Can’t find another thread dedicated to our potential next leader.
It frightens the life out of me that I want FF out of power as soon as possible but might be faced with this thundering gobshite at the helm instead. It’s hard to think of a less competent leader, and it’s time he stopped hiding behind the notion that he’s just not suave but he’s a serious politician behind the scenes.
Ever since Labour beat FG to the punch in calling for the removal of the Ceann Comhairle FG have been scared that they’ll miss the first step in a revolution. We’ve had the horribly timed vorte of no confidence in an Taoiseach, timed only to coincide with a FG leadership contest ultimately. Now we have FG abandoning protocol and refusing to “mark” ministers on official duty by ensuring there’s a full FG presnce in the Dáil for votes while FF ministers are abroad.
Another bizarre call from Kenny. The public have no appetite for petty politics like that at a time when FF shuold be taken to task on every policy decision they make. The idea that FG would try and exploit a FF minister going to the US on official business is pathetic and Labour called it like it is and have offered to have a TD step down instead so the natural running of the country is not disrupted.
There’s someone in FG feeding this poor advice to Kenny but it’s uncertain whether he’s being deliberately setup for a fall or not. We’re not always as sophisticated an electorate as you’d like but you’d hope that people would see through this sort of stunt and judge the parties on their merits.
FG now have some serious issues.They have a leader who is unelectable according to most opinion polls and most of the competent TDs. They can’t table a vote of no confidence in the government for another year or so because they used their allocation on a stupid attempt to get to the front pages. If they knew the next election was over six months away I’d say they’d have another crack at removing Kenny but they’ll be reluctant to move against him now in case there’s a quickfire election and Kenny’s replacement (presumably Bruton) has no time to bed in as leader.
They’re in a mess and completely failing to capitalise on the deep distrust and disgust that the general populace have for FF. They need to bite the bullet and change Kenny as far as I’m concerned but I don’t see it happening.
for all kennys faults which there are a shitload does it not strike you as odd that the media darling bruton didnt have the wherewithall to defeat kenny- it doesnt say much for him he couldnt organise his support better than to defeat a half wit
bruton kennyu cowen etc etc- the country is fucked whoever we get in
If there was a general election in the morning then Eamon Gilmore would become the new leader of the country. What harm but FG would be guaranteed to take over power if they had Bruton as party leader. Kenny is a buffoon and FG are a laughing stock over him. I would be seething if i was a FG man…
a load of self serving back benchers. instead of doing what they thought was best for the party overall, the guys at the back thought they’d be sneaky and stay with Kenny as it would push them up closer to the top table once Kenny got rid of the dissenting voices. politics in Ireland is a shambles. too many TDs are out for their own gain rather than what they’re supposed to be there for.
Couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing this morning. It’s just the stupidity of it. It probably wouldn’t have taken them long to start getting a cycle of stories out about Ministers dodging the Dáil and threatening to pull the pairs for a while before actually doing it. It might have worked if they did that. This came from nowhere at the start of the Dáil session, and it just seems like the worst in petty politics. It was just an open goal for Labour to seem statesman-like and a Government in waiting, and FG to look petty. It’s hard to believe that a bunch of people who have probably spent their entire adult lives in politics would come up with that as their big wheeze at the end of the summer. Fucking amateur hour.
I’m loathe to comment on economic and political matters but what about those fuckwits like Royston Brady and Noel Grealish trying to slyly distance themselves from the establishment with a general election just around the corner.
Ruairi Quinn was very sensible this morning and made the FG boys sound like a pack of goms for their stance on Coughlan going to the U.S.
