Are Offaly people embarassed by Biffo?

Essexboy

Biffo= Big Ignorant ****er From Offaly

Are you ashamed to admit you come from Offaly when Biffo's name is mentioned ?
P.S. why does he claim to come from Tullamore when he is really from Clara?

mike65

He got a namecheck on "Have I got News for You" this week, complete with the f word in
full.

Dusty87

NO, i dont let things like that bother me

For Forks Sake

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/the-small-town-that-bred-a-smalltown-politician-2438221.html

Quazzie

Not embarrassed at all. He is an intelligent man that came from local politics to eventually take lead of the country in the worst political situation possible. I hate the way Cowen gets so much blame when the majority of the problems that are occurring can be traced back to Ahern's leadership. Bertie seems to be forgotten about now that they have a scapegoat with a catch derogative moniker like Biffo to place all the blame on.

For Forks Sake

Quazzie wrote: »

Not embarrassed at all. He is an intelligent man that came from local politics to eventually take lead of the country in the worst political situation possible. I hate the way Cowen gets so much blame when the majority of the problems that are occurring can be traced back to Ahern's leadership. Bertie seems to be forgotten about now that they have a scapegoat with a catch derogative moniker like Biffo to place all the blame on.

ORLY? Who may I ask was Minister for Finance during the Ahern era? Who should have been questioning the policies regarding spending/fiscal planning?

Quazzie

For Forks Sake wrote: »

ORLY? Who may I ask was Minister for Finance during the Ahern era? Who should have been questioning the policies regarding spending/fiscal planning?

The question you should be asking is who was criticizing Cowen's budgets for being too stringent and not lowering taxes and increasing expenditures.


The answer in case you are wondering is the next shower of crooks that are going to be in power. No doubt these very same people love to read the moniker BIFFO in the papers as it only serves to play their agenda that bit more. Criticize Cowen all you like but lets not be disillusioned into believing that the alternative is more capable or would have avoided our current situation.

DamoKen

Quazzie wrote: »

Not embarrassed at all. He is an intelligent man that came from local politics to eventually take lead of the country in the worst political situation possible. I hate the way Cowen gets so much blame when the majority of the problems that are occurring can be traced back to Ahern's leadership. Bertie seems to be forgotten about now that they have a scapegoat with a catch derogative moniker like Biffo to place all the blame on.

not making excuses for Bertie but that's a cop out. Cowen's been the leader of the country for the last 2.5 years and was no less than the Minister for Finance for the preceding four years so you can't say he didn't play a major part in the lead up to the current fiasco or that he didn't know what he was getting in to.

There was no-one in a better position to know the state of the countries finances than he when he accepted the post, so to say he's being made a scapegoat is just wrong and a complete absolution of blame. There are others also responsible true enough but he was happy enough to ignore any warning signs in return for the reins of power.

If he did unknowingly accept a poisoned chalice as you hint I don't know which is scarier, the keys to the countries finances for the last 8 years in the hands of a man who didn't know what he was doing or standing on the brink of bankruptcy with the same man still at the helm!

raymon

Brian Cowan must be the most incompetent politician in the history of the state. He sowed the seeds for Ireland failure as finance minister and finished us off as taoiseach. The guy should be tried for treason. Shame on him. Shame on fianna fail. Shame on those who voted for him

kippy

Are Dublin people embarassed by Bertie?
Limerick people by Willie O Dea?
Kerry people by Jackie Healy Rae?
Mayo people by Enda Kenny?


Almost every politician in government (and most out of it being fair) is an embarrassment.

Quazzie

I'm not saying he is without blame, I am saying though that the route we are on at the moment was avoidable but could have been a lot worse and to state that he is solely responsible is inexcusable. The media love the name BIFFO as it is derogative and insulting and portrays the man as a buffoon. The man is highly intelligent and took control of the country at a time when the situation we are in now was unavoidable.

His time as minister for finance unquestionably could've been better but my point is that the opposition at the time were calling for him to lower taxes and increase expenditure and now that we are in this situation, that if we followed the requests of the opposition it would've been much worse. This is the same opposition that are soon going to be in power, but now that BIFFO is being villianized by the media we are all so accepting.

joe12345

Quazzie wrote: »

Not embarrassed at all. He is an intelligent man that came from local politics to eventually take lead of the country in the worst political situation possible. I hate the way Cowen gets so much blame when the majority of the problems that are occurring can be traced back to Ahern's leadership. Bertie seems to be forgotten about now that they have a scapegoat with a catch derogative moniker like Biffo to place all the blame on.

