Political World
‘Lobby fodder’ can still shine despite the frustrations of being on back benches
World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com
A team wins the All Ireland and the captain goes up and says the cúpla focal and then thanks the sponsors and the doctor and the bagman and the back room team and, yerrah, the manager.
And then he goes on to say it’s not the fifteen fellows who took to the field but it was a squad thing. And in his blazingly original way he commends the opposition and, sure, we know what it was like for ye lads, and says hip, hip, hurray.
And when you’re listening to him and you are number 29 out of a squad of 30 and not in the team photograph and not on the pitch and not really remembered and sitting so long on the subs’ bench that your backside is getting numb you know deep down that that is not the way it is.
And if you have any grey matter you also know that your captain is talking a pile of phoney baloney. He can stand up there and say it’s all about the squad until he’s blue in the face.
But the simple undeniable uncomfortable reality is that if you don’t get game time – even for a few piddling moments – it is nothing and you are nothing.
And that is also the lot of your average backbench TD or Senator, especially for a Government party. The most you can hope for is to be told to run up and down the political sidelines to warm up and do a bit of stretching. But for the most part you will get as much involvement in the fray – the cut and thrust of Government – as the average Joe Punter sitting in the stands.
I can’t remember how often I’ve repeated former Fianna Fáil TD Barry Andrews pithy little phrase about the role of a backbench Government TD. I repeat it so often because it’s still the best description by a long shot.
“Lobby fodder” was how Andrews put it.
I was watching the Labour TD for Dublin Mid West Joanne Tuffy on Vincent Browne’s programme on TV3 on Monday night as she got attacked on all sides for her party’s performance in Government. Now, as a point of fact, Labour have actually done much better in the coalition this year than they did in the first two years when they were played by Fine Gael like a cat plays a mouse. That said, Browne and the other guests weren’t thrilled about the self-congratulatory tone of the Labour Party conference (sure, I’ve never been to a party conference that wasn’t self congratulatory).
Anyway Joan took some mild ribbing, particularly over her party’s failure to introduced a third higher rate of tax for high earners. Browne actually quoted a very interesting finding from a recent report from the left-leaning Nevin Institute which showed that the lowest ten per cent of earners in Irish society paid proportionately more of their income in taxes of one kind of another than the highest ten per cent. It was a fair point and Tuffy had no choice but to try to field it.
Her point was that she would have preferred a higher rate of tax but that no increase in tax had been a central plank of Fine Gael’s pre-election manifesto and, as such, she and her colleagues were powerless to get the larger party to shift from that position. Doubly powerless as a member of the smaller party and as a backbencher.
Like the substitute who never gets game time, it can be very frustrating for a backbench TD. Once you are in Government it’s the executive – the Ministers and junior Ministers – who get to call the shots. Some TDs will get a consolation prize – offered the chair of a committee. But for the rest it’s a hard old station. Many spend their parliamentary time making a speech on a Bill they have no feel for, reading from a script that is often written by a party researcher.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
Academically, politics is described as a science. But in the real world, it’s more of an art – and one of the big decisions a Government has to make is to decide when to call an election.
Will they see out the full term, or will they go early – either to mitigate the damage they will ship, or to secure a victory before things go awry, or the economy takes a dip, or some kind of controversy erupts?
Timing is everything.
And there’s a bit of art to that – not to mention a lot of luck. If you call it early and win big, you’re a genius. If you call it early and lose, you are the political version of the village fool.
Charlie Haughey was a poor judge of the public mood. Twice he called snap elections and on both occasions they backfired. Haughey succeeded Jack Lynch as Taoiseach in late 1979 and did not – technically – have his own mandate. He tried to remedy that by calling an election in 1981. But it recoiled. Ray MacSharry warned him not to hold it during the H Block hunger strikes when republican prisoners were dying each day. He did not listen to the advice and found himself out of office.
After his return to power in 1987, Haughey tired of presiding over a minority government that kept on losing votes in the Oireachtas (the opposition won nine private members motions).
So he called a snap general election and it backfired. Fianna Fáil lost seats and had to broker a coalition deal with the Progressive Democrats and his long-standing political adversary Dessie O’Malley.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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World of Politics with Harry McGee
I was cycling down Mount Street in Dublin on Tuesday. It’s a wide esplanade that links the Grand Canal with Merrion Square. The street is a mixture of fine Georgian buildings and modern office blocks.
About half-way down is the office of the International Protection Office, which deals with asylum seekers who have arrived in the country.
Needless to say, the office has been overwhelmed in the past year. Besides an estimated 80,000 refugees who have arrived from Ukraine, there have been about 20,000 people from other parts of the world who have arrived into Dublin (mostly) claiming asylum.
The numbers peaked around Christmas, but they have been falling a little. In January, more than 1,300 people arrived seeking asylum but the numbers fell back to 831 and 858, in February and March respectively.
They are still huge numbers in a historical context.
So back to my cycle on Tuesday. I knew that some asylum seekers were camping outside the International Protection Office, but I was taken aback by how many. There were six tents lined up on the pavement directly outside. Then on the ramp that led down to the basement carpark on the side of the building, there were about another 20 tents.
It looked like what it was, a refugee camp in the middle of Dublin’s business district. If you pan out from Mount Street, you will find tents here and there in nearby streets and alleys. There were a good few tents in an alleyway off Sandwith Street about 500 metres away.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
God that was a dramatic and historic weekend in England, wasn’t it? So much excitement, so much change, so much hype, so much out with the old and in with the new, and what looks like the coronation of a new leader. Yes, the local elections in Britain were something else weren’t they!
Apologies for not going on about King Charles III but the contract I signed when I became a lifelong republican forbids me to discuss the topic!
I know the British local elections sound a bit boring by comparison, but the results were stunning.
The Conservatives lost nearly 1,000 seats, the British Labour Party gained almost 500 and both the Lib Dems (with 350 gains) and the Greens (gaining over 200) also had amazing days at the polls.
It was Labour’s best day since 2002 but its victory was only partial. The Greens and the Lib Dems actually made gains at the expense of Labour in more affluent areas, and in parts of Britain where there were high numbers of graduates.
It was in the Red Wall constituencies in the North of England where the Labour recovery was strongest. These are working class constituencies with pockets of deprivation where people voted for the Labour Party forever. But all of those constituencies voted for Brexit and then voted for the Tories in the next general election. Labour is now winning back some of those votes.
Local elections are classified as second-tier elections which essentially means – from a national perspective – they are not life-or-death affairs, and not everything turns on them. Of course, it’s really important to have good local representation. But they are not an amazing weather vane for who rules the country.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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