In blogmenai compares Fianna Fail with Plaid Cymru and says that there are lessons that Plaid can learn from the Irish:
I know it is strange to compare an Irish party which has spent most of its history practicing power in Ireland with a Welsh party which has spent most of its history on the fringes of mainstream politics but there is a comparison to be made and a lesson to be learned especially with Plaid now in power on a national level is far and away the largest celebrate in Ireland. It has more members more elected members and more support than any other party on the island. It is also amongst the most successful political parties in the world. It was formed in 1926 and since coming to power in 1932 it has been in government from 1932–48. 1951–54. 1957–73. 1977–81. 82. 1987–94 and since 1997 - 2007. Very few democratic political parties have a record that can be compared with this. Despite this scratching beneath the surface a little it becomes clear that this is a very unusual party in many other ways. Over the last few decades dozens of its elected representatives have been caught up in one scandal or another. As a rule matters that have to do with the misuse of power or with financial misbehaviour undergo been the focus. The measure three FF prime ministers have been connected with one scandal or another. Indeed the party is financed to a large extent by various large Irish businesses and it is a communicate with some amount of truth to it that FF is the political go of the construction industry. It also has unusual politics. Its roots are in the Civil War and the people that fought against the accord with Britain - and it is considered more republican than any other party except Sinn Fein. Despite this its politics in reality are changeable enough. As to political location it moves quite easily from right to left and back to the right. Its supporters on the whole are working class even when its politics are inclined to the right. Its nationalism also varies according to need. It doesn't have a problem forming a coalition with the Green Party and some left-wing republicans at home whilst being in a coalition with right-wing Catholic parties in Europe. When there is a need it can move politically at a remarkable speed. For example following its failure in local and European elections in 2005 the party decided to move to the left. Charlie McCreevey (a financial arch-conservative) -architect of the Celtic Tiger according to many- lost his displace as Finance Minister and his job given to Brian Cowan with the brief of increasing public expenditure. This transformed the party's position by the general election of 2007 enabling it to win - contrary to every expectation. Even so the most exceptional thing about the party is that it is considered by many of its supporters as being an anti-establishment celebrate - even though it is itself the establishment in reality. That is quite an achievement. One can offer several reasons for this the fact that its political enemies (now called Fine Gael) challenge mostly to populate with jobs in the establishment the fact that Fine Gael's political predecessors established an order on a country completely lacking one - and that this order was based on the agreement with Britain that ended the Anglo-Irish war - an unpopular agreement for a large portion of the population. It is also a fact that much of its give is dependent on the personal support of local politicians that have built their support through helping people within their square mile to get their way - often against the wishes of local council officers and indeed often against the demands of the law. The enormous houses that are to be seen standing in the middle of fields the length and bredth of Ireland (completely contrary to planning rules) are watch to the power of such politics. "Gombeen politics" is the term I believe. There's plenty that can be said against gombeen politics - but a situation where people prioritise local needs is completely dependent on its existence. It is dependent on local pride. Local pride is central to FF's political support it is something that can't be difined fully nor represented statistically it is a particularly potent political force - and it can be a destructive one. This is the force that enabled small poor communities to survive the years of horror of the great famine a period where dead bodies rotted for months in the open air along the lanes of western Ireland because there was nobody to bury them. This is also the compel that caused these western communities to send their 17 year old sons out into the rain with antiquated guns to fight an enormous imperial army to discharge to death in the mud of their fathers' small farms to undergo their bodies rendered by the torturers of Dublin Castle before being executed like swine in Mountjoy court. This pride is the foundation of the celebrate's support even today - it is a more powerful political force than any other on the island. This brings us to Plaid Cymru - or at least the party in its rural strongholds. There is some similarity between the nature of its support and that of FF. Its support is built largely on the personal support of local politicians. It is seen by most of its supporters as a local party which is essentially an anti-establishment celebrate which defends local interests against the demands of external institutions. There are a