.

joe12345

raymon wrote: »

Brian Cowan must be the most incompetent politician in the history of the state. He sowed the seeds for Ireland failure as finance minister and finished us off as taoiseach. The guy should be tried for treason. Shame on him. Shame on fianna fail. Shame on those who voted for him

+1

joe12345

Quazzie wrote: »

The man is highly intelligent and took control of the country at a time when the situation we are in now was unavoidable.

k

Quazzie

Do you think if he let the banks fail that we would be in a much better position now?

problemchimp

Original question. Are offaly people embarrassed by Cowen? I hope not. There is no doubt he is fool who is wrecking peoples lives but it is hardly the fault of the whole county of Offaly. Like me, Bertie is from Dublin. He is an absolute aarse but that's not my fault.

thisguy

i think with the way he can knock back a pint, he is the perfect person to represent the country who brought the world guinness.:pac:

Storminateacup

No, I am not ashamed of the "BIFFO" being from Offaly. And should he be looking for a vote come the general election, he will have mine.

I'll tell you what I am ashamed of though. Being Irish in general. How any government is supposed to run a country when you have arsehole unions dictating unrealisitic terms, overpaid public sector arsehole in guaranteed jobs sulking, whining, crying, refusing to work because their wages are being cut.
Low life scum who have been on the dole since our lord was a child, complaining that they cannot live on 200 euro per week.
People assuming they're entitled to free homes/dole/medical care as if it's their god given right, when they have never taken any steps to ensure a good future for themselves. Other than getting pregnant. If the state stopped being a nanny state, and stopped holding peoples hands, we'd be getting on a lot better.

The dole should be there to help the poor unfortuantes who have lost their jobs and who are actively seeking new jobs. I don't understand why people are automatically entitled to it when they reach 18. They should go one better. Get rid of giving dole as cash, and start giving it as food stamps.

Newsflash: most of us contributed to this mess too. It isn't all the governments fault. We took out 100% morgages on houses we realistically could not afford. We changed our cars. We took extravagent holidays. We didn't complain when the government was handing out our hard earned cash to lazy scum who now assumes it's their entitlement to recieve free money.

We cannot just blame the government. Every one of us are at fault.

Bill2673

Quazzie wrote: »

Not embarrassed at all. He is an intelligent man that came from local politics to eventually take lead of the country in the worst political situation possible. I hate the way Cowen gets so much blame when the majority of the problems that are occurring can be traced back to Ahern's leadership. Bertie seems to be forgotten about now that they have a scapegoat with a catch derogative moniker like Biffo to place all the blame on.

How'd you mean he came from local politics? Did he not take over his father's seat; as with about 40% or so of all Irish politicians?

Storminateacup

Also, it's funny how people refer to the leader of our country as a "big ignorant Fu(ker from offaly" and expect the rest of the world to have faith in us. The term biffo was used long before this financial crisis. Do you see tabloids referring to barrak Obama as a "ni**er"? I didn't think so.

It's not making Brian cowen look stupid. It's making you look stupid, ignorant and tells us anything you do read is from the tabloids.

Quazzie

Bill2673 wrote: »

How'd you mean he came from local politics? Did he not take over his father's seat; as with about 40% or so of all Irish politicians?

You are correct. i always thought he was elected to an Offaly councilor first but I appear to be wrong according to wikipedia.

Essexboy

Storminateacup wrote: »

Also, it's funny how people refer to the leader of our country as a "big ignorant Fu(ker from offaly" and expect the rest of the world to have faith in us. The term biffo was used long before this financial crisis. Do you see tabloids referring to barrak Obama as a "ni**er"? I didn't think so.

It's not making Brian cowen look stupid. It's making you look stupid, ignorant and tells us anything you do read is from the tabloids.

For someone who detest the tabloids you have swallowed their agenda hook, line and sinker.
And why support a man who has no interest whatsoever in changing how things are run? eg Cowen is devoted to "social partnership" which you clearly hate.

magentas

why are you getting so personal with comments to storminateacup?

you started a thread and asked a question to which she responded.

to answer your questions...
am I embarressed by brian cowen? yes, as I am with every other political figure in this country. bertie gave the shovel to brian when he went but cowen had already contributed to the mess as he was finance minister from 2004-2008

so yes, bertie fooked up before handing the reigns over to cowen but they all had a part to play in the ruination of this country

hoowever, I agree with storm that people have to be responsible for their own actions, this is something I have always felt strongly about. People were living way beyond their means and a bit of cop on would have gone a long way with a lot of people.

