More from the Boss… March 1, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics, Uncategorized.trackback
Bloody hell, this is turning into a series in the Mail by Jason O’Toole, quotes from our beloved new leader. Same as the old one only better.
And what’s this one reads? Well this sort of resonates:
While Mary O’Rourke says that Enda has a ‘foolishness’ streak that shows up in public. ‘Now, everyone says he’s a nice guy – and he is a nice guy. But he’s always saying, “I’m going to be the Taoiseach!” It’s foolish talk!. ‘I think it’s that foolishness that shows up in him. We’ve heard it for a long time and, if he keeps on saying it, he’s going to get boring. I think he’s just a bit foolish. He might be politically clever but I don’t think he’s intellectually clever.’
Hard to disagree that at the last heave he managed the situation brilliantly. Difficult not to think having seen his post election interview on RTÉ TV on Saturday night that this is a man who exudes all the command of something not terribly commanding. But no doubt a few months in the job will change all that. Actually in a way he sort of reminds me of Pat Kenny to the power of ten, there’s something of the same woodeness.
Anyhow, what of this?
How does he respond to the accusations that he himself is economically illiterate and hides behind his finance spokesman? ‘Well, look, I don’t accept that at all. You don’t have to be an expert in the intricacies of every area of policy. That’s what you have a team for and we’ve got the strongest economic team. ‘I’m very happy to now I understand what our major economic policies are. When you go to talk about the intricacies of Nama and loan conditions and all the things that are now trying to be unravelled, these are beyond the reach of many economists. I’m very happy with my understanding of what we have to do.’ On the issue of the banks, he says he believes that it’s a ‘disgrace’ how heads haven’t rolled yet. ‘In America 42 people are in jail; banks have restarted to pay the money that the government lent to them, but we’ve been so slow here. ‘I know these things are complex to trace them up but people want to see those who are responsible for this mess and crash in our economy, on the rocks, brought before the law and served their sentence. ‘The feeling around the country is that nobody has paid the price for what has wrecked our economy and taking pay cuts and serious cuts in people’s salaries, affecting hundreds of thousands. ‘When you draw that kind of money out of the economy to pay for the mistakes of people like that driven by greed and reckless lending, people want to see retribution.’
Okay. Okay. Though amelioration of the situation might be even better.
No libertarian he:
He also does not believe in the legalisation of soft drugs, saying that they are nothing more than a gateway to going ‘straight into harder drugs’. Legalisation would mean that ‘the next generation would be on crack cocaine’. ‘I think, you know, that if you take that line, you send out the word internationally: “This is a haven for soft drugs and everything else that comes along with it”. ‘You could have invasions from all over the world, saying: “Ireland is the place you can go if you want to do your drugs’ – whether they be soft or whether they be hard. ‘Who distinguishes between these things? The Government can’t distinguish these things. The Government has failed to deal with it as it is. Michael McDowell plagiarised my speech by saying, “Those who snort the white powder are assisting in gangland killings”.’ He has such zero tolerance attitude to drugs that he once told me he favoured the idea of random drug testing in secondary schools, adding that ‘the same could apply to universities’. When I asked, ‘Why stop there – why not have random drug tests on the streets?’ he didn’t dismiss it.
And other aspects of social policy? Well, O’Toole may not be far wrong in characterising him as ‘…an ultra conservative Taoiseach’:
Fine Gael may pride itself on being a party that supports equality, but Enda is against the idea of same sex marriages – just like Lucinda Creighton, who caused controversy last week when she twitted her objection to homosexual marriages. ‘No, I don’t favour same sex marriage. We were the first party down here to produce a document on civil unions and registration of civil unions, and to deal with tax and hereditary property and all of all – that’s as far as we went. I don’t fair same sex marriages,’ he told me. So it’s no surprise to discover that he’s also pro-choice. ‘I don’t favour abortion. Obviously, I am aware that people travel to other countries for abortion. I would try to make as serious a case as possible in advising young people, informing young people, and educating young people about these matters.’ But his anti-abortion stance doesn’t appear to be rooted by any ‘I’m not the best Catholic – I’m a better Christian’
We’ll see.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Random drug trials on the street would be a piece of draconian lunacy (and would never happen), but Inda does have a point regarding soft drugs.
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‘You could have invasions from all over the world, saying: “Ireland is the place you can go if you want to do your drugs’ – whether they be soft or whether they be hard. ‘Who distinguishes between these things?
Luckily we don’t have any sort of existing correlation between our national identity and the social use of drugs. Particularly pints of the stuff. We’d never promote that sort of thing in our tourism media campaigns.
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Indeed. And a recent EU report said that 7 out of every thousand of us is addicted to opiates. That’s about twice the EU average. What a wonderful job we’ve done with our freedom.
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I find myself pining for the intellectual depth that Bertie brought to the office of Taoiseach.
Enda is cut from the same intellectual cloth as Dan Quayle, GW Bush and Sarah Palin.
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Though I would go along with drivers being tested for drugs not just Ethyl Alcohol.As well as people in certain occupations where they need their full faculties.
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Drivers are already tested for drugs as well as alcohol. Not quite as frequently, because there is no poly-drug equivalent of an alcohol breath testing machine, but more often than you’d expect.
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‘Enda is cut from the same intellectual cloth as Dan Quayle, GW Bush and Sarah Palin.’
It would be a mistake to see that as a problem, or to pursue it as a line of argument. Most people, unfortunately, think of themselves as unable to deal with the ‘big issues’ and defer to experts on economics etc. They like that some politicains seem to be like them. Slagging them off for being thick seems to say to voters: ‘your stupid too.’ Some of the left tend to adopt the socialogist/social worker/lecturer approach which grates with many of what should be their audience. Attacks his policies and his party’s ethos. As a person he seems fairly unremarkably ok (for a man of his background and generation).
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I’d agree with Terry there. The legend of Kenny’s stupidity has largely been propagated by the same pundits who insisted, against all evidence to the contrary, that Brian Cowen was an intellectual and that ‘whatever else you say about Bertie Ahern, no-one questions his honesty and integrity. Look at his anorak. He likes football.’
I’m sure Fine Gael will be pretty reprehensible while in office but I can’t say that their leader strikes me as any more dense than a great number of TDs in the Dail.
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I’ve missed those commentators who insisted that Cowen was an intellectual. Citation?
I’d say a better analogy is those who cast Lenihan as our saviour, no matter how big the lies were clearly getting over the last few years.
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Surely you remember how often Cowen’s massive intelligence was mentioned in the media. Just google Cowen and Intelligence to be greeted with a few examples. Even when Martin became leader, someone in the Times noted that, I paraphrase here, while Martin was highly intelligent he wasn’t in the same class as Cowen.
You’re right about Lenihan. If I remember correctly the bank guarantee scheme was hailed as a genius move by several pundits who noted that it would make us the envy of Europe and be emulated in short order. Similar things were said about NAMA.
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Yeah, woodenness of demeanour doesn’t indicate stupidity, though I suspect he’s closer to a Reynolds than, say, a fine detail kind of guy. Kenny strikes me as shrewd and brave, at least in terms of taking on people like Bruton et al. I also would hazard that he’s on certain levels a decent person.
Doesn’t make him any less right wing though and the truly disturbing thought is that in socio-economic terms he may be the best of a bad lot.
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The word Mary O’Rourke was looking to describe Enda Kenny was “conceited,” beloved of an earlier generation to describe someone with high-minded ideas about themselves.
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