George Lee resigns from Fine Gael and Dail!!!

flanzer

BeeDI wrote: »

George, now says he never wenat away for a week end with the party. Then he says he went to Cavan for a week end. Brilliant:D:D

I think as the interview went on, he was losing more and more respect for Fine Gael. As the start he was saying one thing and by the end he was saying another. I think half way through it, he ditched his political conditioning and began speaking the truth

Jip

I never had an opinion either way on the man but he's really gone down in my estimation. He claims he no longer has a political opinion and things aren't for him to say, but yet he's setting mischievous seeds on leaving the party.

I can only imagine this text poll will be in his favour due to the amount of oul fools with no idea how things can be done in politics largely making up his audience.

murpho999

Sounds to me that he became totally disillusioned with the party and probably more importantly the machinations of the Dail itself.

Found it interesting that he said that too many members were there to just to look after themselves rather than actually do useful things.

jmayo

Deise Tom wrote: »

Get John Deasy in. Rub it in big time on Enda.

ah we all know you and biffo would like to see that spanner in charge :rolleyes:

BeeDI wrote: »

Anything that keeps Gilmore and Joan Burton out of government is good:)

so lets leave ff the corruptish inept party in power.
At least I know that Happy Gilmore and Joan Burton aren't going to run off with tom parlon or seanie fitz.

Am worried about them running off with jack o'connor though

murpho999 wrote: »

Hardly just another economics reporter, but RTE's senior economist who correctly forecast the economy going tits up whilst he government did nothing!

FFS ask any of my friends as a supposed "harbinger of doom" I was lamenting overpriced property in 2000 and how public spending ala benchmarkig etc was wrong.
My first post on boards Jan 2007 was in the Accomodation & Property Forum famous thread House Price Bubble Bursting claiming we were f**ked due to lack of competitiveness and too much resilience on property.

Now seen as I predicted the bubble would burst should I be made FG's new economic and finance spokesperson ?

BTW there are a hell of a lot of other people who predicted the economic cockup including David McWilliams, should he be economics spokesperson as well.

Maybe I am wrong, but I think George missed the limelight.
Much like his fellow stalwart Charlie the bird missed being recognised as some big fish and he was now a nobody.
Both moved to new ponds and suddenly found they were no longer the big fish and it appears to ruffled a few of their feathers.

BeeDI

One caller says George is a "man of vision" and a "man on a mission" Holy Mozes, are we that badly stuck fotr visionaries:cool:

Pittens

It did. Why did Lee turn down a front bench position this week? Where's the honour there?

Presumably for the same reason many a worker turns down a deserved senior role offered when they resign, rather than before they resign.

On the basis of "Its too late now Guv".

The comments on this thread indicate the problem with the country. Politicans resigning from their post is actually a considered gesture. It wasnt working. He got out. Did not get a pension.

Thats what should happen. Instead we get the Job-For-Life-Inherited-From-My-Father guys being lauded for "sticking in there", because they have little or no ambition than the back bench.

Judgement Day

Now his Granny is on.

BeeDI

Blue blouse on the radio now saying the party routinely gags people with any level of smarts. :pac:

Oafley Jones

Joe is worse than chris tarrant on Millionaire with the answers.

murpho999

Jaysis Joe will you give the poll result....this is not X Factor!

Jip

murpho999 wrote: »

Jaysis Joe will you give the poll result....this is not X Factor!

As expected, all the oul dears love the man

Red_Marauder

Highly Salami wrote: »

Originally Posted by mike65
Stephen Brown, whoever he is has resigned in sympathy.

nothing on the news about this.

It was on liveline...very strange little sideshow. It reminds me of Kazakhstan's announcement of its intention to support the invasion of Iraq... who cares!

norrie rugger

Ally Dick wrote: »

She's making mincemeat of him !

Elect her?

brianthebard

rubensni wrote: »

Rubbish. If Enda Kenny goes the country benefits. The prospect of Kenny representing the country sacred many away from Fine Gael in the last election

Didn't they win 20 seats in the last election over the previous one? Noonan scared away voters no doubt, but Kenny obviously has not had that effect.

jmayo

This whole thing has highlighted another worrying trend ...
Too many people listen to Liveline :mad:

BTW there is one good thing that can be said for FG, at least some of it's members actually resign, even if it is from their own party. :rolleyes:

Not a statement we can make about ffers, even the ones that lie to high courts

Red_Marauder

Oh dear, Derek Mooney is now pondering a political career on live radio...

sparkling sea

George Lee has worked in television a while now and he knows exactly what he is doing, but why is he trying to damage Fine Gael. He never agreed with NAMA so whats he up too?

