Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

Given the week that is in it, some people might find this headline strange. In my opinion Obama is phenomenon, but not something that we will see repeated on these shores. From a local perspective there has been a heralded return to street politics after the mass protests in reaction to the government budget. While opposition parties may be rubbing their hands in glee at the thought of snatching power from the current incumbents, it should be noted that the global economic crisis and the mistakes made by Fianna Fail in office have gifted the opposition parties their leads in the opinion polls, rather than the alternative that they offer the Irish public.

I attended my first political meeting in a personal capacity last week. It brought to life why people are so disengaged with the political process. The three things that hold politics back for me are political parties as brands; the blame game; and how parties are organised.

Political parties as brands - The problem for the main parties in Ireland is that the general public find it hard to distinguish between them. Hence parties like Sinn Fein and the Greens stand out as they appear to represent something different. When one of the political representatives at the meeting was asked what makes their party stand out, he quickly responded that there are four things that make them stand out. Fiscal rectitude, blah,blah and blah….Sorry fiscal rectitude? Is that meant to mean something to the average member of the public? Political parties need to be able to explain what they stand for in plain and simple language.

The blame game - Is it just me or does political debate seem to inevitably degenerate into a slagging match. In the single meeting I attended, a quarter of the time seemed to be spent putting the boot in on other parties. This really annoys me. In the world of the soundbite, why waste your valuable time criticising others when you should be strengthening your argument.

How parties are organised - The biggest challenge for any political party is how they are organised. As a new member I felt the meeting was pretty inaccessible unless I wanted to let off steam about a given subject. Attendance at these meetings seems to constitute of four groups - the crackpots (who want to give out about how corrupt Fianna Fail are), the elderly, the do-gooders and the politicians (whose ambition probably makes them the ones to worry about.) The format of meetings is mostly to offer candidates a platform why you should vote for them and afford the crackpots some time to let off some steam. Unfortunately the people there who actually contribute, whom I was impressed by during the few minutes they received, don’t get ample time to voice their views. Furthermore there doesn’t seem to be an immediate way to offer your insights or access resources to build your knowledge about a given topic.

None of this is to say that I won’t go back. The danger for political parties is that they seem more enthused to do something on YouTube than actually address a few simple home truths. My take on YouTube and politics (ignoring the Obama phenonmenon) is young people don’t care about politics. Using Youtube to push your party is akin to selling beetroot in a cake shop. If you want to engage any particular demographic then it has to be issues based. If you don’t treat your political party as a brand and differentiate yourself from the competition, then you will only be able to benefit from government misshaps like the recent buget on a short term basis. Ultimately there are key learnings to be made from the Obama campaign in the States - the fundamental lesson is the use of the Internet as a tool to rally your supporters.