Lucinda Creighton - batting for Paddy McKillen?

Was Lucinda Creighton attacking Enda Kenny with her comments at the MacGill Summer School re corporate contributions, or was she subtly supporting Paddy McKillen's challenge to NAMA?

Paddy McKillen will certainly welcome what is being reported as the latest Fine Gael leadership attack by Lucinda Creighton, as it strongly supports his High Court challenge to NAMA on the grounds that any involvement with that body will be prejudicial to his business.

The contention is that being “in NAMA” inevitably brings with it a significant degree of ignorant prejudice, fuelled by much ill-informed and populist political and media commentary.

Mr McKillen’s legal team might usefully consider calling Ms Creighton as a witness.

Enda Kenny nicknamed Stalin: Man of Steel

Today is the day. Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting (TDs, Senators & MEPs - 70 in total)kicks off at 11.30 with a one-item agenda: a vote of confidence in the leadership of Enda Kenny.

If Kenny wins today, even by a small margin, it will represent a remarkable feat of courage, endurance and real balls. What you want in a leader when the going gets tough.

Such a win will lift FG/Kenny in the polls because Kenny will have displayed fighting qualities the public, never mind the plotters, didn’t believe he possessed.

It will also help in silencing some of his critics in the media punditeriat who treat him with thinly veiled contempt face to face, and with unconcealed contempt when he’s not in studio.

And isn’t it interesting that even in an online politics.ie members poll (2147 votes), the messiah Bruton is only narrowly ahead of Kenny but still couldn’t get 40% of the votes, despite the long-term weakness of Kenny.

I’m personally very unconvinced by Bruton as a charismatic leader who will connect with the public when exposed on a wider range of topics.
And I’m not alone in questioning his economic abilities. His original banking plan was an unworkable recipe for disaster and I'm not alone in that assessment. Even Karl Whelan and Brian Lucey agree. Luckily, the country didn't have Bruton at the wheel at that critical time.

Richard Bruton pledges disloyalty to Fine Gael if Kenny wins

Tomorrow’s Fine Gael leadership meeting should begin with a public, individual commitment by all participants that all voters will accept the outcome and commit to putting their talents at the disposal of the party in the aftermath of the vote, whoever emerges as the leader.

To refuse to make this public commitment would amount to disloyalty to the party, not just to the party leader. In that circumstance, those refusing should resign the FG whip and sit as independents.

This is necessary because challenger Richard Bruton has publicly declared that he will refuse to serve Fine Gael in any front bench position if incumbent Enda Kenny wins the leadership contest tomorrow.

Bruton has said in a number of interviews that he will serve his constituents but will refuse to put his talents at the disposal of his party, despite a democratic leadership process having been undertaken.

This is clearly disloyalty to the party, not just to the party leader. If Bruton persists with this stance, he should resign the FG whip and sit as an independent.

Incidentally, Bruton said, on Vincent Browne’s programme the other night, that he would not serve in a Kenny-led front-bench, but he got all coy when VB asked would he refuse a ministerial position if offered one by Kenny after the next election.

Des O'Malley - "would start a row in an empty house"

Watching RTE’s “The PDs – From Boom To Bust” last night, I laughed when Charlie McCreevy said of Des O’Malley that, while he could be great craic, “he would start a row in an empty house”.

I was reminded of a story I heard a couple of years ago about an incident back in the 1970s when O’Malley was Minister for Justice. Hopefully it’s not an urban myth.

At the time Des was in the habit of paying a regular visit to his mother, who lived in the Sandycove/Dun Laoghaire area. After the visit he would drop into Fitzgerald’s pub in Sandycove for a drink, accompanied by two Special Branch bodyguards. Des would take a stool at the bar and the two bodyguards would sit at a table near the door.

Des would strike up a conversation with the locals at the bar and, in no time at all, would have an argument going. Sometimes he’d be running several different arguments simultaneously with a number of drinkers.

The night of O’Malley’s visit would coincide with the pub owner’s (Charlie Fitzgerald) night off and the young barman in charge didn’t know who O’Malley was.

After several weeks of this routine the young barman finally lost patience: “Look, every time you come in here you start a row. You’re upsetting my regulars. Finish your drink and get out, you’re barred!”

