`My Spats with Mandelson, by Ireland's Bruiser" was the heading on an interview with Brian Cowen in the Guardian on Tuesday by diplomatic editor, Ewen MacAskill. The Minister for Foreign Affairs confirmed relations between the two were not good, but this had a positive effect in that they didn't waste time but got straight down to matters of substance. Cowen, whom the paper describes as having the face of a bruiser and admits to looking like the dishevelled TV detective Columbo, plays down his leadership ambitions - "it's not an abiding desire I have when I get up in the morning".
Is he hurt by being called a BIFFO, which the Guardian translates, wrongly, as Big Irish F***er From Offaly? It is, he says "just the usual, anti-intellectual, insulting personalised remark that passes for comment in this country". This implies that he is. MacAskill, however, says 30 seconds in his company destroys the label and what's more, Cowen is sharp and thoughtful with a gift for mimicry. Did he ask him what a BUFFELOO is?
