Ah, the grim satisfactions of democracy! Finally we get to kick the bastards out. And we gave them a pretty good kicking too, though certainly no more severe than they deserved. I live in Dublin South-East. I gave my first preference to an independent, Paul Sommerville, who did rather better than I expected. I thought I was just helping him to save his deposit, but in the event he saw off John Gormley and was the second-last candidate to be eliminated. I gave my second preference to Kevin Humphreys of Labour, not because I’m a natural Labour voter but because they voted against the disastrous bank guarantee. But, says Vincent Browne, they voted against it for the wrong reason! Who cares? A ballot-paper doesn’t enable you to spell out your thoughts on policy. All you can do is reward those who vote well and punish those who vote badly.
While I am a naturally vengeful voter, I’m a bit sorry for Chris Andrews. He seems a nice-enough guy. The penalty for belonging to a shitty party was waiting through ten counts before losing his seat. It’s not the death of a thousand cuts but it must hurt all the same.