Of course, this started a new row with the barman as O’Malley strongly asserted his rights. The barman came around the counter, took Des by the scruff of the neck and frog-marched him to the door, past the two bodyguards who made no move to intervene, and out the door onto the street.

As the barman came back in, he passed the Special Branch men on their way out to rejoin their master. “Goodnight now” was all they said.

The following day Charlie Fitz was horrified (terrified) when one of his regulars, who had recognised O’Malley, told him what had happened, fearing perhaps that he’d be targeted by the gardai in reprisal. Thankfully, there were no repercussions.

Richard Bruton - a political jack-in-the-box

On Thursday night, when the results of the latest Irish Times/MRBI poll were known, Richard Bruton appeared on RTE’s Prime Time and TV3’s “Vincent Browne at the Palladium”.

On both programmes, he was invited to endorse Kenny's leadership and singularly failed to do so. Instead, he behaved like some shy teenager being teased about fancying some young one.

This wasn’t just a display of disloyalty, it was gross political stupidity.

Regardless of his feelings about Enda Kenny or his own desire to lead FG, he has to endorse the current leader in public, when specifically asked about it by the media.

Instead, what he has now done is to provide ammunition for the media and opposing political interests, including Labour, to focus on FGs problems and deflect attention away from

(a) the banking stew in which, rightly at last, Biffo finds himself and

(b) the populist vapidity of Labour's utterings on how to resolve the public finance deficit

Those TV performances were akin to Bruton shooting himself, and his party, in the foot.

In the loner term, Richard Bruton’s performance regarding the banking crisis has been pathetic. His original proposal, repeatedly revised in light of ongoing criticism, was complete nonsense. Even with the revisions, his proposals have been rubbished by two of his former party leaders, and no recognised expert has endorsed them.

In the past year, Bruton has transformed himself from serious commentator into a political jack-in-the-box joke, jumping up and down with every market movement, desperately trying to score populist political points, instead of maintaining his gravitas.

The last thing FG needs is a shrill new leader named Richard Bruton (or that tiresome whinger Lucinda Creighton).

What they do need is some cop on, more political bottle and a display of loyalty to their current leader. Otherwise, they will let both FF and Labour off the hook and lose even more market share.

Shane Ross - the dog that doesn't bark - at O'Reilly

Independent News & Media (IN&M) AGM was held yesterday and I knew there would be fireworks as the bold Senator Shane Ross castigated the board over the massive loss of shareholders investment in the past 3 years. The shares have fallen from a peak of €3.87 in June 2007 to a dismal €0.115 today – that’s a drop of 97%!

In terms of shareholder losses, IN&M has managed to outdo AIB & BOI – now that took some doing. So after the roasting Shane Ross gave the top table at AIB & BOI shareholder meetings, I knew the IN&M board was in for a torrid time.

Imagine my surprise when I watched the tv news last night and read the papers this morning. Not a word of ructions at the IN&M AGM – I wonder was Senator Ross even at the meeting?

Actually, this will come as no surprise to anyone who has watched Ross’s populist antics over the years. He’s fearless attacking Eircom, the banks, the toll on the M50 etc., but he’s never published or uttered a critical word about any of his employer’s business ventures, many of which have failed to sparkle. IN&M is only the latest dud – Waterford Wedgewood was a complete disaster, not least for the workers who lost not only their jobs but their pension entitlements too. Fitzwilton was a long-standing walking wounded until someone finally put it out of its public listing misery. Various ventures into oil and mining have also left investors nursing significant losses.

I look forward to seeing what’s in the Sunday Indo (Ross is the “business editor” – now that’s a laugh) about the performance of IN&M. Doubtless it will be glowing praise and optimism for the efforts of the board, now led by O’Reilly junior.

Time to reprise, again, my favourite Shane Ross joke:
Trinity College has outdone Ancient Rome because it's only a myth that Caligula made his horse a Roman Consul but it's a fact that Trinity College has made a senator out of a complete horse's arse.

Israel a pariah state, comparable with apartheid-era South Africa

It has always been legitimate for sea-farers to attempt to repel pirates with every means at their disposal. Responsibility for the Gaza convoy deaths rests entirely with the Israeli pirates, not with those attempting to repel the heavily armed boarders.

