And I think some of them were just so plain excited to be a TD that they did not think through what the possibilities of voting to go into coalition with Fine Gael would be.
And thinking clearly about the possible implecations and was prevented by the Labour party’s own processes. Yes, they had a deleagte conference to decide. But the programme for government they were to vote on was being prepared for publication overnight before the meeting. The delegates simply did not have enough time to properly assess a 64-page, 23,000-word document before they were required to vote on it.
Rabbite has said that the backbenchers knew there would be tough decisions. My outstanding memory of watching the video of the Labour Party’s special delegate conference is Brendan Howlin’s litany of Labour policies: “x: that’s in it; y: that’s in it; z, that’s there”. All he was missing was an “amen” to finish his prayer. And at the time, I wondered what specifically was not in it.
I wonder if any of the backbenchers and delegates remember what in fact they voted for, what was in Howlin’s list he recited that day.
And I wonder if any of them have assessed the government’s “progress” against that list from Howlin.