government, but the Country can't afford that blip, not in the current instability anyway.

The election is not until Feb 2025 (and don't listen to anyone who says this Govt won't last, the parties have no choice but to make it last, at any cost). By then, the economy will be roaring and hopefully some of the structural issues will have begun to improve. There's no reason for anyone to risk that, but those that will risk it certainly won't add up to 60 seats. Maybe 45 on a good day.

What is forgotten in these regular opinion polls, is the seat bonus phenomenon. SF can barely string together enough candidates that can speak english and breathe unprompted for one per constituency, let alone two.

39 constituencies, 61 seats? Not in a million years. Even for my projection of 45, they'd have to bonus outside of their heartland working class sink estates and ghettos and I just don't see that. Add to that, they haven't a prayer of even one seat in 15-20 constituencies, so the conversion of popularity to seats is even more difficult.

Are they that bad? We probably won't find out in my lifetime.

In Ireland's case what are we really trying to change?

What collateral damage are we willing to accept for populism?

But how are SF going to make housing affordable ?