Posted by: toireasa in myblog, Europe on
May 21, 2009
Thursday 21 May
Answering all the questions!
As the big day approaches more and more media opportunities are popping up. The last couple of days have been crazy. First up on Monday night I was in Dublin for the Vincent Browne show on TV3 and then on Wednesday the Pat Kenny show was in Cork to do a programme with all the candidates in Munster.
Now, we all know what the big issues of the day are: jobs, jobs and jobs!
I am left asking myself then why Vincent Browne wanted to spend the whole interview picking seemingly random tragic events from the conflict in the north and asking me about my feelings on certain events from the seventies or eighties. This is 2009 and we are in a deep recession caused in no small part by the failed policies of our own successive governments and the European Union's flawed economic policies and the only thing he can ask me as an EU candidate is about events long ago that not one person has asked me about throughout my whole campaign!
On Wednesday it was the Pat Kenny show along with almost all of the other EU candidates in the "South" constituency. To be fairer this was a broader interview but once again Kenny seemed fixated on a bizarre line of questioning. This time it was about Mary Lou McDonald's absence from the European Parliament during her maternity leave! How dare a woman spend time with her children instead of trooping off to the European Parliament?!
Not that I am the only one being asked odd questions. Each of the candidates at the Pat Kenny event was asked almost random questions. What did the two Fine Gael candidates think of each other? Where are your substitutes from? Can you guarantee you won't run in the general election? I am beginning to wonder if this is a European election at all!
I'd love to see debates focussing on the real issues and the genuine concerns of people as we get closer to the election. Maybe the journalists need to spend some time canvassing!
Meanwhile back in the real world, the work continues and the campaigning hots up...
Posted by: toireasa in myblog, Europe on
May 17, 2009
Sunday 17th May
The big launch!
Campaigns launches are of course big media events and planned in great detail and I guess sometimes the detail of what a party stands for and what its policies are can be lost in the camera flashes and the media can just pick on one detail or one comment and build their whole presentation around that. I think it's important therefore to reiterate what platform you're standing on and why and what makes you different.
I haven't followed any other party launches too closely but I know of at least one way in which the Sinn Féin team launch was different- we're the only ones presenting an all-Ireland team to the electorate. In a way, the European election is the closest thing we have to an all-Ireland election. Irish people from all thirty-two counties can vote for politicians to represent them in the same parliament; that's unique in Ireland but yet only Sinn Féin can manage to field serious candidates in every constituency!
My party's campaign in different in other ways too. We have laid out an ambitious platform in which we have put the interest of the Irish people first and unashamedly so. This means opposing any re-run of the rejected and outdated Lisbon treaty, it means promoting real democratic change in Europe and it means standing up for Ireland's economic sovereignty so that we can take the necessary measures at home to improve our economy.
I wonder how some Irish MEPs can canvass for support in an EU election less than a year after the Irish people strongly rejected the Lisbon Treaty and lecture us on how the EU and other MEPs are right to carry on planning the implementation of the Treaty. You can be sure that all Sinn Féin candidates elected will play no part in the charade currently going on in which our own government, other EU governments and the EU Parliament pretend that we never voted!
Another thing that strikes me as being different is the emphasis some parties are putting on their "European political party". You know when you vote for me you are voting for a Sinn Féin candidate and only a Sinn Féin one. Other parties may be happy to take their orders from the PES or EPP or whatever acronym they attached themselves to but for my part I will approach every vote and every issue with the interests of the Irish people as the deciding factor in how I vote, not the interests of the Brussels office of any "European political party". I'm sure on the really big issues the interests of working people across Europe are the same but sometimes an Irish approach is needed to ensure our interests are protected. I can guarantee that I won't shirk from voting for Ireland when necessary, can they?
Well, that's just some of the differences that may get lost in the heat of the campaign but Sinn Féin won't forget about them when we're elected!
Posted by: toireasa in myblog, Europe on
May 16, 2009
Saturday May 16
Opinion Poll encouraging but not surprising
I am not one to read too much into opinion polls but sometimes they can be useful in confirming your suspicions if nothing else. Yesterday's Irish Times opinion poll on the Euro-constituencies falls into that category of poll and is greatly encouraging for Sinn Féin and for my own campaign in Munster. Not only does it show Mary Lou McDonald on course to keep her seat in Dublin but also shows strong showings from all Sinn Féin candidates across the state.
In "South", which includes five of the six Munster counties, the Irish Times' number cruncher predicts that "the constituency will go down to the last count." There seems to be some surprise out there at this revelation but as somebody who has been campaigning across the province for weeks now I am not one bit surprised. Everybody knows about the anger and resentment towards the government but from my experience this is only part of the picture.
We are seeing an economic collapse that was unthinkable only a very short time ago. Jobs are disappearing at an unprecedented rate and it's ordinary working people and families who are feeling it. Naturally there is a huge deal of frustration and annoyance among the voters I am coming across. The sight of Fianna Fáil politicians linking the rejection of Lisbon to the economic crisis is sickening but again not surprising in the current climate. It is exactly the type of dishonesty and recklessness with the truth and our livelihoods that have us in this disastrous economic situation and which quite rightly leaves people raging at their arrogance and incompetence.
However, what I'm picking up on the doorsteps is something deeper than just anger; it is a desire for change. People are angry but equally they are looking for an alternative. Gerry Adams has spoken about the need to develop an alternative based around the forces of the Left. This opinion poll is more proof if needed of the vulnerability of the "two-party" system that has so stifled progress in Irish society.
This is potentially a time of great change and realignment in Irish politics. We need to capitalise on this mood by bringing our message directly to as many people across Ireland as possible over the next few weeks. We saw during the Lisbon referendum how a concerted and people-based campaign can empower people to challenge the status quo and the establishment parties, I think this poll shows how the upcoming local and EU elections can offer a similar opportunity to deliver a shock to the establishment. 12 per cent? "You ain't seen nothing yet!"
Hello and welcome to our Ireland South European Election web page! If you've made it this far than you can't be having much difficulty navigating the site, however if there are any improvements or additions you can suggest please feel free to let us know.
The purpose of this blog is to allow you access to me to discuss any issue of importance to you or any recommendations you have for the campaign. I'll try to respond in a reasonable time, however juggling a baby, work and an election campaign, I can't always guarantee that my definition of reasonable will reflect yours!
To get the ball rolling here's something I'd like to discuss with you...........
In these tough economic times it's more important than ever that we stand together. So I'm particularly disappointed with the way both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are trying to divide the workers of Ireland and sow division between the public and the private sector.
For the last six months we have had a flood of stories about public servants fattening themselves on the back of the Irish tax payer. Behind the media campaign lies a determination by employers to exploit the downturn to drive down wages for both public and private sector workers.
Last week the propaganda paid off and last week when the government announced what is in effect a 6% pay cut for the public sector. What is worse, the way the levy is implemented discriminates against low- and middle-income public servants. A worker on €20,000 will sacrifice almost the same percentage of their income as someone on €300,000.
At almost the same time, it was revealed in the Dáil that landlords get €1.4 billion worth of tax relief each year. Meanwhile the government is preparing to hand €7 billion in taxpayer's money to the banks that had a big hand in causing this mess - with few meaningful guarantees for mortgage holders or small businesses strapped for cash.
Ordinary workers, in public and private sectors alike, are now paying the price for the recklessness of bankers and property developers who fuelled an unsustainable property boom, and for a government that was asleep at the wheel. Workers should not allow themselves to be set against another. Rather, workers in all sectors need to unite against those who want to use these difficult times an excuse to slash hard-fought for wages and conditions for all.
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