General Election Thread

[Pain Medicine]

Otherwise, I thought Aontù would do a lot better than they did but it wasn't to be. I'm not mad about them but I thought it was preferable to another far left mudguard making us poorer at every turn

Look like they might pick up a 2nd seat in Mayo. Also close in Dublin West but now looking more like Rodric will hold on. More importantly I think with this result they will be eligible for state funding the next go around.

[astfgyl]

Indeed they will, which will help them but it's a very slow game and I'd be personally hoping for something a bit more charismatic to coalesce the opposition next time out

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

https://x.com/Caolanmcaree/status/1863301319584321801
 

[The Heretic]

I hope the sheeple enjoy their new stealth taxes, broadcasting charge and continuing "fuck you pay me" approach to the children's hospital.

[open face surgery]

Cuntish enough. Lowest voter turnout in 100 years. If you didn't vote, you're not in a position to criticise.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Tis annoying to see either arse cheek of FFG in pole position, but speaking of historic worsts, FF are number one on the back of their second worst 1st pref performance in history (2011 was their worst). The decline may be going slowly, but tis still going surely all the same. For the moment anyway.

[The Heretic]

Myself and the missus were discussing last night but is there any appetite for mandatory voting to get people off their holes and participate?

[John Kimble]

Some commentator on Newstalk the other day made the point that there's a reluctance among the left to accept the primacy of SF as the major left party in this country. This fragmentation among the left means they're absolutely incapable of mounting a serious challenge to the established status quo. I think there's a degree of merit to that argument. Not that I particularly want a leftist government or anything, but the likes of PBP, for all their bluster, seem  content to sit on the sidelines. What's the point of coming up with a program for government etc when there's zero chance of ever making any meaningful change? As long as FF/FG are will to do business with each other, nothing will change without a decent opposition.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

I got the impression PBP were most instrumental in the 'vote left transfer left' movement (which really worked in a lot of constituencies) and that the bigger left leaning parties were the less enthusiastic for it..? After the 'success' of a left alliance in France, Paul Murphy was the first to suggest doing similar in Ireland. If anything, it could maybe be argued that SF themselves are the ones who still need to decide to fully don the mantle of being the major left party.

[John Kimble]

You could be right, I don't really follow this stuff closely enough to give a properly informed opinion, it was just something I picked up on the other day off the radio. That said though, regardless of who's engaging with who on the left, they probably need to work together in order to pose any real alternative to the FF/FG partnership. This result was depressingly inevitable.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

"It reminded me of a hurling match... because it could have been a different result," Thomas Gould, Sinn Féin.

"There's no point in standing on the sidelines. You've got to consider going on the pitch and playing," Alan Kelly, Labour.

At least they agree on worn-out metaphors! 

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

And the final spread, SF scraping through to 2nd place:

The final seats have been filled for the 34th Dáil.

Fianna Fail 48

Fine Gael 38

Sinn Féin 39

Independents 16

Labour 11

Social Democrats 11

PBP-Solidarity has three seats

Aontú has two seats

Independent Ireland is on four seats

100% Redress Party has one seat

[The Butcher]

I think this has possibly been the worst election I've witnessed in my lifetime....2007 is close though 

Turnout of 59.7%, marking the lowest since 1923...at least we've gone from FF alone getting about 41% back in 2002 and within 20 years FF/FG are now struggling to get that COMBINED. They are attached to the hip now unless something drastic happens but this has given the opposition a chance to build since 2016 and have utterly failed to do so. I mean what did SF really promote in terms of policies that people could get behind and get excited about? Tinkering around the edges in terms of budgetary measures and that they would build 50 BILLION more housing units? We didn't have a viable opposition for the last number of years, very very poor and all the left leaning parties, too fragmented and way too many of them splitting the votes because of ego/narcissism/stupidity. Same can go for "others".

Apathy, a plague on all your houses and the devil you know seems to be the theme of this election. I look forward to the absolute disaster of the next government 🙂 FF/FG first stop will be enticing Labour in, then SocDems or if that all fails, go with some dopey Indos like the Healy Raes.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

words schmwords and all that, but Marie Sherlock said tonight that Labour won't be number fillers for FFG:
https://x.com/RTEUpfront/status/1863716688056684767

if Labour do refuse on some kind of "moral" ground, Soc Dems will look awful shitehawks if they accept.

could a "left alliance" try to strong arm FG out of the equation? giving something like FF-SF-SD-Labour?

[Mithrandir]

Cuntish enough. Lowest voter turnout in 100 years. If you didn't vote, you're not in a position to criticise.

That's mental, especially with the state of the place.