The ‘centre ground’ and the politics of Tweedledee and Tweedledum – Gerry Adams

THE “NEW POLITICS” espoused by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is anything but new. It’s really about sustaining the status quo and seeing off the challenge of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams says.

Liam Mellows put it well during the Treaty debate in 1922, the Sinn Féin leader notes, when he spelt out the consequences of partition and said:

“Men will get into positions, men will hold power, and men who get into positions and hold power will desire to remain undisturbed.”

Budget 2017 marks another step in the slow, incremental realignment of politics in the South along with Fianna Fáil signing up to a ‘confidence and supply’ agreement supporting Fine Gael, Gerry Adams writes in his Léargas column on Thursday in the Andersonstown News.

● Fear Factor: Enda Kenny and Mícheál Martin ‘trying to frighten sections of the electorate into supporting Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’

Listing senior Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil figures echoing each other about defending the “centre ground” from “extremes” – Fine Gael ministers Paschal Donohoe and Simon Harris and Fianna Fáil frontbench TDs Michael McGrath and Thomas Byrne all during the Dáil Budget debate in particular – Gerry Adams asks:

“What does all of this mean?

“At one level it is about using fear, trying to frighten sections of the electorate into supporting Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. At another level it’s complete nonsense.”

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin made a play for the centre ground of Southern politics in a speech he gave to the MacGill Summer School in Donegal in July, Gerry Adams says. The Fianna Fáil leader warned that it is the “extremes which are setting the terms of the debate” and he spoke of the challenge to “democratic societies”.

It is, Gerry Adams says, “Operation Fear”.

At the same time, the Fianna Fáil leader is verbally embracing Sinn Féin’s progressive policies, the Louth TD says.

“Fairness is the new buzzword for Fianna Fáil. But Budget 2017 is not about fairness and equality,” Gerry Adams says, pointing out that Fianna Fáil didn’t even bother to produce a Budget alternative to Fine Gael’s fiscal plan, unlike Sinn Féin’s detailed and costed programme, A Better Ireland/Éire Níos Fearr.

Nor can Fine Gael’s or Fianna Fáil’s politics end the crises in health and housing; or deliver tax fairness; or end water charges, Gerry Adams says.

“On the contrary, Budget 2017 represents the same old doublespeak and political manoeuvring of the past.

“There is no new politics, just new language for an old story.

‘The conservative parties remain firmly wedded to an ideology that prefers cuts to the Capital Acquisition Tax for some of the wealthiest citizens in this state rather than investment in the health service. At a time when homelessness is at an historic level and people are being priced out of the rental and first-time buyers’ market, Budget 2017 will simply make matters worse. The Budget allocation for a health service in crisis will not resolve the underlying problems.

“And none of this takes into account the huge threat to the economy of this island and to society by Brexit.

“At a time when the shortcomings of partition are so obvious, the partitionism of the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael leaderships – the status quo and its maintenance – vindicate Mellows’s prophetic warning.

“In the Dáil, Sinn Féin is the Opposition.

“In policy terms it is Sinn Fein’s articulation of radical republican politics and policies that is challenging the conservatism of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and Labour.

“Sinn Féin’s politics are embedded in the Proclamation of 1916. We are for economic equality and sustainable prosperity and a New Republic which will deliver the highest standard of services and protections for all our citizens.

“It is these politics and policies that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil fear.”