Enda versus Bertie…
Is live here (Miriam O’Callaghan is doing a better job in pinning the Taoiseach down than the leader of the opposition)… discussions here and here.
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Books
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The peace process not such a good model after all
Which reminds me…. Platform for Change’s driving force Robin Wilson has produced a corrective to the notion that the lessons of the NI conflict are easily exportable. Like myself, Robin is associated with the Constitution Unit. He introduced his new book in a CU blog which I here reproduce. The water crisis in Northern Ireland [...] read our review »
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The Written World
Here’s something to keep you occupied over the weekend. [Will there be a quiz? - Ed] Possibly… The BBC magazine has an short and interesting, but un-embeddable, audio slide-show of Melvyn Bragg’s Radio 4 five-parter, In Our Time: The Written World. The British Library has more online information about the texts and technology featured in each [...] read our review » -
Lessons in Cute Hoorism: “Graft was accepted, for you were taking from the British…”
I’ve been catching up on some reading, recently. Most pleasantly surprised by John Drennan’s latest opus from Gill and Macmillan, Cute Hoors and Pious Protestors… It’s early days yet, but I was struck by this paragraph, part of a dissection of Fianna Fail near the beginning: One of the more fatal consequences of our colonial [...] read our review »
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Bertie on points for his better grasp of detail.
Bertie wins.
Bertie wins but Enda bags a crucial away goal
Bertie won it comfortably. Looked very calm and composed. Enda looked like someone struggling to believe in himself.
What did Jimmy McGee say when Maradonna was slicing his way through the English defence back in ’86?….Different Class!!
Enda, much like GWB in 2004, merely had to ensure that he didn’t make an absolute horlicks of this debate – and to be fair he did not.
The more I see of Enda Kenny, the more I am persuaded that he is an honest, decent and most importantly competent person. The more I see of the Bertie and FF/PD’s, the more persuaded I am that they deserve a damn good thrashing in this election.
I would give the debate to Bertie on points, but by no means did he run away with it.
I pretty much agree with Ginfizz, and compared to expectations, Enda (did his mother not like him) played a blinder.
And there were times when Enda looked far better than Bertie, especially on health, where he had a better grasp of detail than Bertie.
Granted Bertie smelt blood re the detail on the extra 2,000 Gardai, but the greatest feeling I was left with after watching the debate was that Enda (Did his father not have any input) wanted it more than Bertie. I got the impression Bertie was going through the motions.
smcgiff
Agreed. He scored big time I think on health. FF look a bit (but nowhere near as bad) like the Tories did in 1997 – just plain tired and out of ideas.
“The most skilful, the most devious, the most cunning of them all” – Haughey on Ahern ( takes one to know one).
Bertie’s undoubtedly the slicker presenter, but hopefully there’s more to politics than that. Based on political performance, FF have squandered the resources available to them over the past 10 years.
And of course these resources just appeared out of nowhere. Nothing of course due to prudent management of the economy over the past 20 years. It just apparently happened by accident. And if the economy had gone arseways over that period would FF’s present detractor’s be saying it was just an accident or would they be blaming it on FF’s economical management. Can’t have it both ways.
Rainbow coalition – 1994-1997 – just as the economy started to turn good. FF or the PDs can’t take all the credit.
Multinational investment did the work, and to be fair FF listened to the experts in industry when they told them what to do, but FG in government will be listening to pretty much the same people. As caretakers FF did okay, but there’s a serious need for investment where people need it: planning, quality of life, health and education. FF have been abysmal on at least 3 of these – and they’ve overspent on nearly all infrastructure projects, and downright burned money on ridiculous things like electronic voting and the faulty health services’ payroll system.
The Rainbow Govt was only in office for 30 months and while they didn’t muck things up historians will give greater credit to McSharry, Ahern and McCreevy for the transformation of our economy.FF have become victims of their own success in many ways. When I left school in the 1980s emmigration rather than immigration was the problem. Traffic congestion (the M50 hadn’t even been started!) and long commuting weren’t a problem either. All problems of success rather than failure. With regard to electronic voting I think it’s a good thing (no party had any objections as far as I remember back in ’02) and hopefully we’ll have it next time (or even internet voting) although I’ll miss the excitement of the count!