Post Your Voting Intentions
Posted on May 21, 2007 - Filed Under Politics | 17 Comments
Mine are:
1. Green Party (Dan Boyle)
2. Fianna Fáil (Micháel Martin)
3. Fine Gael (Deirdre Clune/Simon Coveney) / PDs (John Minihan)
The first preference is hardly surprising. I don’t like their socialism-lite economic policies, but at least they’re serious about the environment. As for the second, I’m by no means a dyed-the-wool Fianna Fáiler, but I have great respect for Micháel Martin for introducing the smoking ban. He seems like a nice guy too, and I think he’d make a better leader than Biffo. Despite my strong ideological sympathies with the PDs I wasn’t really considering giving them a vote until McDowell’s excellent performance in the debate on Wednesday; it’s shame that I know next to nothing about their candidate. The Fine Gael votes are just to proportionally shrink Labour and Sinn Féin’s vote.
My ideal coalition government would be FG, Greens and the PDs. I know it’s unlikely, but I think it would work well. Leave the PDs keep Justice and give them some economic input, give the Greens all Environment, Marine, etc… and leave the rest of the ministries to the less corrupt of the two main parties.
I’m aware of the conflict between my favoured coalition and my voting intentions, so nobody need point that out.
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17 Responses to “Post Your Voting Intentions”
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I can tell you who I would have voted for (Labour and independents because we have no Greens), but it doesn’t matter because I have been disenfranchised by FF’s decision to hold the election on a Thursday.
In the case of Micháel Martin I can see where you’re coming from but the PDs? Ye Gods!
I will admit in the interests of full disclosure that my intense dislike for them is fuelled in large part by the fact that every single PD TD voted against the recent Civil Unions bill.
Obviously such a stance isn’t a dealbreaker for you in the same way as it is for me, but I’m sure I could find plenty of other valid reasons to loathe them, starting with the pathetic attempts of McDowell to have his cake and eat it during the Bertiegate fiasco.
My ideal coalition will involve FG/Labour/Greens, like you it’s the Greens that rank highest in my estimation of the various parties.
I’d have Labour only because they strike me as the nice kind of left wing (not the crazy SF type) and as we know FG are essentially the same as FF I feel like a change.
why bother with a 2nd and 3rd preference like that as dan boyle probably wont even fill the quota so they wont be counted. Also, im not a big fan of the PD’s to be honest. They made the health service substantially worse in just a few short months in chanrge and are the first party to establish their own militia ( garda reserve ).
Ill be voting
1.Simon coveny – nice guy and does actually do some work. Plus hes FG which we need.
2. Micheal Martin- just like you said. Shame hes FF-A purebred amoung donkeys.
3. You need to be strategic. I recon those other 2 candidates will exceed the quota on the first vote so they are the only 1,2, combination that can be used to actually have your 3rd vote counted.Obviously, the fourth will never be used. 3rd.. hard to say. None of the ohter candates impressed me much although i hear good things about the mcgrath boy. But i cant vote 2 FF…. so… maybe labor…
I didn’t know the PDs had voted en bloc against a civil unions bill, I wasn’t even aware that one came to vote in the Dáil. It’s an absolute disgrace if they did that; they’re meant to be the only social liberals. What a bunch of charlatans.
Where did my 1000 word thesis go?
Cian…?
Yup, all eight of them voted against it. It’s really annoying me, having to vote based on a single issue, though you can understand why from my perspective it’s the most important. I really wish they would just get it out of the way so I can actually support parties based on policies rather than common-sense legislation which should have been brought in ages ago.
In case you’re interested: Coveney and Boyle voted in favour, Martin against (but he gets a pass because he seems relatively competent)
1) Dan Boyle. Spoke to him for about 30 minutes on my door step about everything and anything. Struck me as being alot more intelligent ct then he looked. Shocking breath though.
2) Stephen Lynch. Labour seem like friendly soft core commies. Wouldn’t like them to have too much power though otherwise we’d be making shoes for export and rationing potatoes.
