Enda Kenny as Taoiseach?

daniel91

Heard on a report yesterday during RTE news that if there was a general election tomorrow that Enda Kenny would be Taoiseach of Ireland according to opinion polls, etc.

So, if Enda Kenny did become Taoiseach tomorrow what would change in this country? What would he differently to Brian Cowen to bring Ireland out of recession? Would it all just suddenly change? like some people think it will.

PunkFreud

I don't like Enda Kenny, he's really boring and stiff. I'd prefer Richard Bruton, with Lee as his financial sidekick.

Nothing against his political beliefs, but Enda is just a bit...

(I am aware I am not contributing a whole lot to this thread)

daniel91

PunkFreud wrote: »

I don't like Enda Kenny, he's really boring and stiff. I'd prefer Richard Bruton, with Lee as his financial sidekick.

Nothing against his political beliefs, but Enda is just a bit...

(I am aware I am not contributing a whole lot to this thread)

Yeah I know, everytime I hear giftgrub taking the piss out of him, I can't stop laughing!

mikemac

PunkFreud wrote: »

I don't like Enda Kenny, he's really boring and stiff.

So what??Are you going to be looking at his speeches to give you confidence? Watching Oireachtas report to judge his speech and body language and delivery style?

Attack the guy if you think he not capable, not everyone is charismatic.

I don't care if he isn't charismatic or even the most capable person in the cabinet. Once he can lead his team of ministers to deliver whatever FG promise in their manifesto what more do you want?
And if he fails to deliver he'll be gone. But not because he was boring......

cooperguy

It would be interesting to seem him actually implementing cuts instead of just shooting down every proposed one anyway.

dlofnep

God no. What a complete and utter tosspot.

Pride Fighter

Gilmore for taoiseach? Enda as Tanaiste?

thebman

Enda Kenny at least looks a lot healthier, presentable and honest than FF politicians IMO.

Not that looks are all that important but it would be nice to have a politician that you don't feel people from other countries don't want to be in the same room with.

Brian Cown has zero charisma, Enda has little charisma. Enda wins.

Anyway most people just want to punish FF so if FG policies are the same as FF they won't mind.

edit---

I don't get why Enda is a tosspot? Can someone explain what it is about him because I don't really see it :-/

daniel91

Pride Fighter wrote: »

Gilmore for taoiseach? Enda as Tanaiste?

Eamon Gilmore does seem more appealing to me as Taoiseach also.

yurmothrintites

Bruton before Kenny. Enda Kenny would not be a very competent Taoiseach, Bruton has much more experience and could do more witht the economic disarray of the country.

Kalashnikov_Kid

Same old sh1te, different can. Farmers might be happier though.

jank

As was said before what do people want in a Taoiseach? I think some people have misguided views that they want every leader in be like Martin Sheen (The West Wing) or Barrack Obama.

Once he leads his team and cabinet well for the better of the country than thats all that matters. There is more to running the country than being like Bertie (he is one of us! :rolleyes:) and appearing on shows like the premiership.

Until he becomes Taoiseach than you will have to reserve judgment but I think he might surprise some people.

Give me dull and competent any day over charismatic and useless.

Donny5

jank wrote: »

As was said before what do people want in a Taoiseach? I think some people have misguided views that they want every leader in be like Martin Sheen (The West Wing) or Barrack Obama.

Once he leads his team and cabinet well for the better of the country than thats all that matters. There is more to running the country than being like Bertie (he is one of us! :rolleyes:) and appearing on shows like the premiership.

Until he becomes Taoiseach than you will have to reserve judgment but I think he might surprise some people.

Give me dull and competent any day over charismatic and useless.

Meh, I like to live in interesting times, so I'll take the latter.

jank

Donny5 wrote: »

Meh, I like to live in interesting times, so I'll take the latter.

