Brenda Power

Yeah, they love them all.

In equal measure.

Brendan?

The fuel protests opened up something here though, didn't they?

And like we've been waiting and waiting for some kind of galvanising lightning rod for what people might call, you know, the more right wing or the rural or the kind of yellow vest dissatisfaction, all of that.

Immigration seems to be in there as well in that they kind of latched on to it.

The fuel protests did change something in the dynamic, did it?

And he makes this point that they all feel looked down on by polite society.

We're back to the basket of deplorables kind of idea, are we?

Yeah, but at the risk of losing another cohort is the problem.

Ben, I remember once somebody writing that basically what the Trump re-election was about was that those people felt humiliated and they were going, screw you, and they put him back in there.

Is there a danger there, as Colin Murphy is saying, that we drift to a similar kind of situation here where there's a bunch of people who feel we're looked down on, we're humiliated and that they galvanise?

And look, nobody is suggesting that any of these... No, no, no, not at all.

Absolutely.

Is this why we're seeing...

two Fianna Fáil frontbenchers out in the Sunday Independent today making a range of promises about the budget.

Are they panicking that they are losing what's been called the working people?

Panicking is probably too strong a word.

Okay, interesting.

Right, let's take a break.