Which party would I support in Ireland?

Today is St Patrick's Day, so an obvious question for the political blogosphere is which party would one support in Ireland? I've looked at this one before (With St. Patrick's Day looming) but since then the party I choose (the Progressive Democrats) have disbanded. So it's time to have another go.

Ireland is relatively unusual in having two major parties floating around the centre to centre-right that are not clearly defined in terms of ideology. This is most vividly seen in the European Parliament where both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have never quite fitted into any of the groupings with ease. Fine Gael has always sat with the Christian Democratic European People's Party but many feel its natural home is with the Liberals. Fianna Fáil in turn has had a convoluted history of caucusing with various national-conservative parties who have been outside the EPP for one reason or another but found difficulties in maintaining a viable block and so last year joined the Liberals.

Furthermore the only notable Eurosceptic party is Sinn Féin, not exactly the obvious choice for me. So whichever party I'd choose would be one I wouldn't agree fully with - a fairly natural thing in politics.

One party stands out as having official values I generally feel I can support:

Equality of opportunity

[The party] wants to create a fair and caring society where everybody is engaged in democracy, and where there are no barriers to equal opportunity. [The party] stands for investment in our public services and sees health and education as rights, not privileges.

Enterprise and Reward

[The party] encourages initiative, innovation, investment and self-reliance. The Party also believes in preserving, enhancing and sharing prosperity. [The party] stands for a vibrant, competitive economy. To that end, we believe Government policy should encourage initiative and reward hard work, thus driving economic activity and creating jobs.

Security

[The party] wants to build a safe society in Ireland by protecting citizens and enforcing the law. The Party also believes in strengthening families, in all their modern forms, and in fostering communities. [The party] stands for law and order. We believe in tough sentences for criminals and more Gardai on the beat while also tackling the root causes of crime like poverty and educational disadvantage.

Integrity

[The party] believes in being truthful and courageous in what we do, and in promoting and upholding both the rights and the responsibilities of people. [The party] stands for integrity in public life. We believe in ensuring all of us live up to our responsibilities as well as enjoying our rights as Irish men and women.

Hope

[The party] wants to build an Ireland of excellence and ambition. We hope to do this by promoting a shared vision of a confident and sustainable future for Ireland, both at home and abroad. [The party] stands for a climate of hope. To achieve this, we believe in enhancing Ireland's international reputation through our support for the European Union, protecting communities through balanced regional development and safeguarding our children's future through protection of the environment.

A strong emphasis on an enterprise economy, tough on law and order, creating equality of opportunity and support for families and communities - these are all values I share and can agree with. I'm less enamoured with the support for the European Union, though the phrasing above makes it as much a means rather than an ends in itself. But putting that one issue aside I can easily see myself supporting this party. And it is:

But which party would other people support?

The end of the Progressive Democrats

The Irish Progressive Democrats have voted by 201-161 at their conference to dissolve after all their remaining parliamentarians and the party's founder agreed the party had no viable future. (RTÉ News: PDs vote to wind up political party) The PDs have had an interesting history as one of the most influential small parties in Ireland but also one of the most hated. Maybe it was because they were willing to criticise sacred cows. Or because they got things done. Or because of their tone. Or their mistakes. Historians will no doubt debate it endlessly.

But one point of curiosity struck me. The PDs are dissolving when they are still in government, in a sort-of Jamaica coalition with Fianna Fáil and the Greens. It is very rare for parties in national government to self-dissolve. Sometimes a coalition leads to a fusion of parties, but the formal mergers have generally taken place in opposition as part of a structural reorganisation. But I can think of only three other parties that have dissolved in government, ironically all called National Labour. The British National Labour Party dissolved at the end of the Second World War, but as it was part of an all-party coalition of national unity and I'm not sure if any members of the party still held ministerial office by 1945. The situation for the Irish National Labour Party is another exceptional case as it had broken away from the regular Labour Party in 1944 over accusations of communist infiltration but reunified in 1950 when both parties were part of a grand anti-Fianna Fáil coalition and the National Labour leader James Everett was a Cabinet minister. The Australian National Labor Party never really existed as more than a breakaway group in Parliament due to splits during the First World War who after three months merged with the Commonwealth Liberal Party. Although the product was the Nationalist Party of Australia I'd discount the CLP as the right in Australia has a long history of mergers and absorptions and the result is usually more a takeover by whatever name than an actual merger. (National Labor did, however, have a longer life and organisation at the state level in Western Australia until it two was subsumed into the Nationalists after defeat in 1924.)

None of these are completely comparable to the PDs. The Australian party was really just a vehicle of motion for a political realignment, the Irish party ended by undoing the split and the British party had politically really been defeated in 1940 when the National Government was replaced by an all-party coalition and so was in the unique situation of political opposition but in government.

Are there any other examples I'm unaware of?

So who would I vote for in Ireland now?

