Sinn Féin focus on cost of living with US election query

It was a question that became one of the most impactful ever in politics.

In the only televised debate of the 1980 US election, Republican Ronald Reagan - up against incumbent president Jimmy Carter - closed his remarks by putting one simple question to the audience: "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"

It has since become an old standby in American politics and was resurrected once again by President-elect Donald Trump, who had a modern twist, posting the question in capital letters on social media on the last day of the campaign.

While both Republicans might seem like unlikely inspiration for Sinn Féin, the main party of opposition is borrowing a similar theme in its pitch to the electorate.

Finally launching its manifesto - halfway through the election campaign - Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said: "Most people will tell you, if you ask them 'how are you managing? Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?' People will tell you no."

And echoing the refrain of voters everywhere, she said: "Everything is going up."

If it is the case, as the government parties claim, that Sinn Féin was waiting to see what way the wind was blowing before launching their manifesto, then it is a strategy that seems to have worked.

The main opposition party has settled and honed in on the theme that is having most resonance in this campaign: The cost of living.

In the run in to the debate, there was a sense across politics that the impact of that issue was abating.

Budget supports and inflation falling below1% meant pressures had started to ease.

Then the election in the US of Donald Trump was a reminder that the rising cost of toothpaste mattered more than the bigger economic picture.

The Democrats proudly highlighted that the US economy was flourishing.

But Mr Trump’s camp tapped into the lived reality, which was that people were paying 25% more for everyday essentials than they were four years earlier.

On the campaign trail here, there is a similar sentiment.

"We can just about afford a little excursion on a Saturday," a young father with two small boys told Ms McDonald over their chips and apple juice at the weekend.

"The rich are getting richer and the rest of us are just finding it harder," he added.

He was precisely the voter that Sinn Féin was appealing to as it launched its manifesto.

Ignoring the rhetoric over a thriving economy, to focus on more lived realities, she said: "A number of people are struggling, including those that are up early as they say and going to work - between mortgages, if you have one, rent and childcare costs."

The party is promising the abolition of USC on all income up to €45,000, that parents will pay no more than €10 a day for childcare, reversing the carbon tax and ending "voluntary contributions" in schools.

The Sinn Féin "are you better off" approach is likely to have resonance with the electorate.

But given other parties are also promising giveaways to ease the cost of living, it might just get lost in the noise of the auction.

Other proposals in the manifesto are more controversial.

Among them a proposal to carry out an "independent human rights and journalistic expert review into the objectivity of coverage by RTÉ of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and other international conflicts".

This was highlighted by other parties as an attempt of "political interference in the independence and editorial process of the public service broadcaster".

Fine Gael accused Sinn Féin of having a "soft Russian stance".

The manifesto "condemns Russia’s war in Ukraine and calls for a coordinated and concerted effort by the international community to secure an end to the hostilities and build peace".

And it adds "all sides must cease the current unlimited supply of weapons into Ukraine which has cost hundreds of thousands of lives".

Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher said this shows a disturbing attitude to Ukraine’s future as an independent and sovereign nation.

He said: "While there is a cursory condemnation of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in its manifesto, Sinn Féin’s call for Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the EU to play a role in bringing this conflict to an end seems to imply a moral equivalence between the Russian aggressor and the Ukrainian victim.

"This is deeply repugnant on Sinn Féin’s part.

"This illegal war is Russia’s responsibility. They are the guilty party. This is a simple fact.

"Peace can be achieved overnight in Ukraine if the Russian aggressor leaves."

Ms McDonald told the press conference that she will not be standing down as leader if the party is not re-elected to government.

She is asking for people to give her party a "chance of government" and to "let us show you the difference that can be made".

The difference is whether people feel less well-off enough, to choose the devil they do not know, rather than the one that they do.