Sir, – It seems to me that the leaders of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are now in posturing mode.
One thing they can be in no doubt about is that the electorate never posture at the ballot box. Brexit is all but done, there is now a timely gap for the electorate to decide who we trust in government.
Why is it that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil appear to favour an election in April or May? Are Votegate and TDs claiming expenses while not visibly voting in the Dáil the issues they fear?
Do they really think our memories are so short?
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The Irish electorate remembers and is very sophisticated. Roll on polling day! – Yours, etc,
JOE HARRISON,
Spanish Point, Co Clare.
Sir, – I’m concerned about the danger that the techniques we have seen deployed in the UK will be used here to promote a populist agenda.
A few candidates in our recent byelections attempted this amateurishly.
But where large funds are involved, with closely targeted messages, many more people may be influenced.
Techniques used in the UK have massively amplified the effect described as “a lie may get half way around the world before the truth gets its boots on”. Have we the resources to combat these campaigns? – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O’BEIRNE,
Gorey, Co Wexford.
Sir, – Had the UK general election been run under proportional representation a very different result would have obtained.
If the seats for each party were allocated according to the proportion of the overall vote they received in each area of the UK then the position, plus or minus one or two seats, would have been as follows: Conservatives 281 seats, Labour 208 seats, Liberal Democrats 74 seats, Greens 17 seats, Brexit Party 12 seats, SNP 27 seats, Plaid Cymru 4 seats, DUP 6 seats, Sinn Féin 4 seats, Alliance three seats, SDLP three seats, Ulster Unionists two seats and Others 9 seats.
In a PR election transfers would also come into play and this would alter the overall result but not that significantly.
So the outcome would more than likely have been a coalition of remain parties led by Labour. A totally different story to a Tory landslide. – Yours, etc,
TOM GELLETLIE,
Rathnew,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – What if Scotland achieved independence and then joined the EU and unionists in the North decided to go back to their traditional home and won a referendum for union with Scotland?
How many problems would it solve. The only border would be Hadrian’s Wall. – Yours, etc,
TERRY PURCELL,
Dublin 20.
Sir, – Finn Redmond’s very interesting opinion piece (December 12th) spoke of Maurizio Cattelan’s installation that consisted of a banana duct-taped to a wall in a gallery in Miami, price $120,000.
Another artist ripped the banana from the wall and ate it, opening the question, did he consume the banana, or the “idea of the banana”?
Also last week, the British electorate swallowed the concept of Brexit. Does this make Boris Johnson the greatest conceptual artist of our age? – Yours, etc,
BOB MORRISON,
Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
Sir, – Those who are encouraged by Boris Johnson’s exhortation to “let the healing begin” should reflect on Margaret Thatcher’s oleaginous recitation of St Francis of Assisi’s Prayer “where there is discord, may we bring harmony . . .” upon her arrival in Downing Street as newly elected prime minister in 1979.
So began the reign of a PM who delivered economic devastation to many of the staunch Labour constituencies which have now defected and given an overwhelming majority to the Tory party for the next five years. – Yours, etc,
EAMONN LAWLESS,
Shankill, Dublin 18.
Sir, – Surely the change of rule by Ed Miliband which allowed thousands of left-wing supporters join up and vote for Jeremy Corbyn against the wishes of a majority of sitting MPs is the root cause of collapse of support for Labour? – Yours, etc,
JOHN NOLAN,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – After more than three years of self-inflicted torment, the electorate of the “United” Kingdom have emphatically given Boris Johnson the mandate to leave the EU and “get Brexit done”. Soon Boris Johnson will enter into the transitional grace period to finalise the T&Cs of leaving the EU. This will last for at least another 12 months.
Considering a minimum of four years of “leaving” and that it will be sad to see them go, perhaps Brexit should now be re-labelled “Breaving” or even “Bereaving”. In sincere sympathy . . . – Yours, etc,
JOHN LYNCH,
Naas, Co Kildare.
Sir, – Boris Johnson should be acutely aware of the dangers large majorities pose to prime ministers. Jack Lynch achieved one in 1977 and was ousted two years later, Margaret Thatcher in 1987 and was gone in 1990.
He should bear in mind the words of Lloyd George when showing a newly elected MP around the Commons “on the benches across sit the opposition, behind are the enemies”. – Yours, etc,
TIM BRACKEN,
Cork.
A chara, – Killian Foley-Walsh’s comment (December 14th) that the Conservative Party’s victory in the British general election should be a lesson to Fine Gael (because, in his words, it shows “what happens when a centre-right party gives up smelling the roses and gets back to smelling the coffee”) is disappointingly misguided.
I would suggest to Mr Foley-Walsh that the election instead shows what can happen when a centre-right party abandons all attachment to the truth, forgets the principles and pro-European sentiments of its finest prime-ministers and does so because its current leaders are happy to put personal gain ahead of the interests of their country – something I sincerely hope that his and my party will fail to do. — ls mise,
OSCAR DESPARD,
Portobello,
Dublin 8,
Sir, – As a trainee doctor in sleep medicine in University Hospital Waterford I live in hope that a pandemic of brexhaustion has possibly been averted. – Yours, etc,
Dr WILLIAM COURTNEY,
Cavan.
A chara, – It is interesting to note that Belfast is now a mainly nationalist city, with Sinn Féin and the SDLP between them holding three of the four seats in Ireland’s second largest city.
Derry, of course, has always been a mainly nationalist city. The murder of the young journalist Lyra McKee there earlier this year was I think one of the factors in Colum Eastwood’s landslide victory for the SDLP in Foyle. While Sinn Féin had nothing to do with the murder and roundly condemned it, it was still a shocking reminder to people of the terrible days of the Troubles. Derry has a long tradition of constitutional nationalism which was very much cemented by John Hume.
The significance of this election across the North is in its demonstration of just how far the overall nationalist (or at least non-unionist) vote has come over the last 40 years. In the 1983 general election to Westminster, of the 17 seats at the time only two returned nationalists: John Hume in Derry and Gerry Adams in west Belfast.
It is revealing too that the most remarkable Sinn Féin success in this latest election, John Finucane’s victory in north Belfast, was achieved by broadening his appeal beyond the republican base.
Stephen Farry’s success for the Alliance party in north Down was another remarkable achievement. The quality of the candidates in all three cases – Eastwood, Finucane, and Farry – was also a significant factor in their election, as it was in south Belfast where Claire Hanna recorded a second thumping victory for the SDLP. – Is mise,
JOHN GLENNON,
Hollywood, Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Among examples of non-democratic outcomes due to the first-past-the-post system in the recent British general election I didn’t see any mention of the Northern Ireland result.
According to the analysis (Home News, December 14th), the two nationalist parties shared only 37.7 per cent of the vote but took nine seats (50 per cent) while the unionists took just eight seats (44.4 per cent) with a combined total of 42.3 per cent of the vote. – Yours, etc,
PN CORISH,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.