Fair enough but that gives you 15% unemployement, a 20 billion hole in the public finances and NAMA....

mountainyman

If he had a big FG

1 slash uncivil servant wages
2 lock up all the FFers

3 scrap NaMa nationalise the banks and then go through everu bit f paper for 50 years and lock up the bastards

Feckinhellman

mountainyman wrote: »

If he had a big FG

1 slash uncivil servant wages
2 lock up all the FFers

3 scrap NaMa nationalise the banks and then go through everu bit f paper for 50 years and lock up the bastards

I agree ...(Have you considered a career in politics .Vacancies opening shortly)

jasonbourme.cs

I'd actually welcome Enda Kenny as our new leader , to be honest cant be any worse than the current bunch .

lostexpectation

the difference would be the change of person/party, 12yrs thats enough

BluntGuy

I don't see why there's such a big issue about Enda. I don't often vote for FG candidates, but Enda is not the reason I'm put off them. Besides, we all know where so-called "charisma" got us. I fully agree with this sentiment:

jank wrote:

Give me dull and competent any day over charismatic and useless.

Cork Boy

PunkFreud wrote: »

I don't like Enda Kenny, he's really boring and stiff. I'd prefer Richard Bruton, with Lee as his financial sidekick.

Nothing against his political beliefs, but Enda is just a bit...

(I am aware I am not contributing a whole lot to this thread)

Ah ya sure lets get Bertie back int he big seat altogether, sure wasn't he a sound lad with bundles of charisma.

PunkFreud, you and utter idiots like you are the reason the govt know they can bend us over a barrell and penetrate (without having the common courtesy to give us a reach around).

Would you even be able to vote if they took the pictures off the ballot card?

Tell ya what, at least you and all the other genius's like you (40% of the country it seems) will be able to pleasure yourselves to good looking leaders all day long... its not like there'll eb any jobs for ye to go to.

Twat

Cork Boy

Cork Boy wrote: »

PunkFreud, you and utter idiots like you are the reason the govt know they can bend us over a barrell and penetrate (without having the common courtesy to give us a reach around).
...
...
Twat

If one can't debate with a little civility, one doesn't really have a point.

Even the gay rape thing wasn't much of a point, was it now?

But in case you turn your nasty abuse on me, Enda is an absolute genius and he will sort out this country within days and hopefully bring peace to the world. That make it all better?

Cork Boy

Hi Conor,

I don't usually debate like this (if we can even call my reply 'debate') but a comment like his deserves nothing less - maybe he might even start to wake up a bit.

On the gay rape thing - gay or not, i think rape is a very good analogy for what successive Irish governments have done to us over the years, go back as far as the Noel Browne 'Mother & Child Scheme' scandal and you can see from day one, we were doomed to a civil service and government that would always bow to the wishes of the upper class (bishops and doctors).

I wish the scaremongering on Lisbon was based on fact, that way we could pass the treaty and devolve power to Brussells.

I hardly think suggesting that Richard Bruton and George Lee may be more capable than Enda Kenny is so objectionable.

I think his point that 'Enda is a bit...' would even be shared by many, even within FG.

Cork Boy

Oh i know Kenny is no Obama, i just get so enraged when people vote for someone based on their charisma rather than their policies.

I'm not saying Kenny will/would be our Messiah, but its hard to debate like a grown up when people say things like 'I think he's incompetent because he's not suave'.

Its thinking like this that has us in the mess we're in.

is_that_so

Under our system the team is far more important. FG's front row looks an awful lot better than FF. Kenny is a better communicator and from what I can see a far more open individual. He also gives the impression that he would not tolerate any kind of underhand dealing and would be more likely to measure performance over loyalty and replace slackers. That shouldn't be a problem anyway as FG TDs will be itching to prove themselves after so long out of power.

Gilmore as Taoiseach is a non-runner, aside from the fact that he is a bit of a windbag and many of Labour's ideas embrace populist notions, he will not get enough seats to be able to get into the hot seat. Labour's big issue will be to get as many of their policies implemented and ensure that we get a 10 year FG/Labour government.

