Source
r/ireland•
neonic75

r/Ireland political leanings

In case anyone is vaguely interested in the political leanings of this sub I've put together the results from a couple of strawpolls over the last while.

I've asked a number of times which way people would give their first preference if there was a general election in the morning and compiled some of the data below.

Some of the trends clearly indicate the mood of the electorate (Green popularity around June last year), some not so much (Sinn Fein's popularity for example) Given ages and demographics on this sub and the internet in general this should perhaps not be too surprising.

This is in no way scientific, does not reflect the mood of the country and should be taken with a grain of salt.

The whole thing is probably unnecessary and you could probably guess the results.

All that being said, results below:

https://i.imgur.com/pBGlw4b.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UarQlLj.jpg

Posted Jan 10, 2020, 10:51 AM UTC

2140
SlightCarpetConnacht•

The SocDem and Fianna Fáil trends are just depressing.

That massive SF rebound post-RIC fiasco is hilarious even if I don't support them.

27
neonic75OP•

Big argument for SocDems and Labour to get over whatever "Personality Clashes" exist and merge.

14
CaisLaochach•

100% of the Soc Dems TDs have personal issues with the Labour Party though.

The Soc Dems will probably die once they both retire.

8
neonic75OP•

Do you know the details? I only ever hear about this clash of personalities but never any details.

I assume Alan Kelly butt heads with someone but that is pure wild speculation on my part.

7
CaisLaochach•

Catherine Murphy was in DL and opposed joining Labour. Don't know of any personal issue with the people, rather with the idea. She's an old fashioned leftie who found herself without a parish.

Roisin Shortall left during the coalition because she didn't feel sufficiently supported. She was the junior health minister and didn't get on well with James Reilly and felt she wasn't backed enough. I've also heard she's quite difficult to work with and not very practical, which in a minister would be a nightmare.

1
danny_healy_raygun•

SocDems can't agree with themselves nevermind with Labour

2
nkrera•

Its not a personality clash. It's a fundamental policy clash based on Labour's actions in government.

1
Debeefed•

For all the anti FG sentiment around here they seem remarkably popular.

If they're that popular here they might be worth a flutter for a majority.

15
danius353Munster•

FG have done a lot of things badly. Housing crisis, people waiting on trolleys in hospitals at all time high, NCH budget overrun etc.

But on the other hand the economy is doing well, employment has increased consistently since they took over, Brexit has been handled incredibly well (I give a lot of credit to FF here too) and we've had two massively socially progressive referendums.

Like, I imagine age has a huge part to play in it. People under 25 now are probably not as sensitive to how bad things were in 2008-12 and therefore don't give FG credit for how things have changed since then.

On the hand, I imagine people aged 30-50 are probably overly sensitive to what happened in the crash and would rather cut off their arm than vote for FF.

3
forfudgecake•

and we've had two massively socially progressive referendums.

I tend to take a problem with this when it's brought up as a government accomplishment (Listen the fuck up Labour).

They passed those referendums, they didn't campaign for them previously. Give the credit to the grassroots who have been campaigning for decades, not those sitting in the dail who decide to let people choose.

When THC and Weed is legalised, we're going to have the same rhetoric from whichever party decides to be progressive without the proper representation of those battling for it from them right now.

8
dodieh34•

This is the issue I am in. I can't vote FF and feel good about it. I am closer to 30 than 25 now and the idea of voting them back in is a non starter.

FG seems totally focused on Dublin and nothing else, am from Galway. In saying that I do like a decent amount of there policies and economic plan, most definitely not perfect but overall been good.

Personally at the moment I am voting greens mostly as they are best of a bad lot.

3
backintheddr•

Tell that to me brother. Unemployment for years but would vote FF to protect his house price. Me Feiners are everywhere.

1
danny_healy_raygun•

FG have always been extremely popular on this sub. Its actually surprising to see them fall so low in the latest polls.

3†
YoloMcSwagDab•

The high support for Sinn Fein explains why there are so many retarded comments on here.

13†
shanemitchellCork (planning my escape to Galway)•

A lot of Sin Fein and Greens votes are coming from people who are desperate for change, any change, to the never-ending FG/FF cycle of governments; it doesn't necessarily mean that people support their policies or even have a good understanding of what their policies are.

