Labour must seize this opportunity to broaden its appeal

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=BACKROOM-qqqs=commentandanalysis-qqqid=40457-qqqx=1.asp

Sunday, March 22, 2009
Next weekend, the Labour Party goes into its annual conference in good fettle. The party has surged in the polls and Eamon Gilmore is the most popular party leader in the country.

While Fine Gael has consistently maintained its lead over Fianna Fáil in the polls, Labour’s showing suggests that not only will the party be in the next government, but it could be there with a strength not seen since Dick Spring at his height.

But the weekend red rose fest is not without its challenges for the party - and especially for Gilmore. Ironically, fielding questions about the possibility of going into government with Fianna Fáil will be the least of Gilmore’s problems. The poll trends give him the cover to rebut that the more relevant question is who Labour will chose to have as its ‘‘junior’’ partner in government.

The trickiest issue for Gilmore next weekend will be how he handles the party’s relationship with the trade union movement and especially Siptu, whose general president Jack O’Connor is also on the party’s Executive Committee.

One of the effects of the long-running partnership process has been the closeness which has developed between the unions and their leaders and Fianna Fáil. The relationship was at its most intense during Bertie Ahern’s days, but Brian Cowen still displays an appetite for talking to and appeasing the unions.

Backroom sees this relationship as a type of marriage. The unions are like a long-suffering wife who complains regularly about her partner, but always puts the dinner on the table when the wage cheque comes in. Occasionally the (union) wife flirts with her old flame - the Labour Party. After all they knew each other very well when both were young. The pair find common cause against the husband and a permanent spilt looks on, until the dutiful wife inevitably returns to the marital bed.

FULL story at link.