It would appear that Labour’s adoption of the Michael McDowell mantra of, in effect: single party government, no thanks, is more indicative of Labour’s own lack of self esteem than anything else. This stance by the Labour Party is an embarrassment and really smacks of a lack of confidence in its own role in national politics. A less benevolent view might be that the desire for power, even diluted power, is so great that it relegates all other considerations to second place. (more…)

Loaning Ireland more money will hurt European workers. This is the message Fine Gael and Labour must send to French and German workers. (more…)

If any word deserves to be banned during this and future election campaigns it’s “free”. “Free” services are to politics what ice cream is to a summer crowd: a breeze to sell. Fianna Fail’s giveaway budgets in previous elections successfully bought votes in droves with populist and wasteful hikes in public spending. (more…)

The Player Profiles

Fianna Fail – most experienced and trophy laden team in the competition but form simply dreadful of late. Have fallen foul of of UEFA, sorry EU/IMF rules for financial solvency and have been panicked into dropping the captain for a sort of Beckham-esque populist. They have also replaced most of the first team (who seemed keen to leave anyway) with Academy youngsters. But will it be enough or indeed is it too late regardless. To say that the fans are restless is something of an understatement.

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