As I wrote in my previous post With St. Patrick's Day looming, if I were a voter in the Republic of Ireland I would vote for the Progressive Democrats. It seems I would have to look for a new party soon. Since their drubbing at the last election the PDs have gone through a process of reappraisal, uncertainty and decline, and now the party's leader has announced that all the parliamentarians unanimously agree the party is no longer viable. (RTÉ News: PD conference to decide party's future)

The PDs have had an impact on Ireland out of all proportion to their electoral size. By promoting strong free market economics and low taxation they have a large share of the responsibility for turning Ireland into the economic powerhouse it is today. They have been prepared to challenge taboos - remember Mary Harney's famous comment that Ireland should be closer to Boston than Berlin? Or Michael McDowell's staunch attacks on Sinn Féin, going beyond what members of Fianna Fáil would say. The PDs can also claim another first in that the current Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats-Green government may well be the first centre right-liberal-green "Jamaica coalition" government in the world (even if the parties don't use the same colours as the relevant German ones). If the party does decide to disband it will be a pity for Ireland as a whole.

So if they go who would I vote for? The last time I looked Fine Gael was the next answer, but their coalitions with Labour could be too great a hurdle. Fianna Fáil scored lower than Labour but as one of the questions was whether I agreed with the statement "Charles Haughey was a good Taoiseach" the test may not have been the most refined. (Who would devise a British quiz with "Margaret Thatcher was a good Prime Minister" as one of the questions?) Fortunately as I'm not a voter there I don't need to decide, but it's an interesting one to ponder.

With St. Patrick's Day looming

St. Patrick's Day is looming once again and following a similar post last year by Hot Ginger and Dynamite: Focáil leat Lawlor, this leads me to wonder what party I would support if I were in the Republic of Ireland.

It's not as easy as it sounds. None of the main parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, are clearly defined ideologically in a left-right sense. For supporters of other parties this isn't so difficult - there are direct counterparts of both Labour and the Greens, although both are smaller. There's also a party that unashamedly calls itself a Liberal party and has the same international affiliations as the Liberal Democrats, namely the Progressive Democrats, although they're considerably to the right of our Lib Dems. "Very Orange Book" is perhaps the best way to sum it up.

A Eurosceptic, free market Atlanticist Conservative who feels tough on law and order could thus look at the various parties and be left confused (there is no Irish affiliate to most of the international bodies that the UK Conservative Party is a member of). But some parties stand out more than others.

There is an interesting test online at SelectSmart.com: Political Party Chooser - Republic of Ireland and my results are as follows:

1. Progressive Democrats.
2. Greens
3. Fine Gael
4. Labour
5. Fianna Fáil
6. Sinn Féin

And indeed looking at their policies on their website and public statements, particularly the tone of Michael McDowell on Sinn Féin, the PDs are probably the party I would plump for.

But what does everyone else get?

So what party are you?

Thanks to Liberty Hall Grapevine's post "Would I make a good Tory...?", I've been directed to SelectSmart.com, which has a number of tests, amongst others, on politics around the world. The first, and most inevitable test, is for the major British political parties and my results rank them in the following order:

1. Conservatives
2. Labour
3. Green Party
4. Liberal Democrats
5. Plaid Cymru
6. Scottish National Party

So not too surprising there. More interesting are the tests for other countries. Many have bemoaned the chaotic state of politics in the Republic of Ireland, where ideology is almost totally lacking and parties are based around personalities, and it's very hard to say which party is the equivalent of anything. One of the few parties that doesn't have its roots in the Irish Civil War are the Progressive Democrats, who call themselves a "Liberal Political Party" and are the Republic's affiliates to the various international federations of liberal political parties, but whilst there's an economic policy that British commentators would label "Orange Book",

one of their most prominent TDs, the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, has acquired a reputation for being something of an authoritarian and is frequently portrayed as fascist by the Phoenix.

And no-one seems to be clear whether they're left, centre or right-wing! So what party does SelectSmart.com say I most agree with?

1. Progressive Democrats (An Páirtí Daonlathach)
2. Green Party (Comhaontas Glas)
3. Fine Gael (Family of the Irish)
4. Labour (Páirtí an Lucht Oibre)
5. Fianna Fáil (Soldiers of Destiny)
6. Sinn Féin ("we ourselves")

Well some of these are unsurprising. But the test falls back on asking for agreement or disagreement on the statement "Charles Haughey was a good Taoiseach", as though it needs to ask that in order to get a clear result vis a vis Fianna Fáil. I suspect that if I ever do find myself filling in a ballot paper for Dail Eireann I may end up combining a personality and tactical vote unless some of the above parties both offer good policies and don't raise the spectre of coalition government with disreputable parties, especially Sinn Féin.

There are many more tests there - I'd be particularly interested to see how well those readers from outside the UK match up to the parties they currently support.