Man Overboard but the Ship Sails on Regardless
An otherwise quiet day has been enlivened by a squawk of dissent from the Labour benches. Newly-elected TD Patrick Nulty has announced his intention to vote against the Budget.
Politics »
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National Budget Kite-Flying Festival 2011
There are so many kites flying on the Budget that we could have a national festival. The child benefit issue has really taken off since it surfaced in the Sunday papers. Meanwhile, Labour’s Willie Penrose had already quit his “super-junior” job over the closure of an Army barracks in Mullingar.
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Legion of the Rearguard
So that’s it then. All the prophecies of doom about Fianna Fail are coming true. Who would have thought it, five, four, even two years ago?
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Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will
At the request of the BBC, I made my way across Dublin city to a polling station in Drumcondra at 9am to talk on camera about the election. Even at that time there was a significant turnout. Looks like the vote will be very high: a lot of people are out for “vingeance”!
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Hungry Kenny Raises the Roof
Shattered must be the only way to describe the feelings of England and Dubs supporters today, after the crushing defeats they suffered at the hands of Germany and Meath respectively.
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Power Beckons for Labour
Eamon Gilmore . . . walking into Government?The big talking point after Eamon Gilmore’s main speech to the Labour conference in Galway was the party’s demand for a place in the televised debate between party leaders in the next general election.
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Will Fine Gael really turn the Oireachtas upside down?
We have given extensive coverage in this newspaper to Fine Gael’s radical policy reform policy, New Politics (see original story here).
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An unremarkable recovery and a remarkable outburst
A little more on the poll. I don’t know if the word stoic can be transferred to a political body. But in a sense all the political parties have remained stoic in the face of all the dramatic events of the past four months. The swings up and down are all within the margin of error. (more…)
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Banking Inquiry
There will be a kerfuffle when the Dáil returns tomorrow over the form that the banking inquiry will take. Most of the Sunday broadsheets yesterday reported that the Government is veering towards a Commission of Inquiry model.
That’s the concept brought to us by Michael McDowell. And, yes, it works. Very well too. But it’s not a utility player as such. It’s specialist. Worked well with Judge Murphy’s investigation of how the Dublin Archdioices responded to allegations of clerical sex abuse. It was also effective when inquiring into the death of a young boy whilst in custody.
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The Other side of the Water
Here’s a trick for a journalist like me who’s stuck for an intro. You can always find a simple and obvious comparison. For example, if you’re talking about Irish politics the easiest thing to do is have a look across the water and say, God, what’s happening over there is happening here too, or is just about to happen (expenses scandals; three wins on the trot for Bertie’s bestest friend in the world Tonee Blair).
And to make it look like your really clever, you can use that most-frayed of quotes from Don Scottus: All comparisons are odious. To excuse the odious comparison that you have made.
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