3) Simon Covney. Was going to give him my number one because he gave me a lift home in the rain once but that seems trivial and also i’m confident enough he’ll get in without my number 1.
And martin? I vote him most likely to have a sex scandal involving a teenage boy.
Pure sleeze.
Liam – I don’t know where it went; I certainly didn’t do anything to it.
Anthony – lol.
[...] and Charlie O’Connor, who has lost a stone in the last month. Cian Boland has asked us all to post our voting intentions, while Kevin Rafter ponders the use of polls in the run-up to elections. Serious surverys, or just [...]
Brian, FG only voted in favour because they knew FF and PDs would block it. Their own policies on Civil Unions are better than nowt but their attitude to adoption is in line with FF and many others. I think they’re full of hot air to be honest.
Even liberal Labour had issues up to recently with full equality in Civil Unions with their junior leader telling gay people something that smacked of “be grateful with what you get but anything near marriage, no, sorry, now is not the time.”
The sad fact is that Sinn Fein were the only party to object when Mary Hannafin or was it that other Mary specifically banned samesex marriage for the Marriage registrations bill a few short years ago. That was the first time samesex marriage was mentioned in a law and it was to ban it.
FF and Martin are useless. Martin showed his true colours and attitude at the Oireachtas committee investigation into the nursing home scam. He had my respect til then.
Coveney is dull and dumb according to FG sources themselves. Moved to Europe to get him off the front bench. Got the looks but not the neurons. But then they replaced him with Bernard Durkan. Frank Spencer of politics. Clune’s ability in Cork City Council says enough not to get my vote. Lynch or Boyle for me. But Labour would be more complicit in a Govt with FF than the Greens. PDs no chance but even if I were, the fact that McDowell wasn’t allowed by Tom bloody Parlon to quit the coalition says a lot for the man and the party.
…Cian Boland has asked us to, so I guess we must…
Ireland – nul points.
Ironic that I’m interviewing one of the above canidates tomorrow, after all that.
Cian, as far as I’m aware, McDowell told the PDs to vote against gay marriage, or whatever, en masse because he planned to change the laws and compose a different, more comprehensive marriage bill. That doesn’t seem to have happened, but again, I’m told by a not-disinterested friend that that was the case. “Vote no, and follow me, I’ll do it better,” is the vibe I believe McDowell gave off.
Could be wrong, though.
Kevin, he said the same to Norris when he tried to bring his bill in.
Ah.
I’m Cork East, so you probably wouldn’t recognise the names…. but it went
1. Fine Gael
2. Fine Gael
3. Greens
Fíanna Fáil have become too arrogant, just look at their attitude to “Bertiegate”. Exit polls are saying now that they’re winning. Wonder how smug they’ll get over the next 5 years? I also don’t agree with their socially conservative stances, and their horrific attitude to the rural broadband scheme, which is annoying for me since I live in a rural area and slow dial up connections don’t help anything.
Fine Gael provided a change. Enda Kenny is inexperienced, but the reasoning of not voting for him because of this is simply moronic. If that’s the way people are going to vote, FF will be in power forever. While it’s looking unlikely right now, FG could brought something new to government.
Labour… could go either way. I’m not too sure about them.
Greens, same argument was used with the Greens as with Enda Kenny. All parties were inexperienced when they first started out. The “inexperience” mentality is the reason our party system is so hopelessly bad.
Sinn Fein…. no.
Progressive Democrats: McDowell urged potential Fine Gael voters
yesterday to switch their votes to the PDs to keep left-wing governments out of power. That’s what annoys me about McDowell. While other politicians try to bargain and convince you that their way is right, McDowell seems to have it in his head that everyone thinks the same way as him and will therefore share his worries about a left wing government. I agree with Brian on the social issues. I highly doubt they’re going to be in the next government. They’re near-implosion.
I’m glad I found an outlet for all that ranting.
My confidence in Enda Kenny was shaken by the outright rape of logic he committed while attempting to justify that because 60% of the electorate voted against the current government, that somehow translates as a mandate for a party who got even less support.