It is laughable for the Israelis to claim a justification of self-defence when they were the armed aggressors attacking an unarmed ship. If I break into your house armed with a gun and shoot you dead because you try to resist, a plea of “self-defence” just might get me a reduction from murder to manslaughter, but I’m certainly going to jail.

I look forward to seeing those involved in the authorisation, planning and execution of this criminal act brought before the international court on charges of piracy and murder. (I won’t be holding my breath)

In the meantime, we ordinary citizens can take our lead from the actions of the Dunnes Stores workers who, in 1984, showed us the appropriate response to a repressive regime which consistently shows two fingers to the international community with regard to human rights.

In terms of pariah status, Israel is now on a par with apartheid-era South Africa. The UN should dust down the old sanctions, no need to re-invent the wheel.

Johnny Foreigner on Little Englander

What would a foreigner make of UK society if he/she had to make a judgement on it, as viewed through the prism of UK media?

Quite apart from all the recent routine election-related vitriol, there’s the weekly Westminster Punch & Judy show that is known as PMQs. This, supposedly, represents the pinnacle of political discourse in the UK parliament.

The BBC’s (the public service broadcaster!) “mock or shaft” Dragon’s Den and the hyper-abrasive personnel skills of Alan Sugar on The Apprentice might well be taken to represent the recommended approach to achieving business/economic success in the UK.

The foreign viewer would also have the daily diet of dysfunctional families and communities, as represented by top-ratings programmes such as Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Eastenders.

One wonders what the ordinary UK resident makes of it all, fed on this daily tv diet of abrasion and confrontation from all levels of society? And then there are the “red tops”, the biggest selling “newspapers” in UK, which routinely go for “shock & awe” OTT banner headlines.

Fed on such a sustained and noxious diet, is it any wonder that many UK citizens appear to believe it is acceptable to behave aggressively and/or to hold xenophobic views? This might also explain the UK attitude to the EU – they can’t be a member of any club unless they actually run it!

Hopefully, the recent formation of a coalition government may remove some of the perceived stigma associated with the idea of having to moderate ones language and behaviour and live with compromise.

The reality is that we all do it in our daily lives - in our family, our workplace, our social circle etc..

Sauce for our political geese

Recent problems regarding expenses and pensions for our politicians arise primarily for a common reason: their propensity to exclude themselves from regulations they enact for application to the rest of us.

The solution therefore is for the political classes to formally adopt the following principle: what’s good enough for us is good enough for them.

In that situation you wouldn’t, for example, have
(a) politicians in receipt of ministerial pensions while still in receipt of TD’s salaries, well in advance of normal retirement age.
(b) such pension entitlements calculated on a greatly foreshortened service scale.
(c) permission to claim material expenses and allowances on an unvouched basis.
(d) the use of a state car and drivers for personal and/or party political use without incurring any benefit-in-kind tax liability.

From now on we should have no special exemptions for politicians. That might help regain public trust.

Cian & Ciaran - tag team-mates?

A listener who doesn’t speak English would be forgiven for thinking that, from his deadpan mono-tonal delivery, Cian McCormack is tasked with reading out the daily list of the dead on RTE radio.

That same listener might also think that Ciaran Mullooly routinely reports from Drumlin country, while being carried up and down those small hills in an unsprung vehicle, such is the variety of his delivery - in tone, in spacing and with the emphasis often on the wrong word or syllable in each sentence.

It strikes me that if RTE teamed them up together they just might correct each others delivery shortcomings and come out as perfectly modulated reporters!

Gerry Ryan - enough, already.

I readily admit that I have never met Gerry Ryan, nor was I a fan.

I never listened to his radio programme and my only exposure to him was the occasional accidental glimpse on tv.. The persona I perceived there was not one I liked or admired. I recall one reviewer opining that if Ryan was an ice-cream he’d lick himself.

That said, I would not have wished him any harm, other than a large salary reduction, and his death at a relatively early age has left a family and partner in grief.

Am I alone in felling a little disturbed by the “Princess Diana” nature of the media coverage of his death, particularly on RTE?

