Any vision that Fianna Fáil would be able to wrest control of both the Galway city and county council chambers after the Local Elections has well and truly evaporated in light of the savage and poorly thought out Budget presented by Minister Brian Lenihan, and the equally catastrophic polls in the last few weeks.
Barack Obama had a landslide victory in the American presidential election but Fianna Fáil could face a mud slide in next June’s Local Elections.
There is probably no door that Fianna Fáil candidates will not knock on that will not be impacted negatively by this Budget - whether it is the elderly, their sons or daughters or grand children - the debacle and insensitivity of the failed medical card blunder will be a major source of fury, and so it should be - the insensitivity and political naïvety with which it was handled was the height of stupidity.
If that was not bad enough, by the time next June comes along the full impact of the education cuts will be well documented. However, unlike the “Grey Vote” students will organise colourful and noisy street marches in relation to the education cuts, but come next June they will probably be in Boston, or on Bondi Beach, and the minor issue of voting in an insignificant local election will not be even register with them.
Finally if things were not bad enough, the farmers - who have also had to endure savage cuts - will surely be waiting in long grass for all Government candidates.
Some politicians have this weird idea that if you are upsetting a certain section of society that you must be doing something right, but Insider thinks that even Fianna Fáil, on this occasion, has overstepped, or totally misread the current situation by a long shot.
In light of the Green Party’s total capitulation regarding the education cuts it appears that the TDs will not have to contemplate the possibility of a general election, but they will roll out the cannon fodder - the councillors.
Like the Budget, should the public attack the most vulnerable and weakest in the political system, the councillor? What was their role in a whole budget debacle?
The simple answer is that the poor councillor had absolutely no role whatsoever in relation to the Budget. Are the councillors guilty by association or should the “sons bear the sins of the father” or in this case the masters?
Like previous budgets after successive general elections, Fianna Fáil ministers have slammed on the brakes regarding spending, and lined up the councillors to take the hit, politically.
However Insider feels that politicians in the ivory tower in Dublin have still not grasped that the public in general were gearing themselves up for a tough budget, but that nobody was expecting that the cuts would be aimed at the old, the young, and the most vulnerable.
In light of this, should we not have major sympathy for these poor unfortunate councillors?
Insider would normally take the view that the councillors are usually the innocent victims, especially when their masters in the Dáil are totally disconnected from reality. As such, Insider believes the time has come to send a strong clear message to the masters.
To this end there is only one way to drive home this message, and that is to for the electorate to vote against all government candidates.
If that message is not clear enough, the TDs will sit silent and smug in their own little world and be safe in the knowledge that they have three to four years to turn around this crisis and they will be back on the gravy train again.
So the question to the electorate is what will you be doing next June?