Maybe he missed being a big fish in a small pond as he was at RTE.

LostinBlanch

seamus wrote: »

If anything I think it will strengthen Kenny's position internally because he didn't "capitulate" and promote the best man for the job, instead opting to maintain the oligarchy/cronyism that rules FF & FG.

Well I'm not sure, looking from the outside (as I'm not a member of any political party) I'd be expecting FG to take a major hit on the next opinion poll. FG should be doing a lot better than they are now considering the shambolic performance of FF and the ongoing selling out of their "principles" by the greens. If FG start to lose popularity then TDs are going to get twitchy. Enda Kenny staying on as leader now is the best thing to happen to FF. FG supporters might disagree pointing out to the work he's done internally. But their core vote isn't enough for FG to get anywhere close to govt. This is purely speculation on my part but it looks like there was a lot of jealousy within FG and some were very happy to see him put in his place. Well he hasn't shut up and now they are annoyed at him for publicly resigning and laying bare FGs failure to properly use him.

seamus wrote: »

Externally, yes it does, because it makes it appear that Kenny decided to take on a "star" candidate purely for the additional Dail seat but didn't intend to actually make use of his experience - which is no doubt why a lot of people voted for him.

Like I said above I expect Kenny's popularity to take a big hit, and it's not like he had a lot to play with anyway. FG should be a lot higher in the polls with FF at historically low levels. But they aren't and I think they are going to lose a lot of the floating vote that looked like it was going their way this time round.

Using a footballing analogy, it's like persuading Wayne Rooney to sign for your team, and then making him captain of the under 8s while there are champions league games to be played.

Failure to properly use the resources at your disposal is a major failure, and doesn't fill me with any confidence or persuade me to vote FG.

gizmo555

Red_Marauder wrote: »

So why didn't Lee take the front bench position he was offered this week?

What front bench position? I stand to be corrected, but it's the first I've heard of it.

Ally Dick

I can just picture Gift Grub and Nob Nation tomorrow - George Lee in the new political musical "Glee"

mirrorballmagic

Anyone else smell a Bird & Lee show in the offing?

laugh

What a massive feck you to the people who voted for him.

BeeDI

Glee, joining the Shinners I reckon. He would look mighty, standing beside Emy Lou McDonald:cool:

Red_Marauder

LostinBlanch wrote: »

Using a footballing analogy, it's like persuading Wayne Rooney to sign for your team, and then making him captain of the under 8s while there are champions league games to be played.

Slightly more understandable when you already have Drogba and Torres on your panel

Laminations

LostinBlanch wrote: »

Using a footballing analogy, it's like persuading Wayne Rooney to sign for your team, and then making him captain of the under 8s while there are champions league games to be played.

I'd say its more like signing Eamon Dunphy (known in the media sphere to be very knowledgable) as an advisor to your team and then him getting shirty because he wants an on-field playing position in place of someone like Wayne Rooney.

Lee may have had ideas but he's never played the game. His muck slinging now and his apparent intention to return to RTE is severly reducing my opinion of his integrity.

Red_Marauder

gizmo555 wrote: »

What front bench position? I stand to be corrected, but it's the first I've heard of it.

It's a fact, Lee said so himself on radio about half an hour ago. He has turned down a front bench position.

maynooth_rules

mirrorballmagic wrote: »

Anyone else smell a Bird & Lee show in the offing?

God there will be some amount of self pitying on that show

sparkling sea

Red_Marauder wrote: »

It's a fact, Lee said so himself on radio about half an hour ago. He has turned down a front bench position.

What position was he offered.

Dannyboy83

Kudos to George for having some integrity and not just hanging around for the money.............. like Vincent Browne said yesterday "There’s only one system that matters, and it’s broken".

Irish politics is badly broken and a complete waste of time - hence why I haven't followed it since the start of 2010.

flanzer

Any word from the Fine Gael party yet? This is massive news. I wonder how their PR people are going to deal with this this week and then Enda going next week........