Actum non verba

Just when you think Irish politics can’t get more bizarre this happens! The decision of the former Labour Chairperson ColmKeaveney to join the party he’s attacked vehemently in the recent past, Fianna Fail, is one of the most extraordinarily summersaults in Irish politics in many’s a long year.  But I’d rather play the ball than the man on this one! So let’s look at some of the balls that Colm has hopped recently.  Firstly however, I felt let down by Colm by the manner of his resignation from Labour in Spring, I can understand someone having a row with party colleagues and indeed resigning the whip. I can live with a political difference within the party and a robust debate on values, but for most members I think resigning and attacking our party which he chaired was an act of betrayal of the votes of conference in Galway.  A Rubicon was passed. I’m old enough to remember Michael D as Party Chairperson in the 80’s and while he had differences over strategy he never undermined the Labour Party by voting against it.

 And it was a difficult conference last year. Unlike the recent conference in Kerry where there was no protests outside, last year in Galway saw thousands of protesters many of them Sinn Fein members (who next month will be cutting the Northern budget by €6M per month) and a lock down as they attacked gardaí in duty outside the conference hall.   But look that’s my problem and I’ll have to gt over it.  Colm has himself criticised Fianna Fail much more strongly and much more loudly than I ever did.  I note on his resignation June he highlighted the decision by Ruairi Quinn to reduce resource teachers (subsequently reversed as the likes of me lobbied against it) and can’t avoid the irony that tonight the government approved an increase in the number of SNA’s and that Colm has the job as Fianna Fail spokesperson on Special Needs to carefully craft Fianna Fail’s response to the reality that in circumstances where FF thrashed the economy the present government can go beyond the best FF could offer in 2011.

It will be indeed strange to find out from Fianna Fail how, according to Colm, it has changed.  It’s not too long ago that FF senators opposed the FF leader’s line on abortion, Colm himself as USI President had no difficulty with supporting  the right to choose (a direction that would concern me) but recently he had a change of mind when the limited protection of life bill was introduced, a bill that was part of the Labour manifesto in 2011 which he sought votes on!   Will his capture by FF revitalise the party? Nobody can answer that yet but there may be other forces stronger than Colm at play already in FF.  It seems many of the people that played a key role in the old Fianna Fail don’t share Colm’s view and they are just itching to run again to pick up where they left off in 2011!

Fianna Fail is still significantly below the vote they secured in 2009 and may not get the bounce they expect when voters go to the polls in May.  It’s at that stage Colm’s famous tweet of “Actum non verbum” may come back to haunt him. What happens if FF hit the double dip and drop in votes?  Actions not words. Whose actions and whose words? Time will tell!

They haven’t gone away you know

I remember the day that the Troika arrived very well. I was Mayor of Wexford at the time and it coincided with a conference of the Wexford Educational Network at which I was asked to speak.  While the country was transfixed by the economic crisis I focused instead in my remarks on 2 shocking incidents that week where 4 children had died violent deaths in that snowy week and the need to put children at the centre of welfare.

I’m reminded of the famous day when Fianna Fail ministers denied the reality of their betrayal of the people because this week we’re at last starting to see the end of that bleak period in our history.   However the Ireland that is emerging from this period is significantly changed socially and economically from the country that crashed into the fiscal wall of 2010.  And while everything has moved on politically and economically from that period there still are issues that need to be tackled.  So as we leave the straightjacket that Fianna Fail locked ourselves into 3 years ago there remains the challenge of  dealing with our societal values.  Perhaps a troika of therapists are now needed to advise on how best to re-organise our state?

Ireland is not just an open economy, it’s a European post colonial state.  Brenán Ó h-Either in his brilliant book assessing the Irish psyche in the 80’s attributes much of our collective attitude to begrudgery. He linked that to cynicism and the Irish sense of self reliance or distrust of authority.  If Ó h-Either was alive now I imagine he’d add anger to that Troika!

There is a lot of anger out there, anger towards politics primarily but also a wider anger towards society. Just listen to liveline and you’ll get an earful of it any day of the week.  It is a growing anger that needs to be challenged.  At its core there is the big lie of they’re all the same.  Fianna Fail were masters of that line for years. It was their defence to anyone who challenged them.  During the week someone said to me that they were considering voting Fianna Fail again as the people who were responsible for the economic betrayal were all gone.  I asked them who was leading Fianna Fail and why was it that they have no Deputy Leader? Was Michéal Martin not in office from 1997-2011 and was it not the case that they have no deputy leader as that would put another of the old guard in the media spotlight?

