FG-Trots[sic]? Say again?

Is it me or is Eoghan Harris stressing the powers of his political analysis and predictions to an ever-increasing degree these days? He’s certainly no shy flower in regard to pointing to same…

RTE prefers pundits repeating themselves rather than cope with my contrarian analysis – which proved the correct one.

RTE’s virtual monopoly lets it lazily recycle tired cliches. Listeners to Newstalk get fresher fare.

Last Wednesday, Shane Coleman took me through my alternative analysis where I castigated the regressive role of the Pied Pipers, the Independents and Fine Gael Trots.

Er… come again? Actually no, check this out:

Let me give you a rundown on what was really going on, a story you were not allowed to hear on RTE, which brazenly continues to keep me off air – to the satisfaction of Sinn Fein.

Does he genuinely think that his appearance or non-appearance on RTÉ ruffles SF feathers in the slightest?

Anyhow, moving swiftly on:

Basically, I believe RTE promoted a majority faction in the media, whom I call Pied Pipers, which made a settlement more difficult by becoming players long before the election.

The Pied Pipers wanted two things: a grand coalition of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, and the early replacement of Enda Kenny with Leo Varadkar.

In the past few weeks, as it became increasingly clear Fianna Fail would not facilitate either of these projects, both RTE and the Pied Pipers turned sullen.

Thwarted in its two projects, the Pied Pipers are now carrying on a consolation campaign to cast a cloud over the new minority government.

Right. Okay. But again, no shrinking violet he positions himself at the centre of all this. Oh he doesn’t say, or not quite, but how else to interpret the following:

My position was completely at odds with the Pied Pipers on each and every one of these issues.

First, I did not think a grand coalition was good for Irish democracy: it would create a political behemoth, polarise Irish politics, and soon put a posturing Sinn Fein in the saddle.

Second, I don’t believe Leo Varadkar has what it takes for the tough job of Taoiseach.

Finally, I believe this could be a good government not least because it will be a listening government.

Mine’s a legitimate viewpoint. But RTE will not let you hear it by cutting me off from current affairs programmes.

So even when he’s not being heard, he’s still influencing things. Anyhow, bizarre as that may seem to some, there’s more:

Luckily, readers of this column can access an alternative analysis of why the talks took so long, for which I offer two reasons.

First, Irish Water became a fetish with Fine Gael because it was the pet project of Phil Hogan, who rammed it through the Dail in four hours and threatened objectors with cutting supply to a trickle.

Second, Fine Gael’s Irish Water fetish became entangled in the leadership ambitions of Leo Varadkar, which finally surfaced in his selfish, dog-in-the-manger outburst last Thursday.

For a Fine Gael negotiator to jeopardise the future of the talks, he himself was taking part in is what I call Trotskyite behaviour.

Except maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was just politics. Maybe – and I know this will be news to him, people doing things he doesn’t agree with for their own reasons is nothing to do with Trotskyism, or SFism, or whatever it is he dislikes, but is simply people taking different views.

And perhaps we’ve hit and passed peak-Harris when we have arrived at the FG-Trot conjunction.

Perhaps.