but no longer a party it was a pariah only a few years ago because of its links with the violence emerged under the new leadership of made in the mcdonald to become islands most popular party this is a prospectus made a limit don't know set it when she became party leader the war is over and there is no purchase no sentiment at all or told that i see that it wishes for a return to any form of political violence. i think it would be a very very foolish person and a truly food government that would gamble or that would take the necessary risks with all of that i believe the peace process is robust i believe thout certainly irish nationalism is growing in confidence is very much at ease and happy with the general momentum and direction of political traffic i am

conscious that some of our unionist brothers and sisters are perhaps not as secure or happy with all of us but generally i think it's fair to say that there is no appetite for conflict that is merely mcdonald to us sickle this is the theme in partially to set their post-election stall in the irish parliament the doyle 450000 people did vote for finnick in this election just come by not many fewer than 15 of all not all that many fewer than should fame and much more than any other party or group of independents in this house and those 450000 people didn't vote against change they voted to say that they were satisfied with some of the changes that have taken place in the past 2 years what they wanted more change in other areas not least in health and housing some of them thought they did a good job in the round. and there people who shared our vision and shared our values and agreed with our policies and agreed with our ideas and we will honor

that mandate and i hope that others will recognize that while we may be diminished a mandation fortune $50000.00 votes is not a small one so suggesting some to today that we step aside. that we abstain that we somehow allow others to form a government we will not do that we believe that the next government must be based on the belief that steve action is required to improve key services and to address emergencies and housing health climate change and the cost of living we are very clear and we reject the idea that major increases in taxes especially on enterprise can be introduced without causing dramatic damage especially toward those of the public finances and you see that's really what the problem is here because of course go from information is about numbers we can of course go from information is about policy coherence no one's arguing to the contrary but government information

is also about power and who wields us and the reality is that field of phone and senate gate have run the show for almost a century and by christ they're not minded to let go that's really all of this is about so what are the consequences of this dramatic election alex speaks 1st to professor john toll of the university of liverpool. professor john told how big a shock to the political system of the republic of ireland has the selection result being this is a monumental shake up of politics in the republic of ireland for nearly a century the 2 big parties finn a foil and finn a gala dominated no one really thought that should fame would be on the brink of being in government in both parts of the on the violent she could be in government in the south they're already in government in the north and that fundamentally changes the outlook on irish politics both north and south of the border was seen

in the exchanges from the post election debate on the dial the irish parliament doesn't seem to be any love lost between the 3 leaders of the no 3 main parties in the public yeah that's right i mean this huge antipathy from the establishment parties should fade like to call them towards shin fein finish gael and finn a foil won't do business with sinn fein they say they won't form a coalition which in vain because of chin fades controversial past and its former associations with the ira should feigns messages respect our mandate and shin fein is looking now for a seat in government that will transform things on the on the vine looking is any question about that because shin feigns agenda whilst this is not an election victory built upon support for a united ireland it's built upon other things nonetheless at the heart of sion feigns agenda is pressure for a united ireland if not something or a pilot box in the view of the city guilty of

a nod to the present dishes. after in the lead of in a file to say the they would have should government in the public of while the police were promoting shin fein back into government in northern ireland absolutely and that's a question that fitted for oil and finagle have never addressed satisfactorily and that's part of the reason why the electorate lost faith in for the fall and finagle you can't say that shin fein is perfectly respectable in the north and that you know. this must share power with should fade but then on the other hand say you want to inflame with a bargepole down south in the electorate are not stupid they can see that that's a paradox they see that's a something that cannot it's a conundrum that cannot be solved so therefore you know the electorate said actually we think shinn fein are legit legitimate political party and that's why a quarter of people voted for shin fein and should famously bitterly regretting not fielding more candidates in the south they only feel that 42 because the election

surpassed their expectations i think eventually figure for oil off in a gale will have to do business with sinn fein but the moment they're still treating them as toxic i think they're still marooned in 1980 s. 1990 s. mindset in their attitudes to shin fein. 3 weeks after the election still lost sight of a government being formed what's your best guess as a professor studying irish politics what government is likely to have nerves from this very very confused outcome of this 2 possible option should faine will try i think to form a government with various parties on the left i'm not sure the numbers are quite there for that but i think she and fame will definitely try and do that mary lou mcdonald is perfectly capable of forming alliances with a wide range of left wing parties if that cannot work that it may be back to the old ways of a fin a 4 wheel fin a gale administration we had in the past finagle as the main party with affinity

