Opposition set to win Irish election

[News_Editor]

Opposition set to win Irish election

2011-02-27 04:32:14 GMT+7 (ICT)

DUBLIN (BNO NEWS) -- Early results from Ireland's general election suggests that opposition Fine Gael is set to lead the next government, causing an electoral meltdown for the ruling Fianna Fáil party, the Irish Times reported Saturday.

Latest indications suggest Fine Gael will win 76 seats, while the Labour party will take 36 and Fianna Fáil will get 25. The turnout was 68.8 per cent, higher than the 67 per cent recorded at the last poll in May 2007.

Fine Gael is on course for its strongest showing in more than 28 years, with Fianna Fáil suffering its worst since the foundation of the party, the newspaper reported.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who was elected on the first count in Mayo, said the people of Ireland had given his party a "massive endorsement" to form the next government.

"I intend to send out a clear message around the world that this country has given my party a massive endorsement to provide stable and strong government with a clear agenda," he said.

Fine Gael's Micheal Noonan, who was elected on the first count in Limerick City, said Labour would be his favoured option as coalition partners.

Current Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who resigned as leader of Fianna Fáil at the end of January following criticism of his handling of the country's current financial crisis, conceded it had been a "difficult day for Fianna Fáil." He insisted, however, his party took tough but necessary decisions while in office to stabilize the country's finances.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, who was elected on the first count in Dún Laoghaire, said this afternoon it was too early to speculate on the formation of the next government.

Final official results are expected by late Saturday or even Sunday.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-02-27

[aridion]

Yea. A big clear out of the old guard.

[Xangsamhua]

Poor Ireland - an object lesson that there's no such thing as a free lunch.

No matter. Whoever wins the Irish general election — Kenny, probably — will have to doff his cap daily to the neatly suited ECB/IMF inspectors ('Germans', as they are generically called) who now cruise Irish government corridors. His glorious prime ministerial duties will largely consist of him licking EU stamps, and asking if the staff can have Saturday afternoon off, bitte. He will also default on the repayments of Irish debt, because it is impossible for Ireland to meet the multi-billion-euro demands of the European banks and bond-holders. No one can rescue Ireland now, save the empire to which it has so abjectly surrendered its soul.

Kevin Myers, "Eire of sorrows". The Spectator: February 26, 2011.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/all/6725883/part_3/eire-of-sorrows.thtml

Edited February 27, 2011 by Xangsamhua

[jombom]

Kevin Myers is a good writer, but only in the sense that he constructs well composed sentences. The content unfortunately is often pure drivel. This is from his biography in wikipedia, in an article about Scottish people in 2006;

“ There lies the ruin of Scotland - subsidies. Guaranteed transfers of capital from England have created a political culture of sloth which is now endemic and even personalised. Scottish people are the most obese in Europe, in which regard they resemble the wretched Scottish statelet. Only a minority of Scottish people work for a living - and most of those who have jobs are employed by the state: 577,300. In other words, they are employed by the English to manage themselves. The rest of the Scots are on the dole or pensions, living in state-owned housing estates, sending their children to state-run schools, where the most likely form of personal enterprise they will ever encounter is their local heroin-dealer. „

—Myers, Kevin, An Irishman's Diary,

The Irish Times, 8 February 2006

[Xangsamhua]

Kevin Myers is a good writer, but only in the sense that he constructs well composed sentences. The content unfortunately is often pure drivel. This is from his biography in wikipedia, in an article about Scottish people in 2006;

" There lies the ruin of Scotland - subsidies. Guaranteed transfers of capital from England have created a political culture of sloth which is now endemic and even personalised. Scottish people are the most obese in Europe, in which regard they resemble the wretched Scottish statelet. Only a minority of Scottish people work for a living - and most of those who have jobs are employed by the state: 577,300. In other words, they are employed by the English to manage themselves. The rest of the Scots are on the dole or pensions, living in state-owned housing estates, sending their children to state-run schools, where the most likely form of personal enterprise they will ever encounter is their local heroin-dealer. „

—Myers, Kevin, An Irishman's Diary,

The Irish Times, 8 February 2006

Sounds like some of the people and places described in Ian Rankin's Edinburgh-based novels. Even the ever-positive and kindly Alexander McCall Smith at times acknowledges this face of Scotland. Lard O'Connor and Wee Fraser come to mind. And yet the Scots "invented the modern world". How did they do it?

But we were talking about Ireland, weren't we.

I gather Kevin Myers is, in the minds of some, a raving right-wing loony. I wouldn't know, but the Irish can see for themselves how right or wrong he is. Things aren't looking too good.