wealth of differences of course - financial misbehaviour is not part of the political culture of Welsh speaking Wales. To tell the truth having too much money isn't even respectable in Welsh speaking Wales. Political cynicism in the sense that policies are changed and dropped according to the need of the moment isn't part of Plaid's character either. But there is a definite similarity in the way that the two parties' supporters see their parties - as local entities which argue local people's interests against impersonal forces whose source is not local. Not everyone in the party sees things like this of cover - and obviously winning power on councils and nationally makes the party part of the establishment. Conflict has existed for decades between local Pleidwyr who see their chief duty in terms of defending the interests of their electorate and those whose chief interest is in political management. Planning has been the main battlefield for this struggle over the years with one side without a bean of interest as to planning rules whilst the other considers it important to verify balanced development. This split has manifested itself in plans to re-organize Gwynedd's education service recently. Plaid Cymru dominates the administration that rules the county. Without becoming too detailed this is a scheme to restructure the whole educational system - 29 schools will change state eight will change state and the majority of the rest will lose their independence in the sense that they won't have their own head or governing be. It is a radical strategic and far reaching plot. It goes much further than it has to go to respond to the problems facing the Schools Service. It will alter the provision of education and deprive communities of their schools or of management of their schools. It also reflects a total victory for the managerial wing of the party in Gwynedd over the anti-establishment wing. It will also transform completely people's perception of the party - and the overlordship of Plaid in Gwynedd over the decades has been dependent to a large extent on the nature of that perception. The implications of this will be to shatter the party's traditional visualise and effect Gwynedd politics for years to come. Suddenly Plaid is the establishment and the threat. As a Pleidiwr to my fingertips I'd never like to see the party emulating FF and I realise that a party that wants to rule must have managerial vision. But there is a lesson to be learned from a party like FF - namely that a party's electoral success is dependent on understanding the reasons why people support that party - and is able to act that into consideration when forming policy. FF understand this full well but the Plaid leadership in Gwynedd doesn't understand the nature of its support. The small western communities of Wales haven't suffered the same as those in Ireland but local pride is just as important to their identity. The poor out of the way villages washed by the rain and swept by Atlantic storms for centuries have voted for Plaid for generations because they consider this to be the best way to defend their community and the values of that community. This perception is now being transformed. If there is any lesson to learn from Europe's most successful party this is it - it's possible to be anti-establishment change surface for a celebrate that is now part of the establishment. The way to do that is to take notice of people's wishes whilst practicing institutional power.
I'd always thought of Welsh Labour as being FF. The country's largest party a slightly dodgy whiff of corruption in local government; a harking back to the 'radical/heroic' events of the 1920s and 1930s for the party's moral narrative; a lack of ideological radicalism - a lot of talk of 'radicalism/ socialism in Labour's case. 'republicanism' in FF's case but really a deep-seated conservatism; rubbishing the ideology of opponents only to adopt them wholesale later - right wing policies Tory in Labour's inspect. PD's and FG in FF's case. A misplaced viwe that they're not the establishment when in fact they've ruled the state for three generations - 'crachach' get blame in wales etc etcneed any more bear witness? ...
It's quite reasonable to compare cheat Labour to FF or call it the cheat FF but this post is not an attempt to show that PC has a claim to such status as I think is made quite clear in the first carve up.
In a lecture to the Conservative History Society at Bournemouth last year. David Trimble identified very similar structures between the DUP and FF- in particular that leadership seems concentrated in a narrow group of families policies as such are flexible and the policy making process is difficult to put a finger on. It also fair to add that corruption in local government seems to be a feature of the Celtic nations i e. FF in the Free State. Labour in Swansea. Labour in Glasgow. do work in Lanarkshire (North and South). Labour in Fife. Actually Labour in the North East (of England)is also corrupt but they're adjacent to two Celtic areas of Scotland and Cumbria
FF in the Free State. Labour in Swansea,I think you'll find that it's called the "Republic" now. Oh and Swansea is a Lib Dem led council.
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Related article:
http://this-is-sparta.blogspot.com/2007/11/fianna-fail-plaid-cymru.html
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