Labour Pains

The Irish Labour Party - A mythical beast whose shape and form is much disputed

I had originally intended to write a quite different piece under this heading originally - I will try to include some of it anyway. Events this week shifted my focus slightly. I am actually caught now trying to express points that, superficially at least, fit together, but when I am finished here may seem incomplete and the reader will feel like they got all dressed up but when they get there the party wasn't all that. So, bear with me. I am just skimming across something I have strong opinions on, but little time to fully expound them now. Think of it as only an opening statement.

James Connolly, facing Liberty Hall , Dublin

At their Ard Fheis (think 'party conference, convention etc.) last weekend, the Labour Party were celebrating their centenary - 100 years since figures revered by all throughout this country, men whose ideals were later sold out,  like Big Jim Larkin, James Connolly and William O'Brien founded the the Irish Labour Party.  And celebrate they did. But how dare they. Connolly famously said 'the cause of Labour is the cause of Ireland and the cause of Ireland is the cause of Labour'. In 100 years though, the party he co-founded could not have become more far removed from their Labour roots, more disconnected from the realities in Ireland for the 'labour' classes than could ever be imagined. That those who hold the reins of power within the party itself, are selfish, power hungry journeymen ( Gilmore and Rabbitte for example, an odyssey from Official Sinn Fein to Labour via the Worker's Party and Democratic Left ) is not the only reason. The rank and file members cannot simply blame them when they collapse at the polls as soon as the people get a chance to give them a good kicking. And kick them they will. No, because you see this disease of the Irish Labour has been there since 1918 or thereabouts. It has manifest itself at suitable intervals over the intervening years. And don't even start me on the 'Unions'.Then the wolves put the sheepswool back on until enough people forgive or forget and vote them back into power. Where they inevitably expose themselves for the unprincipled, bought, power hungry, ideology less, shower that they are. Think Dick Spring, 1992. Headline election promise - Get Fianna Fail out. Post election - Spring is talking about rotating the Office of Taoiseach (power hungry) as he dives under the covers with FF. Needless to say the 'Spring Tide' went out very, very fast indeed. 

Okay - this is where I am going to take a sudden turn off the road. Enough with the brief history lesson. There is so much more to the above - how it all went wrong and how it all stayed wrong - I will get back to that and treat it on it's own another day. I want to just talk briefly about something that is going on now, that I just touched on above.

Joan Burton doesn't particularly like Eamon Gilmore. Not that I would blame her for that. In recent times this barely concealed contempt for the smug and arrogant Tanaiste has manifested itself in the type of sniping attacks on the Government that generally end in one of two ways;

1. The Minister is sacked (Burton is the Social Protection boss), Gilmore gets the party support and Burton faces backbench limbo.

2. The Minister is sacked but with party support leads a heave against Gilmore. Which could in turn go a number of ways.

Anyway, that's not specifically what I am into here. The question I have is this;

-Has Burton developed a social conscience?

Of course not. Don't be silly.

Labour rejected (with Burton as Finance spokesperson) the bank guarantee, the bailout (remember Labour's way or Frankfurt's way? or some such nonsense). Burn the bondholders etc. All these things disappeared as soon as the prospect of power became a reality. It was all hot air.

Like Burton now. All hot air. No social conscience. But not liking Gilmore (Gilmore doesn't like her either - that's why he made her director of elections for the upcoming EU Fiscal Treaty referendum, a Machiavellian touch) and seeing the way the wind was blowing (it's a gale actually - think household charges, promissory notes, water charges, Anglo etc.) Burton guessed that suddenly realising that it is not such a fair proposal to cut the One-parent family scheme when children reach age 7 (or some such savagery) and go on a solo run (http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0418/joan-burton-unsure-of-lone-parent-cut-off-point.html) would be a good idea. Gather support in the party. And publicly. Maybe she thinks she might even get that Tanaiste gig herself (see 2 above).

But no, it's all posturing, all political football. The lone-parents being the football this week. Typical of their history isn't? A microcosm of it don't ya think?

-Has Burton developed a social conscience?

Of course not. Don't be silly.

That's it for now. But I'm not finished with the Labour Party. I will have more to tell you about them. I will tell you about them and their history and about the grubby characters past and present who have disgraced the ideals of the founders, those who worked and struggled in those difficult early years and those they worked and struggled for. I will tell you about them and I won't be sparing.

The cause of Labour is the cause of Ireland?

Not in this incarnation.

The cause of the Labour is THEMSELVES.

The phoney war is over - It's Obama versus Romney

So that's it then. It had become inevitable and following the defeats in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington D.C coupled with the prospect of losing the primary in his home state of Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum suspended his campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination.

So, with the phoney war out of the way the real stuff begins. The Obama campaign has been quietly tuning up for the start of the campaign proper for some time. Expect them to start hitting hard and hitting often. There will be an early onslaught on Romney to put him on the back foot from the off. The Romney campaign will have to be ready. They will not have time to draw breath. The primary has been draining in many ways - time wise, when the fight has been local rather than with Obama, and of course resources and money.

I will of course be following all the ins and outs all the way through to November. I am looking forward to it - I hope you are too.


The general election campaign begins now in earnest - it's 29 weeks from next Tuesday to polling.