FG doesn’t need a better basher as leader – it needs a policy showcase
Truman has gone down in history as one of the best presidents, even though he was the most unpopular leaving office. He did not try to be popular; he tried to be right.
In a domestic conext, can anyone say what Fine Gael stands for now? The party’s idea of a good leader is somebody who bashes Fianna Fáil, whether right or wrong. That has appeal within the party, but it has never translated into electoral appeal.
The first four leaders of the party – Eoin O’Duffy, WT Cosgrave, Dick Mulcahy, and James Dillon – never became Taoiseach. WT Cosgrave had come to the top with Cumann na nGaedheal, but never with FG.
In 1948 Mulcahy realised that he would have to stand aside for John A Costello as Taoiseach if FG were to get into power. Mulcahy remained as party leader until 1959 and, during that time, Costello formed two governments.
James Dillon then became leader. He may have been the best orator in the Dáil. FG gained seven seats under him against Séan Lemass in 1961, but that was his high watermark. Lemass did the right thing and left Dillon thundering aimlessly. He might as well have been whistling Dixie for all the impact his oratory had on the electorate.
Liam Cosgrave became leader of FG in 1965. With the courage of his convictions, he refused to play politics as usual when he believed Fianna Fáil was trying to do the right thing, such as attempting to get rid of proportional representation in the late 1960s.
In 1969, FG made the greatest gains, but the party was poised to oust Cosgrave when he refused to oppose FF’s efforts to revive the Special Criminal Court in the early 1970s.
Garret FitzGerald and company were ready to pounce on Cosgrave until two bombs in central Dublin blew them to their senses. Despite his genial image now, it took FitzGerald some time to realise the old-style politics were going nowhere.
On coming to power in 1979, Charlie Haughey recognised that the country was living beyond its means, but he did not have the courage to do what was needed.
FitzGerald came to power in 1981 pretending that he could solve our problems in a painless way. His first government came crashing down within months over trying to put VAT on children’s shoes.
Haughey returned to form the GUBU government of 1982, which was equally short-lived. It was probably the worst government in our history. After a whole series of incredible scandals, Haughey did eventually try to tackle the growing economic crisis with a plan – The Way Forward.
It was what was needed, but the opposition brought FF down over that plan. FG and Labour ruled for the next four years without facing the necessary hard decisions before that government came apart.
Although FF came up just short of an overall majority in the ensuing general election of 1987, FitzGerald promised that FG would support the minority government if it introduced the necessary economic policies. This became known as the Tallaght Strategy under FitzGerald’s FG successor, Alan Dukes.
In the national interest FG supported the government in the Dáil on all major votes. Haughey implemented The Way Forward, five years after he had first tried to introduce it, and this essentially helped to turn the economy around. If it had been done five years earlier a great deal of pain could have been avoided and many of the young people who had to emigrate might have been able to make a living in their own country. They were betrayed by the old-style politics.
Unfortunately, Charlie Haughey was as politically greedy as he was financially avaricious. He called a snap general election in 1989 in an effort to win an overall majority.
FF lost four seats, while FG gained five. Haughey had done the dirt on Alan Dukes, who put a price on further co-operation. He rightly insisted on a FF–FG coalition with a rotating Taoiseach.
The Progressive Democrats were the biggest losers in that 1989 election – failing to retain eight of their 14 seats. Although essentially founded to keep Haughey out of power, they had the six seats that he needed and they jumped into the political bed with him thereby saving him for a couple of years.
The PDs liked to think they broke the mould of Irish politics. They forced FF to go into coalition, but instead of getting rid of the mould, they rebuilt it.
There are none so stupid as those who do not learn from their mistakes. Did we learn from the mistakes of the 1980s?
Alan Dukes, who had done the country a real service, was ousted by John Bruton little over a year later. Bruton seemed likely to join the long list of FG leaders who never became Taoiseach, when the party lost 10 seats in 1992. Bruton got his opportunity, however, when Albert Reynolds destroyed his partnership with the Labour party in 1994. Bruton then formed an effective government with Labour and, in 1997, FG won back nine of the 10 seats lost five years earlier, but Bruton failed to win power.
In 2001 Michael Noonan ousted him in the grand tradition of the FF-bashers. Maybe the Fine Gael faithful were impressed with Noonan’s bluster, but the country certainly was not. The party lost 23 seats the following year and Noonan was sent packing himself.
UNDER Enda Kenny, however, the party gained 20 seats in 2007, but it still failed to win. Hence there have been rumblings ever since about ousting Kenny and introducing a better basher.
That is just negative reaction in the guise of leadership. Admittedly, Kenny has leadership problems, but he has an impossible task in a party obsessed with negative attacks rather than presenting a positive programme of its own. The party doesn’t follow its leader because it’s always looking for a crankier chief.
A recent public opinion poll found that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was the most popular choice to take over the running of our economy. This is a betrayal of generations and a blistering indictment of all of our political parties because it is an admission that many of our own people now think we are so unfit to govern ourselves that they want bankers, of all people, to run the country.
A government with perception would have recognised the need for broad support two years ago. FG and Labour should have been invited into government then. They might have refused, but that would have been an abrogation of their responsibility.
Now it is too late to form a consensus government. We need a general election first. A national government could then be formed to tackle our economic problems before the cream of another generation is forced to emigrate and our independence is betrayed by the introduction of the IMF.
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