And the more things change the same it is! So welcome back John O’Donghue, Mary Coughlan, Mary Hanafin. Willie O’Dea, Micheal Martin and Eamon Ó Cuiv are already waiting for you. Unless they’ve learnt something from their past then they are of little use to the state. Indeed their release from the self imposed period of solitary confinement  can only add to the anger and cynicism as most people understand that real issues that affect real people’s lives need to be addressed from 2014 onwards; jobs and employment.  That’s the landscape that dominates politics now, at a local level and national.  Ironic that those who lost their own job so dramatically in 2011 now believe they have the solution to the problems all along.

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.  

Standing on the shoulder of a giant

A long time since I’ve last blogged and a lot has happened, Wexford Labour has 3 new councillors but sadly we’ve lost our good colleague and friend Pat Cody over the Summer.  I first heard Pat on the local radio in early 2009 speaking about the need for a pedestrian crossing in Oylgate.  It brought a huge amount of pride around our breakfast table that Labour had a credible and articulate voice in Enniscorthy.  Pat subsequently was elected with ease to Enniscorthy Town Council and Wexford County Council.  Pat was an outstanding advocate on mental health for the county as he worked in St Senans Mental hospital in Enniscorthy.  He was also a committed trade unionist who cared enormously about how society affects ordinary people that do ordinary jobs in ordinary places.  You don’t see the likes of him on Prime Time but every town needs someone like Pat;  generous in his time while committed to his wife and daughter.  Pat subsequently ran in the 2011 General Election and got a very credible 3,300 first preferences on what was his last election.  I voted for him and transferred to Brendan Howlin so as to maximise the Labour

vote.

Pat was a Kilkenny man who was elected in 2009 to represent the part of Wexford that prides itself on being the heartbeat of Wexford hurling, Enniscorthy District. Each September without fail Pat would be gently ribbed in the council chamber as Kilkenny relentlessly clocked up Hurling All Ireland after All Ireland. Pat, a holder of an Under 21 Kilkenny football Champions medal, by all accounts took it in his stride. Liam McCarthy had returned Noreside, nothing anyone else could say would change that!

I sat beside Pat in Co Wexford VEC.  One day as we listened to the CEO read out grant allocations I noticed Pat texting under the table. What was he doing? He was getting details of the allocation to applicants as the announcement was being made! All of us in that small party which is the Labour Party will long remember Pat’s considerable contribution to politics over a short time span cruelly cut short by his relentless illness. I’ve no doubt that Pat would have held his seat in 2014. I believe his good friend Martin Storey who’s got his own collection of GAA medals will make his mark for Wexford too and that Martin will be re-elected instead of Pat.

Martin was selected to take Pats seat at the County council while Frank O’Connor will take the Labour seat on Enniscorthy council. Elsewhere Oliie Somers is the new Labour councillor in New Ross taking over from Bobby Dunphy/ Once more Labour is back to its 2009 strength in terms of personnel holding seats on local authorities. 

But politics doesn’t stop for anyone. Selection conventions for Labour candidates are starting next week.  Its time to press the flesh both inside and outside the Labour Party. It’s time to fight for the values that Pat Cody was proud to say were his.

Labour in a Rabbitte Stew

How did we get here? It’s the question on every Labour supporters lips this week.  The collapse of the Labour vote in Meath East and the slump in Labour support in the polls. Listen to the media analysts and they will point to a number of things; a perception that election promises have been broken, the liberal agenda and the failure to put as Barry Desmond used to say “manners on Fine Gael” and even communications!

But let’s analyse the slump. It didn’t happen since 2011. It started long before that, About 3 years Labour were in the mid 20’s in % support in opinion polls.  The slide started before the general election so that while Labour won a record number of seats in the Dail unlike 1992 its previous peak when it hit 33 seats rising during the campaign, it hit 19.5% on a downward slope during an election campaign.  And that’s where the promises came in. Promises were made in order to shore up support in the campaign itself. In the absence of these promises Fine Gael would have had a working majority. 

The popular view is that Labour broke General Election promises.  So Ruairi Quinn signed up to protect students from an increase in college fees at a time when FG wanted a graduate tax and FF wanted to jack up fees straight away to €3,000. Labour said that they would protect child benefit and in fact child benefit for large families such as my own have been cut not to the degree that FF cut it but that’s beside the point.  The claim by Eamon Gilmore that it would be Labours way or Frankfurts way is often thrown back at Labour.  The reality of the prom note was that the ECB in Frankfurt are less than happy about what they describe as the Irish operation. Wexford may not be indicative of the national perception as Labour did indeed keep the one promise it made here on the development of the General Hospital. 

