The Mary Lou McDonald Column

Winning people’s confidence

EVEN the most seasoned political observers were stunned by the political fiasco that has unfolded over the past weeks. The Fianna Fáil/Green Party Government imploded. An Taoiseach Brian Cowen stepped aside as leader of Fianna Fáil as part of an eleventh-hour political makeover in advance of the general election.
The Greens relocated to the Opposition benches in a last-ditch attempt to distance themselves from their record in government. Fine Gael and the Labour Party agreed to allow the Finance Bill to go through the Dáil, giving legal effect to the very Budget they claimed to oppose last December.
Logic was turned on its head as Establishment politicians jockeyed for position, grasping for power.
Away from the political soap opera, the dole queues, the debt mountain and the struggle to make ends meet weigh heavily on families. Survival, just getting by - that is the lot of citizens across the state. The huge gap between the people and those that govern has never been more evident.
This election will be dominated by questions about the unemployment and banking crises. People want answers, an alternative and some hope that there is a future beyond the current meltdown. Sinn Féin’s agenda is about getting people back to work, lifting the burden of private banking debt off the back of the citizens and reversing the savage cutbacks.
Our plans and proposals are thought-out, costed and deliverable. In this election, many politicians will argue that there is no option other than the ‘IMF/EU bail-out for the banks and cutbacks for the people’ agenda. They are wrong. There is an alternative and Sinn Féin has spelt it out.
We are winning the arguments; we need to keep on winning more people’s confidence and more votes to Sinn Féin.