I'd wary of ascribing too much to George Lee. He's still very, very green. He's also part of the opposition. Much of his popularity is due to our current mess and it remains to be seen how he will do in more normal times. He's still inclined to do a Varadker and cut loose, although usually with a little more common sense.

bmaxi

I've always thought Kenny's biggest failing is, he comes across as a bit twee. I've no reason to believe he is not an astute politician and a decent man but IMO he lacks a certain credibility and forcefulness.
I've cringed when watching him being bullied by Cowen and Ahern and while this doesn't happen too often now, I'd put that down more to Cowen's abject failure to carry any argument with conviction rather than Kenny's increase in stature.
Get some backbone Enda!

r0nanf

Charisma? It keeps on coming down to this, and it's far too simplistic when the future wellbeing of our nation is at stake.

George Bush was charismatic to a lot of people, hijacked American patriotism (among other things) and went off to fight two unjust wars, ostracised his nation from world politics in general, ransacked public finances and almost bankrupted his country through policies of further de-regulation

Bertie was probably the most charismatic politician in modern Irish political history, and it was his populist policies (or lack thereof) that got us where we are today. Smiled gleefully as he pocketed lobbies, quango-ed the country and payed off everyone from the unemployed to the multinational with no regard for the country's future.

Now when we talk of people who are not charismatic, and specifically our two main party leaders, you have a choice between:

Brian Cowen: not charismatic, responsible for many of our problems and currently running a government cabinet based on "loyalty".

Enda Kenny: not charismatic, but relatively level headed and unconnected in terms of the stagnated financial/public servant/lobby clusterf*ck

It's a pretty straight forward question: would you like to entrust the morons who didn't see it coming to get us up on our feet again, or would you like someone with a different approach to take a shot at it?

thebman

I'll ask the question again so, why do people not like Enda? I don't see what is unlikeable about him.

More to the point I don't see what is likeable about FF politicians :-/ Never saw what there was to like about Bertie either, maybe its just me :-/

flanzer

I honestly think they are all on the par in the Dail. I couldn't care less if Enda Kenny, Brian Cowan, Richard Bruton, That mad socialist Higgins, Ronan Keating or Derek Davis is in charge of the country. They're all as bad as each other.

I would prefer Castro to be in charge in the twilight of his life actually. That would ruffle a few feathers both home and abroad

Liam Byrne

flanzer wrote: »

I honestly think they are all on the par in the Dail. I couldn't care less if Enda Kenny, Brian Cowan, Richard Bruton, That mad socialist Higgins, Ronan Keating or Derek Davis is in charge of the country. They're all as bad as each other.

But how can you possibly say this, when 5 of those 6 have never been given a chance ?

And before anyone says that Clown was elected Taioseach; let me remind people that he WASN'T - he was "given" the job by Bertie. And since Bertie self-confessed that he didn't give people jobs based on ability, but "because they were [his] friends", that is simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

Yes, if Kenny were to be a TRUE leader, he should force his party members to take the cuts and also vouch for their expenses (and stop riding us) but the fact is that Clown was the Minister for Finance that landed us in this ****.

Even if Kenny WERE crap (an unknown entity) he'd HAVE to be AT LEAST as good if not better than the current crowd of corrupt pass-the-buck incompetents.

irish_bob

daniel91 wrote: »

Heard on a report yesterday during RTE news that if there was a general election tomorrow that Enda Kenny would be Taoiseach of Ireland according to opinion polls, etc.

So, if Enda Kenny did become Taoiseach tomorrow what would change in this country? What would he differently to Brian Cowen to bring Ireland out of recession? Would it all just suddenly change? like some people think it will.

if kenny was taoiseach or not is not what matters most , its whether he or fine gael have to share power with labour that counts , if they do then nothing much will change as labour are a tax and spend party and expenditure needs to be drastically cut , this cannot happen under any goverment involving labour as the public sector and unions are all labour have , you cant ignore your base and remain a force