Paul Dillane is Campaign Manager of the Looney for Tallaght Central campaign.Time to Go Looney and Labour
The local election campaign of 2009 is now drawing to a close.
By far the most response on the doors has been “so long as you are not Fianna Fail.” It has been a dramatic fall from grace for a party that swept the board at the general election.
When the short, intensive run in to the local elections began, the Dermot Looney campaign turned itself from its focus of political activism on local issues to attempting to gather votes from involvement in these issues. Again and again, we argued with people on the doors that the time was right to elect a campaigner to the council who would continue in the best traditions of Labour in the area.
One of the most encouraging aspects of the campaign has been the opportunity to politically engage with people across the ward of Tallaght Central. There is huge anger at the government and a good deal of disillusionment abroad. Convincing people that a political alternative is available has been a real task.
Many voters who opted for FF in previous elections are willing now to stitch allegiance. But those voters are often very weary of a potential Fine Gael government. We have insisted that we are campaigning for a Labour led government that represents a real break from the past, a real possibility in the now much altered political landscape.
There has been plenty of craic on the campaign trail. Meeting the occasional political loyalist from opposition campaigns has lightened the load considerably. The political grilling is part of the course for canvassers, or knockers as we are known in the states - or bashers, as we are called in some traditional elements of Irish political activism. Almost every voter, however, has been courteous and welcoming and willing to engage.
If you are a voter in the Tallaght Central ward, and you haven’t made up your mind, but are thinking of going Looney, I have a lot to say to you. However, I am warned that the blogospherere won’t hold pages of argument so I have condensed my case into 2 points.
Dermot Looney is:
The Labour candidate.
- Voting Labour is the way to put up a signpost to a new society in Ireland that is genuinely Republican and Democratic.
- Don’t go toward Fine Gael. Look at their policies; they represent more of the same.
None of the smaller parties can lead an alternative government.
Dermot Looney is not:
A member a party whose councillors have nearly ruined Dublin with disastrous planning (we are looking at you FF and FG), or active in a party who continue the dishonourable relationship between wealthy interests and politics that caused the scandalous planning issues in Dublin (we are still looking at you FF and FG).
Please support Dermot Looney tomorrow and thanks for reading the Looney Left during this campaign.