for playing a supportive role in government in recent years that's hardly had a recent rezoning vote of confidence from the electorate so to simply carry on as if the election hadn't happened i don't think is a credible position so that's why i still think the shin fein will be in government in some form in a coalition probably with parties of the left as one of shouldn't think strongpoints late no is there certainly one party which doesn't fear another election if a guy. can't be formed absolutely can fame will feel more candidates and i think they'll get even more seats if there was to be another election this year and that's something that leader of iraq or is leader of in a gale and me hold martin as leader of fin a foil must really really fear they know they're going to keep shin fein out of government this is probably their own chance they're going to have to do some sort of deal together but i don't think the electoral particular like that and i don't think it would be particularly stable if you have more of the same a fin a gale and finn a foil in government therefore i think it's quite

a strong possibility that there will be another election at some point this year and all the indications are in fame will do very very well indeed i think shifting faina here to stay the idea that this was some sort of protest vote that pushing fane in is is for the birds this is a longer term realignment of irish politics in which we're not talking about a big 2 parties anymore we're talking about a big 3 parties of which in fame is one in which in fame may eventually become the dominant party supplanting by the fin a foil off in a gale this is a longer term project yes it's true that she feigned vote was built upon annoyance over issues and on housing and homelessness but it wasn't just a protest vote it's a wider reconfiguration of irish politics so what does that mean for the prospects of a board of paul paul or the reunification of violent and how will that go down in the public and how would that go down in northern ireland i think is a question of when not if there will be aboard

a poll in terms of northern ireland constitutional future i've little doubt that in the south us b 2 referendums remember that has to be majority consent for irish unification both north and south of the border in the south and expect them to be on the opinion poll evidence a majority in favor i don't quite there yet in the north should change program wants a border poll within 5 years whether that about a poll within 5 years i think is open to question. as in the north it's within the gift of the pretty secretary of state who may be reluctant to risk one within northern ireland so i would suggest a border polish likely not perhaps within the next 5 years but certainly within the next decade and shin fein continues to make the advances that they're making then they might be able to win majorities north and south i stood still think they need to convert a number of voters in the north to get them over the line but people are talking seriously now not just about a voter poll but about a united ireland arising from that border poll and lastly professor will you be

lecturing to your students on the university of liverpool over. the last few years did you ever think it likely that you'd be discussing with them that eminent possibility of shouldn't thing be in government in the public a violent and northern ireland civil tinsley when i started out in academia should fame were a pariah party they were polling less than 2 percent in the irish republic and they had a vote in the north but it was always a minority vote even amongst the national population things have changed and changed utterly should faine is now the the most popular party on the on the violent since they were producing a prospectus for irish unification as a consequence of its position electorally and all of the parties are going to have to respond to what should faine wants in terms of our huge occasion even if they don't welcome the prospect of unification themselves so we should face setting the

agenda on the on the violin for the next few years professor john tong university of liverpool thank you very much indeed pleasure. the new ideas government when formed will have huge implications for the politics of the norse join us after the break when we continue our discussions on the future of irish politics. people who have money in pension account people who have money and savings are actually digging into their pockets because their savings rate their pension accounts are now yielding close to 0 or negative they're taking money out of their pockets thanks to the central bankers and they're giving it to

a billionaire so he can buy jeff away so he can sell trinkets the more billionaires this is louis the $65.00 only living off the labor of the peasant. become a battleground in the us in vermont people. from yankee is right now my focus because it's a very dangerous oh no care power plant the owner is attempting to run the real beyond its operational limits this case just sort of puts a magnifying glass on where's the power in this country where's it going is it moving more towards corporate interests or is it more in the idea of a traditional participatory democracy is your power lies with the people this case demonstrates that struggle in very real ways. a struggle.

welcome back in the last few years slugger to his flock has established himself as the go to site for information on northern irish politics we ask it is to make fealty what the result in the south means for the north. i delighted to be joined by the editor of violence prettily a political blog welcome back to the alex island showings from alex so this site a selection few weeks ago shouldn't fit in the political wing of the provisional ira the cast of irish politics for generations become the leading off the in terms of the popular vote how big a shock is that to the political system i think to the political system in the republic it's been a huge shock. i think it's delighted many political journalists just because it's so interesting and it kind of so overturns most of the expected outcomes that were predicted at the beginning many of the political journalists in dublin were

