Fine Gael down 3% to 22,

 

Fianna Fáil down one to 20%,

 

Sinn Féin up 4 to 26%,

 

Labour down two from 9 to 7%,

 

Independents staying the same at 23%.

 

This is the reaction to the Government introducing water charges recently which over here are very unpopular.

 

There are protests in a lot of places.

Kind of think you're posting these in the wrong forum. Mod move this to Perspectives?

Oh look, yet another country having the temerity to not realise they're supposed to vote for "centre ground" parties.

It's quite difficult to extrapolate that over to Ireland, given they've only ever been governed by two parties of the centre-right, differentiated mainly by who was on which side in the civil war, with one having a more market economic bent and the other having a more Christian democratic bent in coalition with the small Labour party. Generally the market economic one has always been in charge, with them only ever getting thrown out after several terms to allow a single coalition term.

It's quite difficult to extrapolate that over to Ireland, given they've only ever been governed by two parties of the centre-right, differentiated mainly by who was on which side in the civil war, with one having a more market economic bent and the other having a more Christian democratic bent in coalition with the small Labour party. Generally the market economic one has always been in charge, with them only ever getting thrown out after several terms to allow a single coalition term.

 

What about the fact the Irish Labour party, carrying out the sorts of policies you're so keen on, have absolutely hemorrhaged support?

 

And what about the fact that this is by no means confined to Ireland -- centre ground parties are rapidly losing support to the "extremes" in pretty much every European country bar Germany.

When did I ever come out in support of vicious cuts of the sort Ireland have had to go through? (and I have to say, I'm not sure if it's because water's nationalised there, but even so I doubt you'd ever get Labour over here putting a tax on water...) I'm in favour of closing the deficit through a mixture of tax rises and spending cuts, more balanced towards the former rather than the latter.

 

I'd also add that austerity has a very, very different dimension in Ireland than it does here. It might be a growing view now that austerity isn't needed anymore in the UK, but there was at least a grudging sense that it was needed for a few years. That was never the case in Ireland given it was wholesale imposed as a condition of loans by the IMF, World Bank and the EU, hence it has an entirely different dimension more akin to the way the media react here whenever the EU 'imposes' something on us. Labour were never going to benefit anyway as the junior partner in coalition, but that made it even worse.