The Brian Cowen Tribute Thread! :)

ejmaztec

marcsignal wrote: »

keeping it in the family, another fine FF tradition :mad:

This says it all...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j8F-9nmZ5I

IT's Ironic that Ireland finally got rid of the monarchy, only to replace it with its own cock-eyed version. Everywhere you look, there's a mini-monarchy.:mad:

walrusgumble

starbelgrade wrote: »

What is Brian Cowens legacy?

After 25 years serving as a TD, in ministerial roles from Transport, to Finance, to Tainiste and the Taoiseach, you would expect that the end to such a long career would be one that would announced loud & proud and celebrated by many.

But it wasn't.

There was no fanfare for Brian Cowen, when he announced on a local radio station that he was bowing out of politics. No-one there to shake his hand & wish him well. His political party had just a few days previously, abandoned him, leaving him as the leader of the country, with no alliances, no mandate & no friends. Even his long standing side-kick, Brian Lenihan wanted him gone so he could vie for his job.

And as his career ended, he slipped out the back door of a small radio station in Offaly, barely even noticed.

And so he leaves both Fianna Fail & the country in tatters. All the while he claimed that he what he was doing was for the good of the country - and by that we can infer the good of the people.

I have no doubt that he actually believed that. I don't believe for a second that he was corrupt. But I do believe that he was wrong & that any ideals that he might have entertained previously, had long since become corrupted... corrupted by the power & influence he held and by the power & influence of those in whose circles he socialised.

Yes, he did a lot for the good of the people. The only problem is, that the people he was doing good for, were not people like you or me, but the elite, the powerful and the rich.

So in a time of economic crisis, where the unemployed, small businesses & ordinary workers are the ones who needed most a strong voice, the only voices he heard were those from Europe & the IMF.


And that will be Brian Cowen's legacy... a man who - even when the bubble had burst - still lived in a bubble, thinking that he could sort it all out.

In many ways, he reminds me of the Black Knight in Monthy Python's "The Holy Grail" who keeps losing his limbs, yet believes that he can still keep on fighting.

Lose a right arm (the economy)... "tis but a scratch" ... loses another (the faith of the people).. "it's just a flesh wound".... loses a leg (the backing of his party)... "I'm invincible".... then finally, as loses his last limb, he decides to call it a day, but still won't concede that he has lost...

"Let's call it a draw".


Well, you can call it whatever you like Mr.Cowen, as long as you know that your time has come & gone and whatever spin you try to put on that will not deflect from the truth that you were one in a long line of dismal Fianna Fail Taoiseachs who will not be missed.

Goodnight & goodbye.

In over 25 years of public representation, and well over 15 years as a member of cabinet in various portfolios, it is very very difficult to point out two or three serious achievements earned by him (with the exception of his time as foreign minister dealing with the north and being able to get high first preference votes). We can't say he was much use as a health minister; correctly highlighting it was like Outter Angola.

We were told that he was Brian Brains Cowen, a super debater and talker. Yet in all the time over the past decade and as far as 1994ish, I only remember him acting like a typical biffo , roaring and shouting

thebigbiffo

Hated by the media from the start of his tenure as taoiseach - ugly with a bad accent and an easy nickname - the 'noveau riche' dickheads that most of this country had become were never going to connect with him.

Forgotten that one of his first acts as finance minister was to raise stamp duty to try cool an out of control property market - the opposition, the media and the public caused so much of an uproar that he had to backtrack a year later.

bowed to pressure by opposition and his party as finance minister to increase public service pay, pensions and numbers - people forget that FG ran the last election on a platform of massively increasing spending...the very action they're now whipping the government for.

Got passed the poison chalice by a conniving and utterly corrupt Bertie when it was clear the wheels were about to come off and Bert got his moment in the sun on capitol hill.

For all the rhetoric, not a sniff of actual corruption about the lad and he's clean as a whistle.

On that note though - the system collapsed and the people who he needed to engage with as the 'money makers' (we now know them as the 'gombeen men') on behalf of the electorate are now discredited and he's tarred with that same brush - the citizens of this fine country seem to think politicans aren't supposed to talk to these people when in fact it was and is a nessesary part of the job.

made a complete f'ucking mess of the bank gaurantee (which was nessesary to some extent).

wasn't hard enough on the regulator when he was minister for finance - in his defence though, the entire system that made us a 'rich' nation then depended on soft regulation as per our old friend McCreevy...who ran away scott free.

should have resigned and called an election at least a year earlier than he did - at the very latest this summer. he should have accepted that the conditions his party supported since the 90's led to an unsustainable boom which, as party leader at the time it all came to a head, was ultimately his responsibility. he could have resigned with dignity and let the country decide what way it wanted to go.

personally - i have respect for cowen as a person and as a politician. he just had to deal with the perfect storm of bulls'hit from his first days as taoiseach and i dont think anyone that's in that chamber of fools would have done a better job. i feel bad for the man that he'll go down in history as the politician who ruined the country. he was a cog in a s'hitty system (of which all parties are a part) that broke down while he took his turn at the wheel.

i'll buy him a pint when i see him. i dont think any less of him. we're only realising now what every citizen of a democracy has known since the romans: POLITICIANS ARE C'UNTS

cleremy jarkson

thebigbiffo wrote: »

Hated by the media from the start of his tenure as taoiseach - ugly with a bad accent and an easy nickname - the 'noveau riche' dickheads that most of this country had become were never going to connect with him.

People will deny it, but i think this is the main reason he wasn't taken to. He basically personified the depressed, sluggish, unattractive situation of the economy whereas jokey, smiley Bertie personified the boom times.

Also, is it just me or do others remember it being sunnier when Bertie was in charge?

starbelgrade

thebigbiffo wrote: »

i'll buy him a pint when i see him. i dont think any less of him. we're only realising now what every citizen of a democracy has known since the romans: POLITICIANS ARE C'UNTS

That statement is as much of a cop out as the rest of the excuses you have listed in Cowen's defence.

The biggest failure in Irish politics is that so few of our elected representatives actually take responsibilty for anything, so when things go wrong - as they frequently do - they cannot be held accountable.

This however, does not make them cunts - that's just a over simplified excuse which really says nothing at all.

thebigbiffo

starbelgrade wrote: »

That statement is as much of a cop out as the rest of the excuses you have listed in Cowen's defence.

The biggest failure in Irish politics is that so few of our elected representatives actually take responsibilty for anything, so when things go wrong - as they frequently do - they cannot be held accountable.

This however, does not make them cunts - that's just a over simplified excuse which really says nothing at all.

that statement wasn't supposed to be defending cowen, it was supposed to just make a statement and that's all. you are correct, no politician anywhere ever wants to take responsibility for anything that may have went wrong - that's the game. in my opinion, you'll never have a perfect system of governence...so in general, all politicians, leaders, statesmen etc are going to be c'unts - end of.

gbee

a well educated man ... he did the right thing at precisely the wrong time.

Yet he is an honourable man, question remains as to whom.

We *should have been* his boss, clearly we were not.

Rented Mule

hondasam wrote: »

That might be a bit unfair.

To frogs ?

sensibleken

In fairness to the man once I was on a schooner and it started to sink. He selflessly removed his shirt and jumped overboard. we used him as a life raft to get back the shore. and thats how we discovered iceland!