There isn’t anything heroic in leaving a job which requires real hard work, compromise, dedication and personal sacrafice and returning to a post where you get paid €160k plus p.a. for commentating on what other people do.

George is no hero because, firstly the general public don’t believe that nine months is long enough to have tested the whole political system. Secondly they feel the whole thing smacks of ego getting in the way of hard graft. Thirdly if George had to go back into the job market and wonder he will put food on the table we might start to believe him, but the return to RTE just before his leave of absence expires taints the whole martyr aura that he is trying to surround himself with.
That said, he will of course have his supporters, those who really believe that he would have produced the magic economic formula if only Enda Kenny had asked him. These same people are also likely to think that he was the only economist in Fine Gael or even the country for that matter, and have failed to realise that there other less publicised economists who are better qualified and whose opinions are just as valid.
No doubt, now that the contraints of FG have been lifted from him I can look forward to hearing the great economic policy statement that wells up inside him waiting to be released.
Go on George if you’re reading this tell us, tell us how we can save ourselves. Tell us what all the other commentators have missed. Enda would’nt listen but we ,your adoring public, will !

The thing that is so striking to me about this whole conversation around George Lee is the idea that someone who blasted their way into politics should automatically have to “wait their turn”. There doesn’t seem to be much room in the Irish system for “Young Turks”. Looking at the US, for example, seniority is very important within the Congress, and especially within the Senate. However, there have been moments when newbies have been able to really turn the agenda of the major parties, and put themselves in real positions of power. Right-wing Republicans did this in the 1990s, and Rahm Emanuel was able to vault himself to the upper echelons of the Democratic party leadership by his successful strategizing that led the Democrats to capture the House in the 2006 elections.

On the other hand, it’s not clear to me that Lee offered a real political agenda, one that would garner public support, and that would legitimate his claims to have more “say” within the party. Given his apparent popularity, had he crafted a real alternative agenda, perhaps he could have led a backbencher revolt (especially given his claims of murmuring). I don’t see 9 months as nearly enough time for anyone to turn a hidebound institution on its head, much less lead a revolt from the inside. Maybe Lee’s departure from the Dail would seem more noble if it was obvious that he really had tried to change the direction of the party, and of politics in general, but from what I’ve read, I don’t get that sense at all.

“Unless of course, that post to which he is returning also requires ‘real hard work, compromise, dedication and personal sacrifice’.”

Surely:

“Unless of course, that post to which he is returning also requires ‘real hard work, compromise, dedication and personal sacrifice’ say, for example in the Irish Times, instead of RTE.”

Dontcha love that dry Tara Street humour.

“And maybe that explains why so many incredibly able people here shun politics as a profession.”

I don’t think there’s any maybe about it Bryan, this is the way politics works in this country. All politicians are interested in is re-election and parish politics is the result. There are far too few focusing on the bigger picture hence the squandering of the benefits accrued over the last 15 years.

Lee was right to walk away, he obviously took a look araound saw it for what it is and said no thanks. Only leaves one question – surely he should have known this was the status quo in the first place?

I think Goerge Lee should be commended for walking away. It musn’t have been an easy decision, he could have stayed there and continued on sitting back doing nothing and getting very well paid. He made a choice, a brave one. Perhaps we should be looking at the bigger picture. What is going on within Fine Gael, we all know that Enda doesn’t have what it takes to run the country if he did he would have been elected the last election. George Lee is a hero one with morals, so what if he returns to RTE. Is one not allowed to make a choice any more. We listened every night to his commentry when the recession hit. Maybe its time we listened again.

Ah sure he is really. One of those who also serve.

I think that calling G Lee a hero for reseigning after such a short stay in politics would be excessive. Heros should do something out of the ordinary during their political careers or bring about something extraordinary with their resignation. George Lee cannot claim to have done either.

His decision was at best made in the hope that it would bring about systematic change. If he felt that reform was not possible from the inside and given the general reaction to his resignation, the politicians who can bring about these reforms will be under no extra pressure to do so now than they were when Lee was there. There will be no lasting positive legacy.

So forced him to resort to resignation as a tool for change?
Erica’s point about an absense of clear political philosophy could well be true but it is what prevents politicians of a non traditional ilk from making progress or from testing their philosophy which is most interesting. For this I think Erica and Patrick have summed things up nicely.

But to repeat the real heroic politician would change all of this either from the inside or through his resignation. George will be judged to have done neither.

(The RTE business is not a major issue in my book, given that most rational beings would have weighed things up the same way as he did. Bear in mind also that G Lee would not have much difficulty finding employment similar to that RTE post, if the latter was no longer available to him.)

Country won’t panic over anything unless it directly affects the euro in the pocket agus an súicre insan tae. That much is clear to me now.

George Lee has clearly being found out as an intellectual lightweight and has run home to the safety of RTE. How can we trust anything these cosseted journalists say?

I’ll be interested in his journalistic style and whether it displays any marked or subtle changes. Must get a tv licence. Must get a tv. Think I’ll try me one of those Elegatos. But then there’s always RTE’s website don’t need a tv licence for that though you don’t use it like people use telly. Having it on all the time and half-consciously watching all sorts of shite and the odd not-half-bad thing all mixed up together while doing other stuff at the same time. Or as an old man once said when he saw a guy driving his car and kissing a girl in the passenger seat “he’s doing two things badly at the same time”. Hope now that George’s put his political career behind him, as it seems, he’ll be able to do just the one thing well which is report on the wa..on politics as it is fought. All Big Boy stuff these days. Small man better get out of the way when the elephants dance the chickens should be nervous. Gorilla Dayz in Ireland. Needs plenty of war reporting. At least if we can keep an eye on them we can try to take our own protective measures. Such as getting our passports renewed if necessary now and not waiting a month longer.

“He’s doing two IMPORTANT things badly at the same time.” What the old man actually said got it wrong the first time anyway thanks for the good word Blimey I’m usually hanging around here like some ancient marinade at a wedding party scaring the guests quantum of solace if I cheer one or two up intentionally or otherwise

Lest we not forget FG went looking for George.
Did they approach him simply because they were short of back-bench ineffective TDs? Of course not.
He was recruited because of what he brought and what he would bring as an economist who was at once intellectual but had also proved that he had connected with the public which explains his 27,000 vote return.
The fact of the matter is that bright lights cast long shadows and George Lee overshadowed both Kenny and Bruton in both economic intellect and charisma. They of course knew this and decided to park him on the bench. Enda Kenny is utterly unelectable as a Taoiseach yet FG continue to entertain his bungling, ineffectual leadership whilst watching a man who could have led them to power walk away. We need more George Lee’s

A study of what keeps Enda as leader of Fine Gael and what led George to quit would both throw light on the state of politics in ireland.

Enda, a man who would’nt know how to rock a boat in a raging sea, is succesfull precisly due to his mediocrity. In lacking passion and vision he is the perfect “safe pair of hands”. Politicians who turn around countries are driven and visionary. Enda is neither. But he is a very “nice” man and sadly in todays political class in Ireland thats all thats needed to get to the top.

George is driven. He is a threat. He would probably kick ass within the party if allowed a foothold. He might even god forbid break ranks occasionally and say what he thinks rather than what the party thinks. Dangerous, so no room at the inn.

But what continues to niggle me is that his departure shows he did’nt know the game he was getting into. For a journalist of his calibre that is quite disturbing and leaves me with quite a big question mark over either his level of self-awareness or his judgement, or both.

Patrick

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