Cowen - some thoughts from abroad

The view from the Élysée

“Sacre bleu, quel espèce d'enculé!” muttered President Sarkozy, dropping the diplomatic communiqué on the table beside his unfinished croissant and coffee. “Carla, Cowen est vraiement un branleur!”
Sarkozy’s breakfast table irritation has been caused by the latest report from Ambassador Yvon Roe d’Albert in Dublin, whose update on the budget debacle pulls no punches.

The Ambassador had, earlier in the year, correctly assessed the main reason for the failure of the Lisbon Referendum: the complacency and incompetence of the current Irish Government.

Now, the ambassador spelt out the bleak scenario in his concluding paragraph: (I’ve translated it for you.)
This latest example of the utter political incompetence of the current Irish administration will have serious consequences for your plans to promote a second Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

This government has succeeded in annoying and alienating several key constituencies, both through some key budget measures themselves, but also in the way they been panicked into undignified u-turns under the first signs of public pressure.

A second Lisbon Referendum, promoted by this Taoiseach and his administration,, will have very little chance of success.

PS: The arse has really fallen out of the Irish property market. We won’t get anything like €60m for the embassy now. Sorry about that, Chief.

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The Chieftains in China

RTE’s Margaret Ward, reporting yesterday morning on the Taoiseach’s meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, told us that the half-hour meeting had gone well, the two men discussing world and business affairs. She also told us that “the human rights issue was briefly touched on.”.

So you can just imagine the scene: Wen & Brian sitting there, sipping their green tea.
“Now, Brian” says Wen, “I want to raise with you some concerns we in China have about the way your budget is mistreating old people and very young children.”