Can I just say that, in general, our Proportional Representation system in Ireland is infinitely more democratic than the first-post-the-post fir-up in Britain.
We're sill in the hands of the vulture capitalists and bankers, but at least we know that our politicians can't totally ride rough-shod over public opinion - and the fact that we don't really have a crusading right-wing media capable of being kingmakers at election time, we tend to vote on grass-roots issues rather than Murdoch-concocted ones.
Labour learned that the hard way when it sold out to a right wing party in order to hold office and self-destructed.
Jim Carroll