Labour Party conference: A challenge for all progressives

The Labour conference did not, naturally, have the gala atmosphere of a party in government but it did underline the party’s commitment to progressive ideals.

Indeed, it is an irony of Irish political life that as the electorate becomes ever more progressive — abortion, marriage equality, blasphemy, etc — the party that for so long was the only one at ease with society-changing ideas beyond the conservative consensus languishes on the margins of political relevance. The latest opinion poll put the party on 4%, a full 20 percentage points behind Sinn Féin.

Party leader Brendan Howlin went some way to addressing that fall by asking party loyalists to give their second preference votes to the Green Party or Social Democrats to ensure a strong “progressive” voice in the Dáil, councils or European Parliament. This is a plausible proposal as even the most trenchant conservative, and we have more than our share, will recognise that democracy must celebrate the spirit of the process as well as the cold calculations of the ballot box.

We need, as the presidential election showed, a counterbalance to the established, turn-and-about-turn parties. That the current Dáil is so dependent on, so limited by an unsettled kaleidoscope of independents — or at least that is the defence offered from the Government benches — adds to Mr Howlin’s argument that progressives should form a coherent block and present themselves as such to the electorate.