You’re oh up the poll!

Politics is all swings and roundabouts. 3 weeks out from polling it seems the election is only starting.  Initial polls suggested that the European election in Ireland South was all over. It would be a slam dunk job for FF, SF and FG as they would share out the seats. But if a week is a long time in politics, what difference does a day make?  A lot!

I’ve a lot of time for Phil Prendergast, she’s got a lot of strong selling points. In a local election where she is the only MEP who lives in the region, I find it easy to ask people to vote local for her so as to keep an MEP in the south east.  I recently listened to the SF candidate on local radio complain about how the east coast had done so well and that Cork and Kerry lagged behind. That was an unintended compliment to Labour on how Wexford has seen hospitals built, schools rolled out and a new garda station ready to go, not remind the bypasses of Enniscorthy and New Ross which get under way soon while the N11 through Wicklow is well under way.

Despite the gaffe of complaining on the east coast as to how well she thinks it’s doing, the daughter of the famous composer Séan Ó Riada seems set for victory while her leader languishes in custody.   Wexford seems to be at the kernel of the electoral battle. FG’s Simon Harris is seen as a greater Dublin candidate while I’ve seen Deirdre Clune’s battle bus and Séan Kelly’s van make separate forays into town as they slug it out for votes. 

Kelly is seen as attracting a south west/mid west vote while Clune is seen as targeting rural voters and Cork.  If Brian Crowley can attract a huge personal vote where will his transfers go? Clune can expect some as can Ní Riada while his running mate Kieran Hartley who campaigns against pylons has yet to electrify his campaign.

So there is a space for Phil Prendergast, nobody else running in the south east where there has not been an MEP since Avril Doyle retired.  I hope that the emphasis in the south east is on the need for local representation at EU level and not one of where Wexford is seen as a handy notch on the political belt of candidates that previously showed little interest in the place.

Tales from the canvas 2014

Doesn’t seem like 5 years since I first used this title to get across the mood of a local election, but while times move on the local elections are always about personalities and local issues.  It’s not about changing a government it’s about how your community is run. 

Local elections are the food and drink of a local community, none more so than to a local paper.   Elections are often seen not just as a huge potential for extra advertising but also extra sales. While  candidates compete for votes, editors who have been quietly nursing their egos in tandem with the electoral cycle are also shaping up to do battle.  And to tell the truth these men of letters (not that they print too many from their readers) leave many a candidate in the halfpenny place.

The real stars of a low profile local elections campaign so far this year in Wexford have been without a doubt, the local papers, They have been following a clear strategy of ignoring many candidates press releases but simultaneously sending candidates rate cards for advertising.  It used to be the case that a local papers job was to report news  and views.  If you are a councillor you have at least some chance and a profile.  If you are not then tough! Of all the elections I’ve been involved in I’ve rarely seen so little coverage of the candidates.   Is it that if you want publicity for any issue, you can forget it?

 Regardless of whether a candidate has good news or bad news you can keep it for yourself unless you are going to pay for an ad. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times in the last 3 months I’ve read anything about a new candidate. My own colleague Bernie Mullen is a case in point. She works hard in Rosslare, has been knocking doors for months but you don’t read about her because somewhere between the reporters keyboards and the paper being set, she seems to disappear.

And it’s not as if there isn’t a shortage of publications. 2 local papers and one free sheet were the staple for many years. Let me declare an interest here, I write a column for one new free sheet “The Weisfjord Newspaper and Advertiser” which launched in December.  Last week 2 were launched; “The Chronicle” owned and managed by Ger Walsh formerly of a local paper and mysteriously on the same day “The Co Wexford Reporter” which looks remarkably like one of the local papers and which is, according to those in the know, a spoiler to undermine “The Chronicle”.  If you think that politicians are the only ones that fall out, think again. It seems us public representatives are only trotting behind the bruised egos in publishing.   As far as I know no new journalist has been taken on by any newspaper so presumably extra productivity or old pictures are delivering the “news”.  One wide of the mark headline already suggests the end of rail services to Wexford,  Not on my watch!

All great for the readers and the letter boxes of the town as election material competes with newspapers for the attention of the few in the town with an interest in current affairs. As one wag on the doorstep said to me; “My dog is having a field day as he waits by the letter box for the next paper for him to drop in for him to chew up”.   As a consequence I’m knocking doors and handing the election material into the voter’s hands.

There is of course the alternative of publishing online.  Is it any wonder that more and more people are going online to get their news first? It gives the reader the chance to find out what is really going on and to get behind the news and even the newspaper itself?  And there is the chance that you just might find out online what some of the candidates at the local election really think!

And So they're off!