predicting that this was. a whole martens feel for the party's election to loose and indeed they did lose they lose they lost a huge amount of ground they have the additional poverty of government in the public and along with feel a guild of great rivals have been the kind of old fart of the fuckin cola that all of. elections for a while since independence 100 years ago absolutely 122 feet of kale figgins previous a party took over they were in charge for the 1st 10 years fan of foil were the party that was defeated in the civil war that came in after independence and they were set up in 1926 and really since devil era 1932 they've been the dominant party you could say the party of government i don't like in the u.k. not really a party of the right but the party of the center of the center left really until 2008 that pertained then the the financial crisis came and in 2011 they were

spectacularly. defenestrated if you like the real shot this time was that they weren't able to build the many of the advances that they've made in 2016 and i think there is a presumption certainly between. fan of falling from the gear will that they were still the major players and if they got one up against the other that would indicate political success mary lynn mcdonnell and came through the middle and completely disrupted the whole sort of giufà public so the smear looping done of the newly built should fail only leader for the last 2 years and really the little shouldn't thin who had a distance between her and the trouble she's a fust little shouldn't fail running from the south of the republic of iowa well in the 1st leadership did any 6 so you know her predecessor was in the job a very long time her princess are absolutely hot to get the authority of the ira behind him says gerry at this is gerry adams so she is and i sense

a break from not although she has struggled at times to end the kit that she herself is free of the control of not necessarily active fire a man but certainly the senior command that won't were once and in control of the of the provisionals the t.v. show that sleeve that i'd kill for the gale afternoon the opposition leader will fit the foil. for the actual so we're not dealing with shouldn't feed on that i would suck of to try to maintain that to dish look position that leaves a stoutly spot this wouldn't touch and feel of a bob's full for the electorate that will agree no i'm in a sense that was a fear of their own framing and the way both parties feel to come up with some kind of a convincing campaign there are 2 things that this one shouldn't be and have a huge amount of clarity around 2 issues one was hosing which is that was which is this time that was the senior policy issue there and they have a spokesman owner of bread we spend a lot of time on not subject as written

a couple of books on it is fluent and clear knowing some of the promises that were made in terms of what was deliverable don't look particularly deliverable to meet. but it was in chain with the public's idea of high urgent hosing in the home homeless problem work and the other was the finance spokesman piers doherty who did a lot of interesting work around. insurance premiums and not really made the other 2 parties look very leaden footed that may hold martin is in particular any very fluent in policy but really it was a scholar gone and i think the the precision bombing no of shin fin on those popular issues i think is the thing that the 2 parties didn't really expect or used to feel to the ship in finn's credibility on the social and economic issues rather than what you dish really associate with. and the need. for relocation of violence

you say it was these issues and that credibility of public credibility was clouded the absolutely although it's important to note that those were not the 2 major things that they started with. there was talk about a border poll in the run up to the election but i think it wasn't just health and hosing there were other things but they clearly had segmented i mean the thing to understand about the political system is the p.r. system that we've got means the if you're going to take power you have to create a broad appeal so how harvesting and health payloads really run across the country but they also came a against the carbon tax they came out and promised that they would get rid of what's left of the local rates so there was a real pale i think to per people in the rural areas to try and get through or not so yeah absolutely the reunification issue really doesn't appear

a little on an electoral basis although they were helped by at the very beginning by a very kind handed commemoration proposal put up by the government to remember the police force the british police force. for before in the patents and not. just black in terms of the kind of military type put into regimental police force who were so controversial in the process of independence and island and who were basically old soldiers taken from the western front used to brutality done to them and brutality done back and on least on the irish population and not i think a walk a little kind of angry republicanism of the certain angry on the britishness i think definitely plays into sion fans so here we are 3 weeks after the no sign of a government so what's going to happen well we're here at the end of february and

the teacher has already said that he expects to go to washington on the 17th of march so he doesn't expect not to be the t. shirt by then which gives you some indication of just how complicated this negotiation process or the election of the coming but leave without being the 3rd party know both in terms of votes had seats absolutely i mean it is there's an awful lot of negotiations going on at the moment. there are 2 days of negotiations going on between fan of foil and the green party shinn fan of already and the green party have also also met for a whole day at how far i mean because the truth is the point of these negotiations is to see whether multiple parties can get together around a programme for government so the details that come around in such a. in such a situation have to be work done to the absolute bottom line so that the minor

