While an executive was established in Belfast in February, there has been little action other than wrangling over the Windsor Framework: now the parties bid for votes
SF live off their anti brit pro utd Ireland revolution ideal. Now theyre in gvt both north and south they cant blame everyone else anymore.
. But that doesn't wk to w/c poor Irish people who don't like large scale immigration given Ireland has its own economic problems and feel left behind. Populism feeds on that.
Sinn Féin's poll ratings in the Republic of Ireland have fallen from the mid 30s a year ago to the mid 20s now. One recent poll for the forthcoming local elections on June 7th had them as low as 18%. The main reason for this is undoubtedly the increased prominence of the immigration issue. Sinn Féin's problem is that, up to now, they have liked to present themselves as a standard centre left party but their core working class vote is innately suspicious/concerned about high immigration levels. They are trying to address this by adopting rhetoric more usually associated with the Tories in the UK e.g. Mary Lou has taken to proclaiming that she is "against open borders" without saying who she claims is "for open borders".
Your statement that "More than a fifth of the population of the Republic of Ireland are now immigrants" is a bit misleading and requires some context. Many of these are from Eastern Europe (mainly Poland), have been here for up to 20 years, and are well integrated into Irish society.
Be interesting to see how the immigration refugee issue in the Irish Republic which seems according to my Irish family be hurting sinn fein play out in NI.
Yes, the impression I get is that Sinn Féin in particular have been wrong-footed by the sudden importance of immigration. But they are very well practised at being all things to all men, so they may well be able to pursue different strategies for Westminster and Dublin, and to an extent they can just stand back and watch the DUP wrestle with itself. I wouldn't push the analogy too far but they're a bit like Labour in that the election may well come to them without their needing to do very much.
SF live off their anti brit pro utd Ireland revolution ideal. Now theyre in gvt both north and south they cant blame everyone else anymore.
. But that doesn't wk to w/c poor Irish people who don't like large scale immigration given Ireland has its own economic problems and feel left behind. Populism feeds on that.
Sinn Féin's poll ratings in the Republic of Ireland have fallen from the mid 30s a year ago to the mid 20s now. One recent poll for the forthcoming local elections on June 7th had them as low as 18%. The main reason for this is undoubtedly the increased prominence of the immigration issue. Sinn Féin's problem is that, up to now, they have liked to present themselves as a standard centre left party but their core working class vote is innately suspicious/concerned about high immigration levels. They are trying to address this by adopting rhetoric more usually associated with the Tories in the UK e.g. Mary Lou has taken to proclaiming that she is "against open borders" without saying who she claims is "for open borders".
Your statement that "More than a fifth of the population of the Republic of Ireland are now immigrants" is a bit misleading and requires some context. Many of these are from Eastern Europe (mainly Poland), have been here for up to 20 years, and are well integrated into Irish society.
Be interesting to see how the immigration refugee issue in the Irish Republic which seems according to my Irish family be hurting sinn fein play out in NI.
Yes, the impression I get is that Sinn Féin in particular have been wrong-footed by the sudden importance of immigration. But they are very well practised at being all things to all men, so they may well be able to pursue different strategies for Westminster and Dublin, and to an extent they can just stand back and watch the DUP wrestle with itself. I wouldn't push the analogy too far but they're a bit like Labour in that the election may well come to them without their needing to do very much.