Am I embarressed by BIFFO?
the term BIFFO has been around since the early 90s and originated in GAA circles. the media labelled cowen with the phrase but it's been around for ages and all my friends in galway call me BIFFO (it's a term of endearment!) for years and years, long before brian cowen was taoiseach:rolleyes:

magentas

Storminateacup wrote: »

No, I am not ashamed of the "BIFFO" being from Offaly. And should he be looking for a vote come the general election, he will have mine.

I'll tell you what I am ashamed of though. Being Irish in general. How any government is supposed to run a country when you have arsehole unions dictating unrealisitic terms, overpaid public sector arsehole in guaranteed jobs sulking, whining, crying, refusing to work because their wages are being cut.
Low life scum who have been on the dole since our lord was a child, complaining that they cannot live on 200 euro per week.
People assuming they're entitled to free homes/dole/medical care as if it's their god given right, when they have never taken any steps to ensure a good future for themselves. Other than getting pregnant. If the state stopped being a nanny state, and stopped holding peoples hands, we'd be getting on a lot better.

The dole should be there to help the poor unfortuantes who have lost their jobs and who are actively seeking new jobs. I don't understand why people are automatically entitled to it when they reach 18. They should go one better. Get rid of giving dole as cash, and start giving it as food stamps.

Newsflash: most of us contributed to this mess too. It isn't all the governments fault. We took out 100% morgages on houses we realistically could not afford. We changed our cars. We took extravagent holidays. We didn't complain when the government was handing out our hard earned cash to lazy scum who now assumes it's their entitlement to recieve free money.

We cannot just blame the government. Every one of us are at fault.

I agree with everything here except I absolutely would not vote for FF, never have, never will.

the social welfare system in Ireland is a complete joke, it's been defrauded left right and centre.

If I needed the dole in the morning, I wouldn't be entitled to a penny as I'm co-habiting (silly me for trying to make a future for myself and my boyfriend by getting our own home)

It really p!sses me off cos there's people my age who have never had a job in their lives, they get council houses, collect their €200 each week plus their extra benefits for everything from maternity wear to their refuse!
All at the expense of us taxpayers.

and as for these "single mothers" with a gazzillion kids claimimg welfare all over the place...I have a solution...if a "single mother" has more than 2 kids, make her get her tubes tied!
If she can't afford a condom, how can she possibly afford yet another child?
oh yeah, that's right, the government will pay for it:mad:

TomTom

Embarrassed no, angered by disrespect, yes.

I for one will not be voting Fianna Fail in the next election, I never do. I quite often vote for Fianna Fail members but that is based on each individual merits and not just the membership of a party. People who blindly follow a party are sheep. Just wanted to highlight that at the start.

I am proud of how Brian Cowen conducts himself publicly and as an Offaly man I am proud that he made the post of Taoiseach. He was minister for finance for part of the boom and there is no doubt about it he made mistakes. Mistakes that we will all bare the brunt of. Many people somehow think he formulated these plans himself and sat in a room writing policies with no input. There is an entire department dedicated to helping with the decisions he made and a think tank to propose them in the first place. As the ruling party, FF got to push and pull the changes they wanted and as leader of the country at the time Bertie had big influence in this.

What annoys me is how Brian is blamed as he was minister of finance at the time and now because he is the head man also. Bertie gets off the hook because he 'was not in charge of finance'. How come they are still blaming Brian for recent developments and decisions if he is no longer minister for finance when they are made.

The Irish boom ramped up in the late 90% and was in full hold with the exception of a slight dip at the start of the 00's. for the roughly 10 years of growth in the country he was minister for finance 4 years. Evidence is stating to show that the problems experienced run further than 2004 to 2008. Yet Mr McCreevy is rarely questioned about his role despite holding it for 7 years. Often the damage done to a collapsing house is traced to the foundation.

He is the medias scape goat and an easy target. They deride him and poke fun at him and he never responds. He never reduces himself to their level.
I was in the shop one morning and on the front of a tabloid news paper it claimed that Brian was in a dry out clinic and they had spoken to a nurse to prove it. I get home and he is being interviewed in Japan on a trade mission, not live but recorded a few hours previous. There is no effort in journalism in this country, if it's not putting someone down, moaning, complaining, bitching or sensationalism it's simply not news to most of the rags we have here.