parties that go into it know that when they come back for election they've been able to deliver certain concrete things because many of these left wing parties were delivered through the proportional system into the seats effectively by shouldn't fame transfer don't the and then those. independence will who have to save the mothers to get something for the. violent oh it's getting very popular to be not part of any political party told i mean is the family in kerry called the raise they have to they've elected 2 brothers and they are absolutely consummate negotiators for carry not the rest of the country just for carry on the kerry people love coming to what's going to happen and what are the implications for the for the public of why with this is of us has been a political leftwich one of the implications for the future of politics in the republic well it's hard to say because we're so far we're still so far away from an outcome this could really take until april it's going to be

a struggle to get there and if the to me either of the 2 main parties fails to get enough support from the independents the smaller parties the greens i think will go in with almost any party because they have a clear set of policies which has broad buy in from most of the political parties so then you can almost line them up and say well they will go in with almost anyone it's really whether they get to the magical it is 8 point at which point then the coalition can command a majority in the door. to go to the loo that's always possible you did it in your own in your own career that's part of the s.n.p. through scotland and you managed to maintain it for about 4 years i think it's more problematic in the double. because it's more fragmented i mean for instance there are 2 center left parties now there's the labor party in the social democrats you've also going to have lots of different agendas from the opposition and the

only reason that we have a stable government over the last 4 years was the fianna fáil supported phoenix from the opposition benches there is a pos one possible outcome that martin may have the moral authority to turn or. and to leo varadkar and said well we did it for you it's no your turn to bite the bullet and do for us. there's a certain way politics to be doesn't assume that you know varadkar to me there he's already announced that he wants to head to the opposition benches he's hoping then that will force martin to do what martin absolutely doesn't want to do which is to go into government with van i don't think he will i think the alternative. is probably another election if they fail to pull this off together but surely a couple circumstances another election would also suit shouldn't they have the moment there's not many scenarios and scenarios going forward that doesn't suit me and this is the fascinating thing about this not only did she invented everyone

else by surprise they took themselves by surprise they simply didn't choose enough candidates to be able to get to be the majority party only 5 candidates didn't get elected so next time around until run more and they'll get more seats so therefore lastly make this up mean in the north women shouldn't fade in the leading party in terms of force preferences in the public a violent shouldn't feedback in government installment and belfast surely ulster unionists must be saying we're going off to face the reality that shouldn't feel as an all ireland party is becoming the dominant force what does that mean for well funnily enough i think unionists are probably more relaxed than most of the people in the republic if there's moral panic anywhere it's in dublin it's not in belfast and that's because i mean i think there's 2 reasons for the one we've had an inclusive executive hasn't worked very well mostly because it's been the most disruptive influence on not put unionists have got become accustomed to that the

other aspect of it is that this is a really massive reversal titian fans electoral fortunes north of the border just in the general election back in december where they lost. before the state by something like 17 and a half 1000 votes so i think unionists are they've been through picture and seen as they see it and i don't think they particularly see ssion fan as a direct threat at least in the short term where they finally when you started the slow go to political blogs of years ago did you really expect the possibility perhaps even the probability of seeing should fade in government and the public a file and hunted all of the i certainly didn't but in 2002 they came out of that year's election with 5 t.d.'s the following election have for the last one but this is been building since 2011 i think it has surprised people in the short term but

in the long term this is always been a pitch power north and size and then what they hope to do is to project authority into the north begin to ship the discourse arrives you know that aren't like fealty facts was a good feeling to say thank you cheers alex. whatever formation of government emerges from the doyle the politics of violence have now changed and actively it is generally accepted that the shin fein surged or more to social neck anomic if you send back that order board of pool but the fact that the party of reunification is within touching distance of becoming the only party both north and south has defined implications for the future of island and the future of the union we'll soon be presenting a series of interviews with leading politicians and commentators who are considering the feature of northern ireland some of their conclusions will surprise all our thought provoking next week we'll examine the date of radical politics of

all that into the history of scotland but for now i'm from alex myself and all that the show we hope to see you next week. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race in this on off and spearing dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk.

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and there's a number she knew not. all of them ok if the pool was not going to match the plan a girl would let. well they are really good they have a good watch that i would rather have been. given. the how do we call our d. as soon as our. jane need the whole corn dog for. our manager was. just an analyst.

for. a.b.c. news suspends one of its veteran reporters after he appears on a secretly recorded video slamming his network and self as a social. also this hour rivals to bernie sanders in the race for the democratic us presidential nomination is all to the 2016 play book suggesting that he's backed by russia and paid to die a german court for pay was a 5 year old ban on assisted suicide services parking fees and exports to trade in death. and the u.k. government holds the findings of an investigation into grooming gangs claiming it's not in the public interest to get reaction from a victim of sexual abuse. i think it's a disgusting.