PD's to meet this afternoon to discuss Bertie's money

Dirk Gently

I think mc Dowell knows his future may be in joining FG once his PD experiment fails so I wouldn't expect him to say anything too damaging against his potential new boss.

Dandesav

gandalf wrote:

Just turned onto this after Lost, McDowell looks shaken and was quite neutral when asked about Enda Kenny, is he going to make overtures to FG now he has shat all over FF's lawn?

Exactly- what happened to the 'Slump Coalition'?
McDowell always said the PDs would be radical or redundant...well it looks like he's just realised just how redundant they are in this election!
Now he knows that his only chance of being in power is to join FG and Labour, suddenly Enda Kenny's not so bad.

TheVan

The PDs are hardly redundant if they're framing the question for the election?

Hasn't been a great weekend for FF but the Opposition haven't exactly capitalised on it? In fact I've barely seen them all weekend

Dirk Gently

InFront wrote:

I can never understand why anyone in Fianna Fail thinks it's a good idea to put that guy on the television.

tbh, with the exception of Cowan, Kenny and sometimes Pat rabbit (when he doesn't let himself get too worked up) I cringe at most politicans across all the big parties when on t.v. For the most part it's like watching kids having a silly slagging match in a playground. I think every political debate on t.v regardless of the topic under discussion should have Mick mc dowell and joe higgins on the panel just to make it semi interesting and miriam o callaghan as chair just for some eye candy. Either that or we start having propper t.v. debates like the 2hour 40 minute head to head between royal and sarkozy.

patzer117

clown bag wrote:

tbh, with the exception of Cowan, Kenny and sometimes Pat rabbit (when he doesn't let himself get too worked up) I cringe at most politicans across all the big parties when on t.v.

You include Kenny in that list? I'm shocked. Watch any of his local meets where he gives a speech to a crowd, and you'll see he's so wooden it's crazy. he also has avoided any major policy speeches in the campaign so far, precisely because he's not a heavyweight... but still

sorry for the derail... imo there's nothing Michael McDowell can do, that's why he's staying in power. He may jump in the polls for this, he may lose, but there's no way of telling whichever way it goes, so in that regard i think he made the right decision

Dirk Gently

in fairness to Kenny I think his public speaking has improved. Maybe I am giving him too much credit based on how bad he use to be though. most improved noob award to kenny perhaps?

Elmo

in fairness to Kenny I think his public speaking has improved. Maybe I am giving him too much credit based on how bad he use to be though. most improved noob award to kenny perhaps?

I think Kenny has improved unlike other new leader of FG who usually start to act the way a FG leader should act.

Alan Dukes, John Bruton and Noonan where all good politicians before they became leaders of that party IMO.

Anyway I think MMD just want to be in the newspapers.

brianthebard

clown bag wrote:

in fairness to Kenny I think his public speaking has improved. Maybe I am giving him too much credit based on how bad he use to be though. most improved noob award to kenny perhaps?

I think he's improved immensely, he's confident, still a bit green though, like when he referred to himself in the third person the day the election was called :rolleyes: but he's clear about his aims, and he can speak without stuttering or using as many clichés as the present taoiseach.

InFront

Yeah, I wasn't sure about him at first, but he's a much better public speaker than he used to be. He's coming across as more informal in the past few weeks, and although he's always been likable, he's possibly connecting with people a bit more than he used to.
None of this should matter of course, but I'm sure some people take it into account.

Elmo

Also I cann't really take Kenny that seriously because of Gift Grub. He is just Bizzaro.

Disregard my previous post.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Mick86

TheVan wrote:

Hasn't been a great weekend for FF but the Opposition haven't exactly capitalised on it? In fact I've barely seen them all weekend

Wise move from the opposition. Bertie is still the most popular leader in the country due in part to his One of the lads act. Remember when he went on telly last year with tears in his eyes and conned the whole country. Well he'll try that again, will likely succeed again and anybody who puts the boot in will suffer at the hands of the Bertie's Useful Idiots. The opposition doesn't have to put the boot in because the PDs are doing that job for them. Thus the PDs lose votes. If the PDs support the government then some people will see them as supporting corruption. Its a win-win for FG/Lab.

Elmo

Exactly I try and tell people this all the time. In Ireland if you need a passport sorted quickly you get on to your TD, in other countries if your public representive got you preferential treatment they'd get the sack!!

Since when did this happen? Not in along time. It takes 10 day to get a PP.

TD should be there for their communities that they represent. Not just for the people that vote for them. and also for the country as a whole.

Ministers shouldn't just pass the book.

You shouldn't over legislate, gereneral this creates more red tape i.e. the reason people used to ask their TD's to speed things up for them.

The Green Party did ask at the beginning (of these "leaks" to the press about Mr. Ahearn) for Mr. Ahearn to explain himself, long before the PD's had their meeting.