The Left Arrives....

This blog was glad to read a blog post from RedWexford, a ULA/People before Profit site, today that declared boldly and correctly that more people switched to left wing parties in the recent general election than those who switched to Fine Gael. RedWexford also mentioned two other important details.

The first is that the people of this nation voted epically against the continued policy of cuts and tax hikes against ordinary workers (Obviously many of those who voted for FG didn't read their election manifesto!). In doing so, the electorate has decimated Fianna Fail. In fact, as RedWexford notes, Fianna Fail got fewer votes than the old Irish Parliamentary party in the 1918 elections. Only the PR system saved them from total wipe out.

RedWexford also notes that Irish politics has experienced a real polarisation. For the first time in the history of this state, we are witnessing a real Left/Right divide in Leinster House. On one side we have Fine Gael (and any other party who supports them in any way, including Fianna Fails offer to prop up a FG single party government to get the IMF deal secured). On the other side, we have Sinn Féin (Now the largest true opposition party in the state, and largest left wing party on the island), the ULA and several left wing independents like Wexfords Mick Wallace.

However, RedWexford has been mistaken with some of its information. For one thing, Sinn Féin did not only become a Left wing party last year, as RedWexford claims. We were in fact the only active left wing party in the state during the Celtic tiger. It didn't take a recession and the chance of glory in the polls for us to nail our colours to the mast.

Secondly, five Dublin based Dail TDs (elected during the worst economic crisis to hit the state) does not make the ULA the main left wing force in this state, and certainly doesn't make them the voice of opposition here. We agree that SF and the ULA should work together, but perhaps this could begin when the ULA decides to stop nipping at our heels like a demented little Jack Russell, and turn their attention to helping us take on the people who ran this nation into the ground, career politicians, top level bankers and a corrupt biased media.

Maybe the time as come to end the rift in the Irish Left once and for all.