One major difference is that FF are no longer calling the shots, the previous mentioning of this was merely an invitation for the opposition to row in behind whatever the government decided, there would have been no forum for meaningful input from the non-government parties.
Still donât see how the greens position has changed in real terms, before today their stance was âweâll support the government until the finance bill is passedâ and after today itâs âweâll support the government untill the finance bill is passed from the opposition benchesâ I donât see why where youâre sitting makes such a huge difference.
In fairness to Gilmore, and Iâm not normally a huge fan, he has just hit the nail on the head in his presser when he said of FFâs reluctance to get the bill passed this week âI suspect this has more to do with FFâs recovery rather than the countryâs recoveryâ
I agree that itâs not a massive change but from the Greens perspective it gets them the hell out of there. They donât want to be part of any delaying tactics, they donât want to support it being dragged out, they donât want people mentioning the Climate Change Bill and suspecting they have other motives. Theyâre now effectively saying the same thing as Labour and FG - get the vote done as soon as possible and thatâs it for this DĂĄil.
I donât think you can ask much more of them than that at this stage. Whether they should have left sooner or not gone into government in the first place etc is all irrelevant now. They donât feel theyâre being communicated to by FF, they feel theyâd be strung along in government and theyâre not prepared to have any part in any government that will put FF ahead of the country. Thatâs their stance.
I take your first point too on this being slightly different but for the purposed of the Finance Bill alone, which was all the Greens wanted the National Unity on, itâs the same effect.
Brian Lenihan into 9/2 today from 10/1 yesterday to become Fianna Fails next leader. Crazyhorse was unquoted yesterday in the betting, i was going to ring today to enquire about him, but i see he has been priced up now at 50/1.
[indent]Brian Cowen, the prime minister, was forced into calling early elections on Thursday, to resign as party leader on Saturday, all after winning a confidence vote from his parliamentary party on Tuesday. His discredited leadership had been challenged after undisclosed meetings with Sean FitzPatrick, the banker at the heart of the financial crisis, came to light. What followed was utterly cynical.
Six members of the cabinet resigned and Mr Cowen tried to give an electoral leg-up to lesser-known Fianna FĂĄil MPs with scattergun offers of ministerial portfolios. This reshuffle â and eventually the government itself â was scuttled by the partyâs Green coalition partners, leaving Fianna FĂĄil in meltdown and mutiny.
These factional antics, as Ireland faces arguably the worst crisis in its history as an independent nation, could turn the expected Fianna FĂĄil rout at the polls into electoral annihilation.
That may be richly deserved. This is, after all, the party that through its cronyism and incompetence artificially prolonged the boom of the 1990s into the credit and property bubble of the past decade, and then gave a blanket guarantee to its banker friends that has ended in the humiliation of Ireland becoming a ward of the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.[/indent]
Sean Haughey commented during the weekend that Cowen put his own future as leader ahead of the party and country. He promised jobs for the lads in return for votes which resulted in the botched reshuffle.
Of course Seanâs father was a man full of morals, and would never have done such a thing.
haughey did a lot of good things for this country as did ahern
funny to see people have a go at bertie for been slightly corrupt but the history books will be very kind to bertie as he brought peace to this island- the likes of fooley giving out that his tax rate is slightly higher due to some poor economic policies is short termism in the extreme
