What Fine Gael should be doing to blow Bertie out of the floodwater
There he was, on the front page of at least two national newspapers, looking doleful as he waded shin-deep in the flooded streets of his constituency.
“It just goes to show,” one newspaper quipped, “Bertie can’t walk on water.” Wrong. The photo proved the opposite. Apart from the fact that the Taoiseach had a supernatural, almost saintly, look as he hovered over the water, that front page picture was one in the eye for the Fine Gael and Labour press offices, given the week that was in it.
Tuesday saw a motion of no confidence in Bertie’s Minister for Finance, tabled by Fine Gael. By Thursday we had the Book of Estimates, the severity of which was a thorough indictment of the Government’s management of the public finances in recent years. Yet the Taoiseach still managed to steal the photo opportunity of the week.
By contrast, the only photo of Enda Kenny was a remarkably hick ‘thumbs-up’ with what looked like a Young Fine Gael rent-a-crowd in the Burlington Hotel. The image was contrived and embarrassing because everybody knows Fine Gael has nothing to celebrate right now.
On Sunday, the party was in more trouble, with reports that its vote could collapse to 15% in the next general election.
If there is one lesson for Kenny in all this, it’s that he shouldn’t try to emulate Bertie Ahern; he needs something more than personal charm and slick photo opportunities if his party is to find favour with the voters.
Bertie has already cornered the market in niceness and has proved, time and again, that it doesn’t matter what he does or believes once he has the people on his side.
Look at the Taoiseach’s sins, real and imagined, and then marvel at the way people fawn on him. This is the man who signed blank cheques for Charles Haughey, failed to investigate Ray Burke before making him a minister, and talked up the public finances during the general election campaign. Yet people follow him around like he’s the pied piper.
The electorate asked no hard questions about the economy until he was safely back in the Taoiseach’s office. And even now, when journalists are finally challenging the Government over the public finances, they still can’t resist Bertie’s photocalls. Enda Kenny must overcome this, and he should start by doing the small things right. His party’s timing is appalling. Imagine if Fine Gael had tabled its motion of no confidence in the Minister for Finance after the Book of Estimates was released, instead of before. It would have been an altogether more embarrassing affair for McCreevy, and he wouldn’t have treated the matter so casually.
More importantly, Fine Gael is not connecting with the electorate because it doesn’t stand for anything significant. Witness its crass advertising in recent years. First we had the Celtic Snail campaign, telling us that the country’s infrastructure was creaking under Fianna Fáil. Nobody got the point.
Last week Fine Gael hammered up ‘wanted’ posters, wild west style, to promote what was meant to be a serious issue, the motion of no confidence. And six weeks ago, Young Fine Gael produced an idiotic poster of a copulating couple to promote a Yes vote in the Nice referendum. They even told us that the couple involved were Fine Gael members, so desperate were they to make their party look trendy. Instead of trying to arouse us sexually, however, Fine Gael should be trying to awaken us politically by proposing radical solutions to our housing and transport problems.
Housing, in particular, presents a genuine opportunity because the Government appears beholden to the construction industry. Nothing else could explain the complete failure, over five years, to make house prices more affordable to young people. And the Government’s latest move, the removal of the first-time buyers’ grant, shows that tax cuts, and control over public spending are getting priority over people’s need to find a home.
Imagine how young couples feel when they see investors snapping up new houses and developments, and driving prices ever higher. “Estate agents, backed up by politicians, regularly stating that it is ‘a good time for first-time buyers,’ leave young people blank,” wrote Toner Quinn, one of the many young people trying to get on the housing ladder.
“The Government makes noises about social housing, but shows no real sense of urgency, certainly not equal to the panic that is out there.”
The party that solves this problem will win the gratitude both of young people and of their long-suffering parents, and that’s two constituencies that Fine Gael badly needs to woo. Fine Gael should be calling for legislation, backed up by a constitutional referendum if necessary, to enable compulsory purchase of land for housing. The party should also propose a state agency charged with the responsibility of building and selling decent houses at an affordable price to people.
If Fine Gael hesitates to make such brave policy proposals, it will perish. It cannot afford the illusion that it is really a large political party that has temporarily shrunk in size. It was clear in the last general election that the party organisation has all but disappeared in many areas.
Politicians as seasoned as Jim Mitchell in Dublin Central and Seymour Crawford in Cavan-Monaghan found themselves canvassing, if not alone, then with no more than one or two people at a time. Contrast that with Bertie Ahern's huge machine in Dublin Central.
There is only room for one catch-all party in Irish politics, and that is Fianna Fáil. Labour is emerging as a force on the left and Pat Rabbitte will take some beating on that turf. Which leaves one obvious move for Fine Gael: it must re-embrace its core constituency by building on the Christian Democratic values which people like John Bruton and Gay Mitchell passionately believe in. That means becoming more conservative on social issues, but articulating these views in a robust intellectual, rather than a religious, fashion.
It is a strategy that is paying off handsomely for the Republican Party in America. The Republicans have built a solid base of people who support traditional values, and these are the activists who get out and knock on doors at election time, but the party has also been successful in winning support in traditionally Democratic strongholds, such as among hispanics.
This idea won’t please the liberal grandees of Fine Gael, people like Garret FitzGerald and Alan Dukes, who have despised the traditionalist wing since the 1980s. But with only three seats out of 49 in Dublin, the party must now realise that there is no great liberal vote in a market crowded by Labour, the PDs and the Greens.
On the other hand, Fine Gael’s traditional constituency can give the party what it most needs - a vibrant organisation on the ground and a platform of core values.
The party should respond, not by embracing these ideas in a shallow way, but by pursuing them with conviction.
Such a change in direction will require a major shift in thinking at the highest level in Fine Gael. But the rewards are there.
An electorate reeling from spiralling house prices, predatory investors and a diminishing quality of life will find a renewed emphasis on family and community quite refreshing. And the choice facing Fine Gael is simple. Get daring or die.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