1 to every word of that Appendage, thought Grealsih’s carry on was very self serving and sums up the gombeen politics in this country, now isn’t the time for petty political football…The sooner the IMF come in and cut the hole out of the public service and put some manners on this country the better
pricks like grealish and mattie mcgrath scrambling for the lifeboats now
fine if you happen to be near their particular local hospital, if not, tough it would seem
the whole thing is a farce at this stage
oth, part of me wants FF to hang on long enough to get the mother of all budgets through in a couple of months, otherwise the bastards will be able to hide behind the IMF/EFSF smokescreen for the next 5 years
Fine Gael actually have some decent policies together - that new ERA document has some interesting ideas whether they ever see the light of day is another thing I suppose. There is a craving in modern times for all public representatives to have charisma above anything else. Lenihan for example come across as charismatic and has a lot of people fooled imo by a disastrous bank guarantee which makes 4.5m people liable for the debts of 100 people or so.
kenny does come across as a buffoon but he couldnt be any worse than possibly the worst Minister for Health, Finance and Taoiseach in the history of the State - Mr. Brian Cowen. I’m not gone on Richard Bruton, for a supposedly hot shot economist I dont recall his objections to the pyramid scheme nature of the Celtic Tiger and his opposition to NAMA was a bit half baked.
Politicans are what the electorate want them to be, the electorate are their shareholders. You cant blame them when Irish people care more about their medical cards and having potholes filled than the future of the country.
The fact that Kenny is struggling in the face of the biggest open goal in Irish electoral history says it all, he’s not what the people want. mind you do the blueshirts have any statesman in their ranks? I think not.
What do the Irish people want though? As far as I can make out, people vote based primarily on the personalities of local candidates - Ive been guilty of it myself I’ll be honest. The odd one like Rocko vote socialist as he supports a socialist revolution but generally people vote personalities over policies . The national interest tends to be a long way down the list anyway. Hopefully there will be a swing against FF next time out, for the country to have any future they have to be voted out for presiding over the collapse of the Irish economy and society. Unprecedented failure you would think will not be rewarded but then again people have said on here they will be voting for buffoons like Timmy Dooley so fuck knows what will actually transpire on election day. Cant see Labour getting the huge swing anyway unless they get proper candidates out.
I feel a bit sorry for Enda Kenny really. He just comes across as such a hillbilly but would prefer him to an utterly incompetent buffoon like Cowen any day.
I’d be interested to see what Dr Reilly would do in Health, wouldnt know much about the rest of the FG front bench. Varadakar make a lot of noise but is he a man of vision at the same time? I think there are far more credible ministers in Labour’s ranks - Rabbitte, Gilmore, Quinn
Agreed KiB, I mean people wonder why there are no statesmen in the Dail but then vote for goons like Jackie Healy Rae locally. If people had the bigger picture in mind things could have been different. I refuse to vote FF as I want them and their grubby machine out of power and killed off for good, so no matter how charismatic their local rep was. They just need to be wiped out as far as I’m concerned good or bad.
Healy Rae, his clown of a RTE sponsored son next in line, jesus like what kind of a self interested prick would vote for them as national representatives.
Add in proven fraudsters like Cooper Flynn, Lowry - seriously how do people vote for these? I’d love to hear Frank Fahey’s take on the national interest aswell. I’m sure every county has their own list of shame.
To be honest its not just solely an Irish thing, there is a state politician here who got the boot a while back. A state minister actually, long standing wife and kids etc. Anyway it turns out he has a penchant for hairy arse but getting his taxpayers funded ministerial car with driver to drop him to and from the homo brothel was a bit too much and he got the boot.
As I was suggsting earlier I think the lack of media skills from Kenny is nearly working to his advantage at this stage. They’re now trying to spin him as a guy of merit and policies behind the poor outward demeanour but there’s fuck all evidence that that’s happening.
Listening to Ruairí Quinn on the radio this morning and he was nearly suggesting Kenny got played like a fool in this and that he was deliberately setup. It wouldn’t be the first time he made an atrocious call on the back of poor advice and it’s that sort of repeated mistake that makes me suspect there isn’t much substance behind the shite exterior. I just don’t think he’s any way intelligent or even opinionated enough to lead the country.
I wouldn’t put medical cards on the same footing as potholes. Medical cards have a big social and economic importance. It’s the nature of campaigning behind the scenes that I guess is objectionable however.
The alternatives are miserable however. Labour must be loving how the big two parties are falling apart.