Boyd Barrett Bullsh1t

In an Opinion piece in today’s Irish Times, Richard Boyd Barrett makes a number of substantial claims for his near success in the recent general election, totally ignoring the complete failure of the other handful of candidates running in other constituencies under the “People before Profit” banner.

In response the following letter published in the Irish Times on 9th June 2007:

Madam - Richard Boyd Barrett claims that "against the background of a very poor overall performance for the left, the shock caused by the People Before Profit Alliance in Dún Laoghaire in coming so close to taking a seat may be a small but significant pointer towards a possible way forward."

This assertion would be more credible if Mr Boyd Barrett had made Dún Laoghaire voters aware of his prominent role in the Socialist Workers Party and familiarised them with that party's Marxist economic policy.

I suspect that many middle-class voters in Dún Laoghaire identified Mr Boyd Barrett only with the public baths protest, without knowing of his SWP affiliation, and voted for him on that basis.

Next time he should run with his true colours flying and we can then assess more accurately the appeal of his politics and the effectiveness of the electoral strategy he espouses in his article. Yours etc.