It looks like backbench dissent within Fianna Fáil will now take organisational form in the shape of a committee modelled on the 1922 Committee of the British Conservative Party. Bertie Ahern denies that it reflects underlying discontent. But of course there are grievances; the influence of the PDs grates on many Fianna Fáilers and this is made worse when they appear to be presiding over key policy failures. Then there is Bertie Ahern's habit of not firing ministerial deadwood, leaving ambitious office seekers severely underemployed on the backbenches and no longer content to be mere lobby fodder and just tamely rubber stamp decisions taken at cabinet level. P O'Neill comments "to the extent that this group manages to swing the government’s orientation back towards the Dail as an institution, more luck to them".
The original 1922 Committee was formed to unseat the Lloyd George led coalition government of Liberals and Tories and reflected true blue impatience with the antics of the Welsh wizard. It was an odd situation in any case as that government, in which the liberals were a minority, was a continuation of the wartime coalition. The Tory diehards wanted a restoration of normality. Maybe some FF deputies feel similarly about the PDs but I suspect that the real motivation is frustrated personal ambition and/or fear of impending electoral loss.
Meanwhile the Progressive Democrats are having a factional spat of their own. Or perhaps not if it's just McDowell contra everybody else. It's hard to take this sort of thing seriously in a rump parliamentary party that will probably lose more than half its seats next time out. Again, personal frustration rather than policy or ideology is the main reason for all these alleged tantrums.
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