Youāre just after proving his point. Lowry is exceptionally gifted at what he does, itās just a pity he turned his hand to corruption. Lawlor wasnāt so successful but that was down to excessive greed. You also mention Shatter and McDowell, both were highly intelligent and had a lot to offer but their huge egoās got in the way. Iād be no fan of FG but Reilly had an impossible job. He had to make massive cutās to the health service, but couldnāt touch salary/wages which accounted for 80% of total cost. Destined to fail.
Teacherās can offer very little as dealing with kids every day only provides experience in how to patronise the electorate, one of the few things Enda Kenny has mastered. Teaching is seen as a handy number, anyone that chooses this career path either lacks ambition or the required intellect to do something more challenging. They are not intelligent, competent or experienced enough to run a country. They should stick to the classroom. Enda Kenny being exhibit A-Z.
Point taken and not at all a bad one. The flip side of the coin is that while the salary on offer is certainly not bad for a TD, for someone successful and experienced in business it is no more than pocket money and not worth the hassle.
My point is more geared towards the unsuitability of teachers for the job. I read somewhere that Clare Daly worked in catering for Aer Lingus. Whatever you think of her politics, she is a far more impressive politician than either Kenny or MMOC.
A bizarre viewpoint. Lowry is an excellent businessman and was corrupt as hell i.e. Unfit for public office. Lawlor was unbelievably successful, just never wanted the pain of a ministry because he had more than enough power running west Dublin planning for profit. Any truly successful business man would want nothing to do with politics as he should be able to make way more money elsewhere.
McDowell and Shatter may be highly intelligent but thatās fuckall use when your ego is so big you canāt work with people.
You have a personal view of teachers as being patronising, which is fine (if ridiculous), thats your opinion.
My point is that someoneās career background is fuck all to do with whether they make a good politician. We have enough shit TDās from all walks of life.
Also, I would argue that businessmen make poorer TDās for the simple reason that many of them continue to run their businesses while serving. So they are not giving their full attention to the Job they are handsomely paid to do.
if there were just 50 tds in the country could we afford to have even 5 teachers with poor work ethic and on career breaks in there? no could we fuck. the only reason the dail is full of teachers, sandwich makers, kerb layers etc etc is because there are about 100 too many in there, hiding, ducking, diving. doing fuck all but making bad noise.
if you cut it down to 50 and forced that 50 to make the decisions to keep law and order in the country and keep everyone working and fed then youd need 50 business men with experience of how the world goes round.
I have great respect for teachers I actually think they are underappreciated and its not the āhandy numberā people like to say it is. I also think a share of them are intelligent people. But generally there are too many bad examples of teachers who were or are politicians. You have to remember that a TDs salary is a significant upgrade from a teachers salary whereas for a successful businessman or solicitor or doctor it is of course a fair downgrade. Teaching is seen whether we like it or not and whether its true or not as a āhandy number, good pensionā etc and bad TDs have in mind the lure of their TDs pension, ministers pension. Politics is seen as an upgrade for āsafeā minded people i.e. the type of person that chooses a low risk option of teaching.
Have we any examples of teachers who were successful politicians? Kaiser Noonan I suppose? Brian Lenihan was largely a fine politician, was a solicitor. Cowan had a good career until getting the top job, another solicitor. Though heād a problem with drink for a finish which diminished his capability. Leo Varadkar is a fine politician and likely future leader of the country - a doctor.
Iām reserving judgement on Leo for the moment. Iām not sure heās the Messiah people are making him out to be. But I will give him the benefit of the doubt until Enda fucks off