The Irish election result is a nail in the coffin of fiscal conservatism. But the debt will still have to be repaid For further proof that the age of fiscal conservatism, or “austerity”, is over, look to this week’s general election result in Ireland, where much like everywhere else, the country has seemingly succumbed to a new form of politics. In Britain we still associate Sinn Fein with its one time support for the IRA, yet the party’s sudden surge in the polls has very little to do with the troubles, or indeed any assumed anti-British, anti-Brexit protest vote. Rather it is a reflection of the same bread and butter issues that curse economies across the advanced world - unaffordable housing, stagnant wage growth and long hospital waiting lists. After ten years of post-financial crisis belt tightening, Ireland wants something different, even if Sinn Fein’s hardline, anti-capitalist populism scarcely offers solutions....