What does it say for the national intelligence if Gerry Ryan was the country’s most insightful and influential commentator – for he is now, in death, elevated to that exalted position.

Somewhere in outer space, where radio signals from Earth are monitored, the alien on the RTE desk is reporting the death of some major eminence, possibly the world leader. This is causing confusion because no other radio signal is carrying the same story.

Enough, already!

Gaia begins the fightback

The Gaia hypothesis (roughly) proposes that Earth acts like a living organism in order to maintain the ecosystem of the planet is some sort of equilibrium. It suggests that it can invoke measures to rebalance unwelcome events/effects.

This hypothesis was first proposed by James Lovelock, but in March he expressed the view (to the Guardian) that humanity is too stupid to save the planet from global warming, and basically we’ve doomed future generations to oblivion.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/mar/29/james-lovelock-climate-change

That must really have got up Gaia’s nose, because look at what she has just done.

The eruption in Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano has had two main effects.

Firstly, it has significantly reduced air travel into and around Europe, with consequent reduction in CO2 emissions.
Secondly, it has thrown a layer of ash and dust into the atmosphere, which has the effect of reflecting some of the sun’s heat back into space and prevents it from warming the earth. Might it even delay the melting of the polar ice-cap?

Could this be just the start of Gaia’s fight-back and what will the consequences be for the current inhabitants of the planet?

I hope it will still be possible to get those little asparagus spears flown in from Kenya, and the limes from Chile. Life without its little indulgences wouldn’t be worth living.

Nature or Nurture?

In late April, Governor Kathleen McMahon retired from her position at the Dóchas Centre, which is Ireland's only women's prison.

Governor McMahon said she had decided to retire early because her position had been made 'completely impossible' by conditions at the prison. These included overcrowding and the imprisonment of women who posed no threat to society, she said.

Governor McMahon is quoted as fearing that this overcrowding will lead to in increase in "self-mutilation, bullying, depression and lesbianism".
In the interim, I have waited in vain for the media debate on the lesbianism comment.

“Nature or nurture?” is the routine argument regarding sexual orientation. Governor McMahon’s comment would seem to add credibility to those who argue that it may well be both.

Get them out of the Mercs!

UK cabinet minister Ed Balls was recently fined £60 for using a mobile phone while driving. We know that couldn’t happen here, because the gardai would be driving him rather than stopping him.

The 24/7 availability of state limousines with garda drivers is one of the more visible perks of ministerial office and further demonstrates the bloated sense of entitlement of the politocracy that rules us.

Any executive in a private company enjoying the 24/7 use of the company limo and chauffeur, for other than company business, would be liable for a large benefit-in-kind tax bill, but not so our political leaders. The state merc is permanently available for personal/family and political party business.

I have no difficulty with ministers having the use of state cars for state business, but they should use their own transport for party-related and personal activities

Claims that this garda limo service is required for security reasons are patent nonsense. If any politician needs garda protection, he/she should have an armed bodyguard, not a chauffeur/flunkey driving a state car.

Now that public outrage has forced a u-turn on the payment of ministerial pensions to serving politicians, another unique arrangement for the benefit of the political classes, let us next turn government ministers out of their state cars, save the country some money and free up those wasted garda resources.

In future, we should demand that our political leaders subject themselves to exactly the same rules and regulations which apply to the rest of us plebs. No more opt-out clauses for the ruling elite.

Good Friday pub opening

It’s Good Friday and there’s been plenty of media debate about the decision to allow Limerick pubs to open tonight because of the Munster-Leinster rugby match.

Christian/Catholic religious tradition means that pubs in Ireland are legally obliged to close on two days of the year – Good Friday and Christmas Day. In a society which is becoming more religiously diverse and increasingly secular, many question whether the traditional catholic ethos should continue to have the same prominence. This is typically manifested in calls for RTE to drop the Angelus, for Christmas cribs and trees not to be displayed in public buildings etc etc..

The secularist argument is that if you allow Christian symbols and traditions, you must also allow those of all other religions. This would obviously get messy and their real objective is to get rid of the Christian items, rather than facilitate the other religions.

Although I don’t personally practice any religion, I find it objectionable that all religious tradition must be jettisoned in order to satisfy the demands of political correctness.

