Shinners will gain from ‘Fianna Gael’

Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Apart from your parents and grandparents and their parents voting for Fianna Fáil, the most convincing reason to vote for Fianna Fáil was because it wasn’t Fine Gael. Not great reasons, but the bar is set low in Irish politics.

Then when Fianna Fáil f**ked up, as it did, often, and made a hames of the economy, you’d hold your nose and vote Fine Gael.

And then, just around the time Fine Gael was getting sadistic about balancing the books, and started revelling in austerity it was inflicting, you’d go back to the clutches of Fianna Fáil.

It was similar for Fine Gael supporters. The biggest reason to vote Fine Gael was they weren’t Fianna Fáil.

Sometimes Fine Gaelers switched sides, to ride the Celtic Tiger wave, or to rebel against the party’s socially liberal agenda, but would revert when economic prudence was, well, prudent. And on and on it went. It was ever thus.

There was always a cohort of voters who didn’t trust or like either of the traditional big two. So, they voted for the PDs, Labour, Democratic Left, and Greens to keep an eye on the main party.

Voting for Fine Gael because it’s not Fianna Fáil, and voting for Fianna Fáil because it’s not Fine Gael, cease to be reasons for giving a stroke to either party, if the Programme for Government in the Grand Coalition with the Greens is ratified by membership of the three parties later today.

Luckily, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael supporters now have a new party that they agree to not vote for, so they can continue to vote for each other. Okay, so Sinn Féin is not new, and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael voters generally ‘didn’t vote for’ the Shinners, but the new common enemy unites them.

It’ll never hold, though. Because eventually, Fine Fáil and Fianna Gael or whatever you call them, will have to go back to the electorate, looking for votes.

And while they’ll each try to blame the Greens for everything – that’s a given – their election slogan is going to have to be Vote Fianna Fáil and get Fine Gael, and vote Fine Gael and get Fianna Fáil; the opposite of what they preached for 100-years.

Already, the Confidence and Supply agreement, where Fianna Fáil propped up Fine Gael, since 2016, put an end to Civil War politics, and confused the electorate as to the difference between them.

After four more years of government, albeit on an equal footing, the two cheeks of the same Green-tinged arse, will be even more indistinguishable.

And there can be only one winner in that scenario: Sinn Féin.

For more Bradley Bytes, see this week’s Galway City Tribune.