Establishment avoids real issues as Trumpism advances

A WEEKEND opinion poll shows Sinn Féin is enjoying its strongest support in over a year. 

The Sunday Business Post put Sinn Féin on 19%, up 5%. The People Before Profit and the Anti-Austerity Alliance grouping showed a spectacular jump too, albeit from a low base. They rose to 6%, up 2%. Together those figures top Fine Gael’s 24%. The figures are an expression of the utter disenchantment with establishment politics that has given the world, undeserving as we may be, President Trump and Brexit. The prospect of Marine Le Pen in the Élysée Palace surfs on that tsunami of anger too. The poll is only the tip of the iceberg, however.

Potentially chaotic industrial unrest in public and private sectors is gathering momentum because just like Trump’s supporters and many of those who voted for Brexit, Irish workers have had enough of running — for almost a decade — just to stand still.