JAMIE SMYTH'Ssideways look at Election 2011
Romantic Green candidate hoping to spread the love
THE GREEN Party’s cosy relationship with Fianna Fáil in government has left its candidates struggling to woo voters in the election campaign. But that hasn’t stopped one enterprising Green Party candidate using a lonely-heart advert to appeal to the floating voter.
Paul McNally, the party’s candidate in Tipperary South, took the unusual step of taking out an advert in the Tipperary Star newspaper’s “social and introductions” section last week.
The advert read:
“Unhappy Valentine? Didn’t find a candidate to love? Or even one you could trust? Go with someone different this time: Vote Paul McNally. Green Party.”
The advert cost less than €10, surely making McNally one of the cheapest dates in this election.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Unlike others,my job was resigned by me and was filled on a fully permanent position by some good teacher in my place" -
Enda Kenny says he won't be taking the teacher's pension and calls on Micheál Martin to resign his teaching job
Shatter's anti-Independent stance hasn't gone away, you know
THINGS ARE hotting up along the leafy avenues of Dublin South, a constituency that attracts as many “celebrity” candidates and canvassers as it hosts posh dinner parties.
Fine Gael’s resident Rottweiler Alan Shatter yesterday stepped up his vocal “anti-Independent campaign” by taking a swipe at Shane Ross, the Senator and TV commentator, who has attracted the praise and support of Eamon Dunphy.
“It has been clear for some time that Shane Ross’s approach to our economic and banking crisis is no different to the disastrous and dishonest approach of Sinn Féin that would lead our country to further ruin,” declared Shatter.
“Eamon Dunphy’s declaration today that he intends to give his first preference vote to Sinn Féin leaves no room now for any doubt that Shane Ross and Sinn Féin are indistinguishable,” he continued. Shatter’s outburst is sure to irk Ross, who is no friend of the Shinners. But could it also suggest that Fine Gael’s high-profile justice spokesman is feeling the heat of another “celebrity” candidate running on the Fine Gael ticket in Dublin South, banking expert and TV pundit Peter Mathews?
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I accuse the Fine Gael party of rank hypocrisy and campaigning around the country on this. They talk the talk but don't walk the walk. Also it was hidden from people." -
Micheál Martin on news that Enda Kenny is eligible for a €100,000 lump sum payment from his teacher's pension when he turns 60 in April.
Creighton not let off Hook about heave
BROADCASTER AND rugby pundit George Hook tackled the touchy subject of the failed heave against Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny at a public meeting of the party’s Dublin candidates in the Aviva stadium yesterday.
While introducing Fine Gael’s Dublin-based candidates to the party faithful at the meeting, he said Lucinda Creighton had “seen off one party leader last time out”, referring to the electoral fate of Michael McDowell of the Progressive Democrats in the 2007 general election.
Hook predicted Creighton was “about to see off another party leader this time out”, in reference to John Gormley of the Greens, adding: “But then, Lucinda has never been afraid of party leaders, even if they’re in her own party.”
“Remember, this party was asked after the bloodthirsty battles of the Civil War to save the country. This party was asked after the voodoo economics of Jack Lynch to save the country. The party was asked after the sleaze of Haughey to save the country. And it may well be asked again when this country that won its independence in blood may have given it away in a welter of fraud to become a vassal state of Europe,” he said.
Hook, who recently banned politicians from his radio programme, urged the crowd not to respond too enthusiastically.
“With old egotists like me, if you applaud I’ll be here all afternoon.”
ELECTION ONLINE: THE BEST BITS FROM YouTube
Kilkenny rapper Captain Moonlight turns a satirical eye on the country’s election campaign in his latest music video, which stars fictional IMF TD Mick McGuinness.
http://tiny.cc/e10so
See how young people are engaging with the election campaign in this video by anarchist group We are Change Éire. No candidate’s posters are safe from a group of spray-can-wielding teenagers, who are urging the public to spoil their votes on Friday.
http://tiny.cc/eakwr