18
[deleted]•

[removed]

1
CaptainEarlobe•

It's a bit worse than that. Comments that are perceived to be anti-SF will often get a lot of downvotes but very few, or very poor quality, rebuttals. It's mostly a demographic thing though, and nothing to be overly concerned about.

3
malilk•

Triggering the shinnerbots seems to be an easy thing to do. Comments can be fairly innocuous but still heavily downvoted.

1†
Fairchild660•

It just shows how unrepresentative this sub is of the Irish voting public.

12
GupnZup•

It is very obvious that there is a large number of people from Northern Ireland on the sub.

There are also teenagers too young to vote.

10
forfudgecake•

This, Reddit is the bounciest echo chamber around.

Even looking at the talking of r/UnitedKingdom and Labour had a 97% majority.

3†
nivenkos•

Same is true of all of Reddit though. Reddit is largely young tech workers and students.

0†
[deleted]•

[deleted]

7
nivenkos•

Most of those will only be in the main subreddits though.

And there is no way it's more popular than the sites you mentioned if you include mobile apps.

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
rexaviorThe Fenian•

Is it just me or does it look like almost every party fell in support. Is there an undecided category?

8
neonic75OP•

They all add up to 100, bar the one from 3 days ago which ads up to 99, i missed something but not a big thing.

8
throwaway7089324•

Fine Gael? Fuck off.

5
[deleted]•

[deleted]

4†
danius353Munster•

They have no experience of running a country.

I'm not a big fan of SF, but that's not a great criticism. Like, FF had been in power for so long that most of FG or Labour had never served in government when FG/Lab won the election in 2011. And it's the same now for FF - not many were part of the Celtic Tiger governments.

Regardless most of the actual management is done by the civil service. Put a SF TD in charge of any department and it'll still keep functioning. That would help temper any very unrealistic policy.

24
[deleted]•

[deleted]

-1
GabhaNua•

SFs wealth tax is madness. It attacks middle class hard and then there is all the nonsense about anti water charges.

-6
danius353Munster•

It attacks middle class hard

Only applies on total net assets in excess of €1m, so very few people would be hit. As it's net assets, any mortgage liabilities offset the value of your home so even those few people who can afford a €1m home won't pay the tax until their mortgage would be paid off and even then the first 20% value of your home is exempt from the calculation.

EDIT: I did a quick check of property prices at Property Price Register. Out of all the 55,464 properties sold in Ireland in 2019, just 849 were in excess of €1m which is 1.5%. I'm not sure I'd call people in the top 1.5% "middle class".

Plus I don't think it hits very hard. It's a 1% tax on the excess, so if you have net assets of €1.5m, then you pay 1% of the 500k which is €5k. That is not a lot for someone with those assets and is far preferably to the USC we have at the moment that takes money off everyone regardless of their ability to afford it.

18
GabhaNua•

1 million seems like a ton for a young person and it is as a percentile of the whole population but it's not for a Dubliner at near retirement it's not. Factor in the average price of a house and a pension pot and it's extremely common. It's also injust to tax like this as the wealth may not necessarily be producing income. Meanwhile we have some of the lowest tax rates on low income earners in Europe.

-4
GabhaNua•

1 million seems like a ton for a young person and it is as a percentile of the whole population but it's not for a Dubliner at near retirement it's not. Factor in the average price of a house and a pension pot and it's extremely common. It's also injust to tax like this as the wealth may not necessarily be producing income.

-6
charliesfrown•

I agree completely with the reasons you give for not voting SF except for;

They have no experience of running a country.

I don't believe there's much experience of that in any party. FG seem to govern only when absolutely pushed to it and mostly just focus on PR.

Despite those reservations I will be voting SF before either FG or FF for the simple reason that where-ever I see people worse off than myself in this country SF are the only party I see fighting for them.

Oh, and Pearse Doherty. He's the best politician in the country.

8
louiseberI don't want a flair•

You've probably seen already Neo but couple of the lads over on IrishPolitics were wondering if we could do the same as this for IP. Was wondering if you'd consider running same protocol for over in that sub too?

1
neonic75OP•

Missed that but ya, happy to. Realistically it will probably be Monday morning before I'm sitting in front of a laptop so I'll do it then

1
louiseberI don't want a flair•

In yer own time hun! Appreciate you being open to doing it. Will sticky threads as they come up

1