‘Youthquake’ that voted for 'parties of change' will demand satisfaction if those parties form government
A general trend has emerged within political circles that, for one reason or another, the junior coalition partner in government seems to emerge worse off, getting the majority of the blame for tough decisions and less of the credit for what is achieved, writes .
Electoral promises are made, and smaller parties simply do not have enough seats to follow through on such promises. But if the “parties of change” resulting from our recent general election want to prove successful in the long-term, they will need to buck this trend.
Labour’s well documented electoral collapse in 2016 after a five-year stint in government with Fine Gael left them, perhaps unsurprisingly, scratching their heads after a car-crash result of seven seats, falling from the 37 they received in 2011.
In this instance, the demise of the Labour party was characterised by broken promises surrounding the protection of vulnerable voters from austerity measures which seemingly went out the window once pressure was applied. Failure to deliver on electoral promises such as the maintained of levels of child benefit and political mishaps such as the water charges fiasco only further aggravated an already frustrated electorate who did not hold back in having their frustrations heard when 2016 came knocking.
Across the Irish sea, Nick Clegg and his Liberal Democrats offer the most apt example of voter betrayal in the case of their pledge to oppose any increase in tuition fees. Whilst the Irish Labour party had their hands tied, to a certain extent, from 2011-2016, the Lib Dems made a blatantly brazen promise not to raise tuition fees in the run-up to the 2010 UK general election in a successful bid to attract younger voters.
They were fully aware that the most likely post-election scenario they would end up in would be the junior partner in a coalition with either Labour or the Conservatives, both of whom had already committed to raising tuition fees. This proved a costly mistake as they were decimated in the 2015 election losing 49 seats, falling from 57 to eight, as younger voters voiced their disdain for the Liberal Democrats’ failure to follow through on their tuition fees promise.
After the unprecedented shock of Sinn Féin’s electoral success, one would have to question how effective any government formation can actually be with the vote appearing so split. A word to the wise is offered, however; it was the so-called ‘youthquake’ which facilitated the rise in the vote of “parties of change”. While Sinn Féin are now the largest party in the country, they should be under no illusions.
As shown by both the Irish Labour party as well as the Liberal Democrats in the UK, the younger voting bloc takes no prisoners – and the Sinn Féin revolution could be finished just as quickly as it has begun.
The algebra required to form a government will have to encompass a starkly varying set of views from right across the political spectrum and party manifestos may begin to look somewhat frivolous as if the “parties of change” aren’t seen to meaningfully stand up for and represent the agenda on which young people gave them a resounding mandate, they should not expect our support to continue into the future.
