Where do we go from here? This is a short and rapidly put together opinion piece to try to determine the political way forward post Varadkar. Personally I am delighted that he has done the decent thing and resigned, I think as Taoiseach he has been a disaster, agenda driven, loyal to the World Economic Forum, with little or no loyalty to this nation and repeatedly allowing his personal life and the disagreeable issues surrounding it to overspill into national life. However now he is as good as gone.
What if there is an early general election, are we prepared and what would be the immediate consequences of one. Firstly all bills in the pipeline would die, this must include ‘hate’ speech legislation. I personally don’t think that it would be resurrected by a new government unless led by Sinn Féin. This proposed legislation got this far because it slipped under the radar, there was no analysis or debate and that was the plan. It nearly worked. Now people are alert.
To stop this bill and others, a snap election would certainly be welcome. People are in a triumphant mood after the NO NO result, democracy worked and no elasticity of spin by government could deliver them their desired result.
So far so good but a general election is much more than a simple yes/no choice. A creditable alternative to the government and fake opposition is needed. Many idealistic and patriotic candidates are committed to contesting but none are well known and their geographical spread is patchy. The public are simply unaware of them at an electable level.
The NO NO result has given everybody a significant lift but more is needed and that means time. The opposition is polished, embedded in local communities, duplicitous and will stop at nothing to get elected. They are the professionals in every bad sense of the word. In the movies the good guys always win but not in politics. Put yourself in the shoes of Mr Average, he voted a double no but he has never actually protested and he certainly won’t be reading this. He wants to bring about real change and is considering voting for Sinn Féin. This may well be the thinking followed by 25% to 30% of the electorate. The volatile voter base of Sinn Féin is slowly decreasing, from a high of 36% to a low of 26% and we all know why, they have been exposed on immigration and the people see Sinn Fein as against the communities they claim to represent.
But they still have critical mass and by next March they may not. They want an election now. They would hoover up all the left of centre parties but they would still need more and that means Fianna Fáil to make up the numbers. Damaged, corrupt and capable of doing anything for power they would be swallowed up by Sinn Féin, a party not built for opposition. Vote them in and their hard marxist policies might mean that the next real election could be postponed indefinitely. When democratic post war Czechoslovakia gave the Marxists the largest share of the vote in 1946 that was the last real election for forty years. They entered coalition with the social democrats who disappeared into an amalgamation. Imagine Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil as juniors.
I believe that the most urgent task of all patriotic citizens is to prevent a Sinn Féin led government. People who want change, who are fed up with government need real alternatives that bypass Sinn Féin. Candidates that we can trust must be given exposure, must be introduced to the public at every opportunity. Some will be from the smaller parties, many will be independents. They are the political future of our nation, not Sinn Féin. The people want a change and we must give our people visibility so that the electorate have a real choice. We are on the winning side, let’s stay there.
