Having read Michael Taft’s piece on Labour and the two and a half party system last month some thoughts struck me which were underscored in conversation with someone close to the Green Party. They had done a neat little chart which demonstrated that historically it has been smaller fourth parties which have a better chance […]

… is the catchphrase of politicians in the wake of each new crime headline. The ‘something’ which must be done generally involves creating ‘new’ crimes in legislation, imposing mandatory or minimum sentences for existing crimes, or some combination of the two. Unfortunately, the Left in Ireland all too often falls in with the […]

In launching his successful bid for the leadership of the Labour Party, Deputy Eamon Gilmore laid out his primary objective in unmistakable terms:‘Labour should break free of, and reject, the “half party” limit which others impose on us - and which, sometimes, we inflict on ourselves.’
Just to make sure that everyone knows he was serious […]

“We sought workers, and in their stead came people”. That remark – now absorbed into German political discourse – is attributed to former German President Gustav Heinemann in the 1960s, speaking at a time when Germany was addressing the consequences of large-scale Turkish immigration.
Fast forward 40 years to the German elections in 2002: media […]

It’s hardly a radical proposition that the Irish Left is a curious beast. It is small, gaining perhaps at best twenty five per cent of the national vote at elections. It is scattered, with leftist elements within the Irish Labour Party, Sinn Féin, the Green Party and beyond amongst a number of much smaller […]