Some years ago I watched a discussion on BBC involving former Labour party government minister Roy Hattersley and a coloured lesbian lady whose name escapes me. They were discussing some recent anti-gay comments reported in the media. Hattersley spouted the usual liberal, politically-correct line, something to the effect that “we must be intolerant of such intolerance” which, I admit, would have mirrored my own immediate response.
However, the lesbian lady stopped him and said she profoundly disagreed. While she found the published comments offensive, they did not oppress her. And that, she said, was the critical yardstick in a free society. It was an eye-opener for me and it makes sense.

So, applying that principle to Christian/Catholic Ireland, what would it do to our traditions? Well, the wearing or public display of religious symbols may offend some people, but it certainly doesn’t oppress them. So, in with the retention of Christmas cribs in public places, crucifixes in hospitals, schools etc.. Ditto the Angelus on RTE.

However, closing pubs on Good Friday & Christmas day can be seen to oppress those who want to have a drink in a pub on those days, so out the legal ban must go. Naturally, it is up to each publican to decide whether he/she wants to open on those days, so their own religious sensitivities are not oppressed. And the necessary legislation should ensure that pub staff can also opt out – while including a condition that working on Xmas day earns 3-4 times the normal hourly rate.

RTE's "greatest Irish person ever" poll

RTE has been heavily hyping it’s online poll to find “the greatest Irish person ever”.

It’s not that long since The Wolfe Tones rendition of “A Nation Once Again” won a similar BBC worldwide online poll for the greatest song ever written.

Surely this was sufficient proof of the utter worthlessness of such online polls?

Could any award be more meaningless?

Moriarty Tribunal - GUBU.

The recent revelations at the Moriarty Tribunal must surely qualify as the stuff of GUBU. It seems that the tribunal’s legal team have been in possession of crucial information since October 2002 which should have resolved “the ownership issue”, but they chose instead to pursue a line of inquiry that appears to have completely discounted and concealed that information.

In addition, it seems the tribunal chairman has relied on a “phantom” letter, allegedly written by the Attorney general’s office, to support this particular line of inquiry.

All of this has extended the life of the Moriarty Tribunal, at significant extra cost to the taxpayer, and now raises major question marks over the credibility of any findings published by this 13-year old tribunal.

There may, thankfully, be some redress available to the hard-pressed taxpayer as the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty, has the power to refuse legal costs to any party who is deemed to have impeded the work of the tribunal. Indeed, he may levy additional costs on parties whom he deems to have caused the tribunal to incur unnecessary additional costs.

So, if a compelling justification for the actions of the tribunal legal team is not immediately forthcoming, Mr Justice Moriarty might demand a refund of the relevant legal fees paid to the tribunal lawyers involved in this debacle. If Mr Justice Moriarty himself has been a fully informed participant in this matter, he may also apply the same sanction to himself.

I would also suggest that, in the absence of credible justifications being forthcoming, none of the parties involved should ever again work for the state.

Who has the right to call for Cardinal Sean Brady's head?

Should non-practising catholics or those of other religious denominations, or none, have any right to call for the resignation of Cardinal Sean Brady or any other catholic prelate?

They certainly have a right to call for the gardai to investigate/prosecute possible breaches of the law, or to call for the removal of catholic clergy from roles in the educational system, but what business is it of theirs who holds office in the catholic church?

Obviously those who remain within the catholic church have such a right.

Cardinal Sean Brady & Amnesty International

I don’t know whether Cardinal Sean Brady should resign, or not.

However, I was surprised that Amnesty’s Colm O’Gorman was so quickly out of the traps in calling for the cardinal’s resignation, without allowing any time for an explanation or defence from the cardinal.

Kangaroo courts are surely anathema to Amnesty International?

So irrespective of the outcome for Cardinal Brady, Colm O’Gorman should now resign from his leadership role with Amnesty.

Johnny Ronan - How the other half lives!

When ordinary folk find a leisure activity overly distracting from the important business of earning a living we are invariably obliged to give up the distraction.

Johnny Ronan has chosen the alternative option – he’s giving up the business, rather than the distraction.

The rich certainly have a different way of operating.