But once theres a perception its out there and that’s that. But add to that the fact that Croke Park 2 has been badly received and is losing Labour the public service vote or that the bombastic style of Pat Rabbitte is turning the electorate off. Throw into all that the Meath East bye election where  Eoin Holmes was a good guy who came across well in the media but was undermined by those in the party who should know better. 

So where do we go from here? There is funadementally something wrong with the party that predates the General Election that saw support slip away in 3 stages first before the election, next in the immediate period to Christmas 2012 when it steadied at 13% and finally the freefall since then.  Unlike the Greens or PD’s there was no one moment but it seems to me that the party is turning off vital sectors that have traditionally been the bedrock of support; those on social welfare, public servants, middle and lower classes, commuters in neagitve equity who looked to Eamon Gilmore when he said “Is Feidir linn”

So lets fix the problem; first renegotiate the programme for government to insist on the inclusion of policies that will see the wealthy pay significantly more in tax, bring down top rates of pay in the higher echelons of the public service and public life. Tackle bankers pay and assure people in the family home who are behind on their mortgage due to a reduction in income.

Next we need to see a change in cabinet members. firstly there are not enough women in cabinet and secondly there are too many Dublin Labour Cabinet members. If that means that the party leader has to make way then so be it. Nobody is above the party as any previous leader will testify.  I’ve always held the view that on the day that Labour entered government that Eamon Gilmore showed poor judgement. When senior members were arguing about who should have been Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Eamon missed an opportunity to show leadership and say “Look, I’m the leader and this job is a very hard one, I won’t ask anyone to do something that I’m not prepared to do myself.” Eamon could have been a good minister in that department, instead he’s in Foreign Affairs when there’s little input within the economy.

Finally call a special delegate conference and put the programme for government to delegates and let them decide if they want to stay in government. If the message from Meath East is worthwhile listening to then the feedback from Labour members is doubly valuable now.

The Zombie is dead

In the last 2 years the expression “Labours way or Frankfurt’s Way” has been thrown back at Labour from the right wing cynics.  Often these people take the term out of context.  It was a line contained in a speech by Eamon Gilmore during the 2011 General Election.  He was speaking about how Fianna Fail and Fine Gael had accepted the financial straight jacket of the bail out terms set out by the Troika.  Of the troika it seems the IMF & EU are capable of being flexible in relation to the conditions of the bail out. The EU needs a country to emerge from the fiscal hell of bail out.  The IMF was not the boogie man it was held up to be. It’s the end of 2 things, Anglo (IBRC) debt and the promissory note by which FF & the greens bailed out the failed bank.

It’s the ECB, our friends in Frankfurt that Eamon Gilmore identified who need to get real in relation to the impact of the bail out.  Liquidating IBRC or Anglo is something that should have happened in 2008. It’s exactly what the ECB may not like but austerity isn’t just for citizens, perhaps it’s for institutions too. The dry reference to the Irish operation and taking note of the arrangement between the Irish government and the Irish Central Bank can cover a multitude of things now and into the future. Our friends in Frankfurt may need to swot up Irish politics.

The politics of the liquidation is interesting. Labour opposed the bank guarantee on the basis of a liquidation being a better than the state bailout.  The logic of that position is to liquidate. Sinn Fein supported the bail out and now oppose the liquidation. There is a perverted logic in that too if you’re a banker, developer or believer ion socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.  Strange given that the party is concerned at the number of state employees earning more than €100K and IBRC has a significant number of them. Predictable given that the legislation halts any legal actions against IBRC and there still remains the matter of the Quinn assets to be decided by the courts. Sinn Fein have been hugely supportive of Quinn.  What happens to Quinns properties now will be a matter for the court and the liquidator.  It’s not the first time company law has needed emergency legislation.  Administration was brought in to save PMPA, Examinerships to save Goodman.  The more convoluted and complex the fiscal shambles becomes the more exposed Sinn Fein policy is exposed for its naivety. Are they spooked by the independents right and left?    

The liquidator will pass on performing assets to NAMA and then dispose of the left overs.  Many employees may be re-employed at NAMA but under different contracts and salaries.  Ironically Libertas who opposed the Fiscal treaty argued voting No would lead to a better deal on bank debt.  In fact the opposite has proved correct. The beast is dead, deeply regretted by Gerry Adams and Libertas but I for one, shed no tears. Time to move on.