I form my opinion of Brian Cowen on having met him several times, my fathers friendship with him, his manner as a person, his values as a person and his commitment to mend the mess they made. You may think he made it worse but history will tell a more accurate story. I may be proved completely wrong. He could have walked away from government at the first sign of a problem and let the opposition handle it, he would still carry massive blame and it would just give a new government the opportunity to run amok with policy and pass the blame back to his government. This would most likely not be beneficial to us as a public as I think the majority of the same decisions would be made (same think tank and same majority of advisors) but you would have a government too concerned with staying in power to make the changes we currently require.

Lastly I think as a man who was elected to office like anyone else in a fair manner, who is the leader and international representative of the country he deserves a bit of respect.

fikay

It’s easy to ridicule Lenihan, Cowen et. al. as the idiots who sold the country down the river, much in the same way that it was easy to call Bush’s America a nation of moronic, war hungry lard arses. You get to vent at a situation but it doesn’t imply that you know what you’re talking about.
I think the personal nature of some of the attacks on government ministers, particularly those on Cowen, are embarrassing. One of this nation’s bastions of quality journalism sent a photographer to follow the Cowens on a family holiday in the West of Ireland in the early months of his run as Taoiseach, relaying unflattering pictures of a man on holiday to the national press. Oh how they revelled in it. “Here’s a fat bogman in bad clothing ‘mokin a fag. Look at his lips, lol”. Were these pictures aimed at the serious economists, at business leaders? Were they fcuk!
I honestly think Cowen’s confidence in his abilities to do the job was affected by the caricature he has been portrayed as. Now, that’s hardly a very strong indictment of a man challenged with leading the country but I think it’s relevant to the question; do I as an Offaly man feel embarrassed by Brian Cowen? Of course I don’t.
It bothers me that hindsight seems to have made experts of the population. The population are angry, perhaps rightly so; but by and large, experts they are not.
I personally feel a little embarrassed for not seeing this coming; for not understanding the full implications of policy over the years; for not understanding financial markets, bond prices and banking institutions; for the fact that despite my instincts telling me that €450,000 for a semi-de outside Birr was a bit silly, I did nothing. But then again I have never professed to be an expert in such matters. People who are knowledgeable about these things attack Cowen and the government on legitimate issues and ask difficult questions that they increasingly don’t have the answers for. (I would hope that government ministers feel a degree of personal embarrassment for this, but that wasn’t the question, was it?). People who don’t understand, but want to say something, want to vent, post on internet forums drawing attention to the fact that a man from Offaly is presiding over the mess so therefore Offaly people must be embarrassed.

Tl;dr: No. What a stupid question, embarrassing almost.

Essexboy

fikay wrote: »

It’s easy to ridicule Lenihan, Cowen et. al. as the idiots who sold the country down the river, much in the same way that it was easy to call Bush’s America a nation of moronic, war hungry lard arses. You get to vent at a situation but it doesn’t imply that you know what you’re talking about.
I think the personal nature of some of the attacks on government ministers, particularly those on Cowen, are embarrassing. One of this nation’s bastions of quality journalism sent a photographer to follow the Cowens on a family holiday in the West of Ireland in the early months of his run as Taoiseach, relaying unflattering pictures of a man on holiday to the national press. Oh how they revelled in it. “Here’s a fat bogman in bad clothing ‘mokin a fag. Look at his lips, lol”. Were these pictures aimed at the serious economists, at business leaders? Were they fcuk!
I honestly think Cowen’s confidence in his abilities to do the job was affected by the caricature he has been portrayed as. Now, that’s hardly a very strong indictment of a man challenged with leading the country but I think it’s relevant to the question; do I as an Offaly man feel embarrassed by Brian Cowen? Of course I don’t.
It bothers me that hindsight seems to have made experts of the population. The population are angry, perhaps rightly so; but by and large, experts they are not.
I personally feel a little embarrassed for not seeing this coming; for not understanding the full implications of policy over the years; for not understanding financial markets, bond prices and banking institutions; for the fact that despite my instincts telling me that €450,000 for a semi-de outside Birr was a bit silly, I did nothing. But then again I have never professed to be an expert in such matters. People who are knowledgeable about these things attack Cowen and the government on legitimate issues and ask difficult questions that they increasingly don’t have the answers for. (I would hope that government ministers feel a degree of personal embarrassment for this, but that wasn’t the question, was it?). People who don’t understand, but want to say something, want to vent, post on internet forums drawing attention to the fact that a man from Offaly is presiding over the mess so therefore Offaly people must be embarrassed.