Believe it or not there is slightly more than 100 days left to polling in the local elections.  You wouldn’t think it given the weather we have. Polling will be on Friday May 23^rd. So at this stage you’d expect all the parties to have nominated and have their candidates up and run

Well , not quite so. Labour and Sinn Fein have nominated candidates in Wexford while the big two Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are evidently taking the scenic route to putting  a full team out on the pitch.  Add to that the number of independents who are likely to be on the ballot paper. Some have dropped out already, others have yet to decide. I’ve always wondered what Independent really means? Is it someone only interested in serving their community, or disgruntled at what a former party might have done?

Clearly the electorate aren’t interested in political ego’s and hobby horses.  What strikes me from knocking doors is that people are happy to engage on local issues. They want representation in their council.  They also want vision and are fed up listening to negativity.  The electorate accepts that councillors have no input in government policy, as one woman said to me recently “No party is popular but at least we see our councillor”. However a councillor for a government party is in a better position to go and set out problems to a minister than an opposition councillor can be.

And there’s the rub. All politics is local but not all local politics is based on national issues. There are plenty of local issues in Wexford politics that have moved off the political agenda in the last 3 years. The future of Wexford’s General Hospital is secure since early in the governments term, it was secured by Brendan Howlin and its future was the key election issue in 2011.  The announcement by the government before Christmas of more SNA’s removes another area of concern in Wexford.  Extra jobs for Wexford at Eischtec, Wexford Creamery, as well as projects like the new school builds, garda station will at least stabilise the local economy at what has been a time of national crisis.

So what about the future? That is what an election is supposed to be about! Some people will have you think  they want a re-run of the 2011 General Election (often people who opposed re-running referenda, but let’s pass on that one!)  

How can it be different? It’s the manifesto that sets out what the party will do when elected.  I genuinely believe that a local election is more important than a national election. That’s because more people have the right to vote and the councillor is more accessible and their impact more immediate. So it should be about how Wexford can maintain its position as the primary town in the county and how this can continue given that it will lose its council. It’s time we woke up to this and moved past the petty predictable guff that passes for politics in Wexford town.  

So let’s spell out how you can significantly transform Wexford. Merge the 2  IT’s in Carlow and Waterford into a university and base a school of it in Wexford.  We know that if you have a university you can base industries around it.  Provide the basis for Rosslare Europort to compete as a major container port on the national stage and use all the transport infrastructure to open it out, road and rail. Balance that in rural areas with the restoration of the beet industry and you have a rejuvenated Wexford developing in a sustainable way that is better able to withstand a slump than the old model which was built primarily on speculation and construction. It was a model I always felt was unsustainable. We can build a better Wexford one that can last regardless of outside economic shocks.

At the hustings

It’s exactly 10 years ago since I was first elected by Labour members to stand in the local elections.  Getting selected early was a great advantage in winning a seat.  At the time I was relatively unknown and had a job to do. Being selected meant I could get out and get organised.  Being selected is the easy bit, you’ve still got to find your vote.  So ten years on,  with a significantly different local authority and election ahead old ways what worked well then will still work today, other parties will have their own strategy.

Our ticket is significantly different to 2004. Ted Howlin is retiring from the council. Ted has been the cornerstone of the Labour Party in the council or years.  A rock of good sense and a cool head in the middle of a storm.  He first stood for election in 1974, the Howlin name has been on the ballot paper for 70 years in Wexford.  This election will see household names in Wexford missing from the ballot paper as others make up their minds on whether to stand or not. Fine Gael’s Pat Codd is the latest to retire as boundaries have taken his voters away from Wexford District. Padge Reck has also indicated he’s not going to stand.

Current Mayor George Lawlor who needs no introduction to anyone interested in politics in Wexford, joins me on the Labour ticket along with Bernie Mullen from Rosslare Harbour.  Bernie is active in TOPS as well as being involved in the maritime museum in the Harbour. She has a good base that has no current councillor. She’ll do well.

There is a lot of optimism in the Labour camp about our chances in Wexford District.  Selection conferences will be held in each of the other wards before Christmas as our team goes into action.  So more later on that.  Ger Carthy the son of the late Leo Carthy has also announced his intention to stand while People Before Profit/Socialist Workers Party selected Deirdre Wadding.  Another candidate who had previously declared has already withdrawn so the field is not yet clear and there will be I’m sure comings and goings to the political field for 2014. One thing’s for sure swords will be crossed!

The response on the doorstep is quite surprising. The perception that Labour candidates are being blamed and abused as Fianna Fail were during the general election is wide of the mark from my experience. The anger and the shame of the breaking of our country by Fianna Fail is still there, in my experience that is greater than any negativity towards Labour.  I envy those with the time to take the electorate for granted and who predict Labour will be wiped out with no TD’s and just 45 councillors. Nobody has voted yet.