"Nothing remotely like what we saw in the recent Gorton and Denton by-election in the UK is happening in Ireland. It’s that latter part that will provoke a change in a party like Fine Gael."
The response to Gorton and Denton has been pretty disappointing. An event that prefigures the grim future of democracy in Europe and the learning outcome appears to be 'look how well you can do if you court all those line-voting ethnics - don't get left behind!'. Even for Farage, it seems unthinkable that you wouldn't actively court the Muslim vote. Only Restore has really been clear on the implications of this.
Look at the way Roderic started slavering over the outcome in Gorton/Denton. I think it's more likely that the 'lesson' to be learned by FG re Gorton/Denton is that there's huge opportunity in courting the votes of ethnics, and acting accordingly.
The baizou tribe invites in outsiders for advantage over their domestic enemy, then is inevitably run over by the resulting long-term developments. History rhymes, and Irish history doubly so.
Like most Englishmen I couldn't tell you anything useful about Irish politics. But I will say your description of the managerialism of Fine Gael sounded at times pretty close to how the Conservative party acted for much of the noughties. Obviously there was the Brexit rupture, but even amid that the Tories continued to accept many nostrums of high status liberals throughout the West, agreeing (with variable resistance) to gay marriage, no fault divorce, transgender medicine, full-term abortion and most importantly high immigration.
Granted, the gravity of public opinion has finally pulled the Tories to earth, and whatever happens it is hard to see them winning more seats than Reform at the next election. It seems likely that the Greens will give Labour trouble through a similar flanking strategy, and you can see similar patterns in Europe with local flavour. But for a long time both cheeks of the uniparty continued to enjoy the smell of their own farts.
As for Turning Point, if they've had any influence on British politics worth mentioning it has escaped my attention. As far as I can tell it remains an American problem.
Good point about this group supporting Unionism and then blundering into Irish politics. I think a lot of these younger British right wingers are pretty clueless about Republicanism/Unionism. I saw a Lotus Eaters segment about the Ballymena riots and one of the guys on the panel genuinely didn't understand that the rioters there would not consider themselves to be Irish.
A lot of these people suddenly got into politics because of Trump, Brexit or 'gamergate' and can be very knowledgeable about the prominent issues of 2015 onwards, but they often have little idea about things - such as 'The Troubles' - that have not had much salience in the Trump Era.
"Nothing remotely like what we saw in the recent Gorton and Denton by-election in the UK is happening in Ireland. It’s that latter part that will provoke a change in a party like Fine Gael."
The response to Gorton and Denton has been pretty disappointing. An event that prefigures the grim future of democracy in Europe and the learning outcome appears to be 'look how well you can do if you court all those line-voting ethnics - don't get left behind!'. Even for Farage, it seems unthinkable that you wouldn't actively court the Muslim vote. Only Restore has really been clear on the implications of this.
Look at the way Roderic started slavering over the outcome in Gorton/Denton. I think it's more likely that the 'lesson' to be learned by FG re Gorton/Denton is that there's huge opportunity in courting the votes of ethnics, and acting accordingly.
It's quite a bad situation!
The baizou tribe invites in outsiders for advantage over their domestic enemy, then is inevitably run over by the resulting long-term developments. History rhymes, and Irish history doubly so.
It's all so tiresome.
Like most Englishmen I couldn't tell you anything useful about Irish politics. But I will say your description of the managerialism of Fine Gael sounded at times pretty close to how the Conservative party acted for much of the noughties. Obviously there was the Brexit rupture, but even amid that the Tories continued to accept many nostrums of high status liberals throughout the West, agreeing (with variable resistance) to gay marriage, no fault divorce, transgender medicine, full-term abortion and most importantly high immigration.
Granted, the gravity of public opinion has finally pulled the Tories to earth, and whatever happens it is hard to see them winning more seats than Reform at the next election. It seems likely that the Greens will give Labour trouble through a similar flanking strategy, and you can see similar patterns in Europe with local flavour. But for a long time both cheeks of the uniparty continued to enjoy the smell of their own farts.
As for Turning Point, if they've had any influence on British politics worth mentioning it has escaped my attention. As far as I can tell it remains an American problem.
Good point about this group supporting Unionism and then blundering into Irish politics. I think a lot of these younger British right wingers are pretty clueless about Republicanism/Unionism. I saw a Lotus Eaters segment about the Ballymena riots and one of the guys on the panel genuinely didn't understand that the rioters there would not consider themselves to be Irish.
A lot of these people suddenly got into politics because of Trump, Brexit or 'gamergate' and can be very knowledgeable about the prominent issues of 2015 onwards, but they often have little idea about things - such as 'The Troubles' - that have not had much salience in the Trump Era.