Electorate vows it won’t get fooled again

This is what you get when you falsely promise a democratic revolution. Three years ago, Enda Kenny looked the electorate in the eye, struck that ham actor pose of his, and promised that he would usher in a "democratic revolution". He and his government did no such thing. Last Friday, the electorate declared that they won’t get fooled again.

Anybody who trawled the doorsteps with candidates during the election campaign would have heard the issue of water charges repeatedly being raised like a jack in the box. But this election was about something more profound than that, or the property tax, or the universal social charge. Many who reaped a golden harvest on Friday milked these issues, but the extent of the collapse in Labour’s vote in particular hinted at a deeper disillusionment.

In 2011, the electorate knew well that the old politics was kaput. Feather bedding, approaching the European powers like supplicants, putting party before country, vested interests before the common good — everybody knew that these values had landed the country in the mire.