Tl;dr: No. What a stupid question, embarrassing almost.

Offaly people were delighted when Cowen was made Taoiseach and basked in the reflected glory.
Looking at the "Offaly Express" for the period.
"Well wishers who had travelled from Offaly to attend the celebrations engulfed the new Taoiseach. Brandishing flags, the crowd burst into 'The Offaly Rover' much to the delight of Mr Cowen."
and
[He visited] "......Ferbane and Birr, where once again crowds thronged the streets to show their support for the new leader of the country."
http://www.offalyexpress.ie/brian-cowen-special-feature/Cowen-comes-home.4092981.jp

Cowen does not just preside over the disastrous state of the economy, like some innocent passerby - he is one of the causes.
If that is too complex for you, consider his treatment of fellow Offalian, Rody Molloy. Molloy spent public money at FAS like a drunken sailor but Biffo

• first defended him as a a wonderful public servant

then gave him a huge payoff.

Storminateacup

Of course people were proud when he became Taoiseach, because let's face it, he was an improvement on Bertie ahern, the only finance minister without a bank account.

Brian cowen is NOT the reason were in this mess.

Alfasud

Brian Cowan is made fun of because he is from the country. He also represents decency which Aherne lacks. Brian Cowan has family values. He dosen't have a 'partner' costing the taxpayer money on trips.

Essexboy

Alfasud wrote: »

Brian Cowan is made fun of because he is from the country. He also represents decency which Aherne lacks. Brian Cowan has family values. He dosen't have a 'partner' costing the taxpayer money on trips.

Which cumann do you belong to?

gimme5minutes

TomTom wrote: »

I am proud of how Brian Cowen conducts himself publicly and as an Offaly man I am proud that he made the post of Taoiseach.

You are proud because he is from Offaly. If he was from Sligo would you still be so complementary of him? I think not.

What annoys me is how Brian is blamed as he was minister of finance at the time and now because he is the head man also. Bertie gets off the hook because he 'was not in charge of finance'. How come they are still blaming Brian for recent developments and decisions if he is no longer minister for finance when they are made.

Bertie isn't off the hook. Everyone thinks he's a gangster, he's not in the papers everyday because he is no longer taoiseach and hardly even shows up for the dail. But people have a very negative opinion of him these days.

The Irish boom ramped up in the late 90% and was in full hold with the exception of a slight dip at the start of the 00's. for the roughly 10 years of growth in the country he was minister for finance 4 years. Evidence is stating to show that the problems experienced run further than 2004 to 2008. Yet Mr McCreevy is rarely questioned about his role despite holding it for 7 years. Often the damage done to a collapsing house is traced to the foundation.

Minister for Finance for 4 years and Taoiseach for 3. He has presided over several absolutely disastrous decisions. When it comes to politicians who hold the most responsibility for our present disaster the blame obviously rests with, in no particular order, Bertie, Cowen, Lenihan, McCreevey. Cowen deserves every criticism that is thrown at him.

I form my opinion of Brian Cowen on having met him several times, my fathers friendship with him, his manner as a person, his values as a person and his commitment to mend the mess they made.

Wake up call...nearly all politicians are 'sound' guys. Everyone used to think Bertie was a great guy altogether, real man of the people, same with George Bush. I have heard the same stuff you are saying there said about Lenihan by people who have met him. It is naive to be basing your opinion of a politician on how personable they are - its part of the job for them, they all want to give off the image of being nice people.

Lastly I think as a man who was elected to office like anyone else in a fair manner, who is the leader and international representative of the country he deserves a bit of respect.

Blah, blah, blah...with that logic you could say that Bertie, Haughey, George Bush, etc... deserve respect. Leaders deserve respect based on their actions, it shouldn't be automatically accorded to them.


I'd like to hear your opinions on Cowen denying the three by-elections. And his dinner with the Anglo head honchos back in 2008 where he says they never talked about Anglo...this despite Anglo being in freefall at the time. Do you believe him when he says they didn't talk about it? If you do, please tell me how competent you think he is if he didn't discuss Anglo when he was meeting the top men of the bank at a time when it was in crisis and had huge implications for the country.