Something occurred to me. Micheal Martin and Eamon Ryan have both committed their parties vote for Taoiseach,to whoever wins the FG leadership contest, which means 47 TD's are committed to voting for a member of another party to be Taoiseach. Not one of those TD's even know who all the candidates are yet, so either everybody in those parties think everybody in FG is fit to be the leader of the country,or the role of Taoiseach is just another issue they don't take seriously?
The reaction to the criticism Varadkar is getting, is embarrassing. He didn't die,he jacked in a public service job that made him millions,will lead to him earning millions more,and that he was no fucking good at. So no, we don't all have to show our "decency" and wish him well. As for these shouts that he broke down barriers by becoming the first gay Taoiseach,that's horseshit. The FG membership didn't elect him,they wanted Coveney. The Parliamentary Party did because they thought having a gay leader would be good for them electorally. Just being gay doesn't break down any barriers,neither does politicians electing a gay man for cynical reasons. I don't think his popularity with the public either in a positive or negative way had anything to do with him being gay(except with the right wing headbangers), but trying to use the fact he was a gay Taoiseach as an example of how progressive Ireland is,falls down when you realise he lost every single election as FG party leader. Their seat numbers tanked,and he lost 5 bye elections. He didn't take Ireland anywhere from a progressive viewpoint. From coming out as gay to backing same sex marriage, he waited until Ireland had already gotten there and then jumped on board. Again that doesn't make him different to most other politicians,just don't run to the front of a group that's being marching for a long time without you,and take the credit for where they arrive at.
Simon harris, good jaysus. I'm no big fan of Paschal the rascal but I'd have him over that weasel any day.
Much of a muchness as far as I'm concerned. There's nobody in the country,not even in Fine Gael,who think Simon Harris is the right person to lead the country,but there's plenty who'd gladly put him there out of self interest. That to me sums up Fine Gael. And the fact that the other two parties didn't even have to find out who the candidate was before committing their votes, sums them up too. Harris is a fitting end to this government's term.
This is a poisoned chalice and I think most of the serious politicians will realise that and keep clear of it. I think Harris has definitely a bit of the Alan Kelly power craze about him so he will definitely want this at all costs but I think even for him it will be shortsighted because he's going to be in power over a very traumatic time for his party in a very short space of time. Martin and Ryan want to remain in Government as long as they can so I'm not surprised in any way to see their unequivocal backing for whoever the new Taoiseach is, they also probably don't want to be seen to be meddling in an FG race but primarily it's their own self interests to support whoever the new appointment is. I'm genuinely surprised that Leo is stepping down to be honest, my initial reaction was that there's something big in the pipeline that we can't see yet but there's nothing come to light yet and with the storms he's weathered over the years it's hard to see what it would be that would force him to walk away like this. I think the position of all political leaders is becoming hugely stressful and will only continue to get worse as things become more polarised, I can say with 100% certainty that well paid and all as politicians are I wouldn't in a million years put my name forward for it.
Did leaky Simon ever set the record straight in the dail like he said he would when Matt carthy outed him as the leaky leaker under dail privilege?
Anybody who wants to be Taoiseach,has something fundamentally wrong with them,whether it's massive levels of delusion, massive levels of entitlement,or usually a mixture of both. I don't think Simon Harris thinks he's the best person for the job, but I do think he feels like he deserves the job. And that's why I've no problem with tbe levels of scrutiny and criticism ramping up on these fuckers. If we have to have a political environment where talent and ability aren't even close to the main factors which decide who's in power, then I want people strong enough mentally to deal with everything that comes with it. This "we need to be kinder to sociopaths,or we'll get less sociopaths willing to go into politics" argument that politicians and journalists are trotting out, can get to fuck. If you're willing to act like these cunts,then you can suffer the consequences or fuck off. Or alternatively,you can go in with the intention of changing things for the benefit of the people,giving you a much better chance of avoiding the worst of the criticism. And that's what we should be aiming for,making it less attractive to the Leo Varadkars and Simon Harris's of this world,and the realisation that they've played a huge part in how angry people are.
When the news broke yesterday that the taoicseah was resigning I had to wait until they mentioned Varadkars name before my brain could confirm who's turn it is at the minute. The entire thing has been a farce, probably best summed up by someone I heard say all his best achievements have been on the international scene. His actual job at home has been a shit show. Fuck him and his party and Michael Martin and his party too.
A bit left field but heard this name mentioned. Heather Humphries. Would stop the possibility of Mary Lou been first female Taoiseach. Just to piss her off
We'd really be showing our progressive development as a nation if we went from a gay man with Indian heritage straight into a female leader but all the noises coming from the usual sources make it sound like Harris is the only show in town.
It would make us almost as progressive as the north who have a female first minister and a female deputy first minister.
I don't know about that. Just looking at another thread where somebody described a character from a TV show as "one of the best female characters ever". If it was a man would they have qualified it with male? Fine Gael are leading the way,but I'm not sure everybody is following.
I was a bit different in that a text came in Saying Leo had resigned. It didn’t dawn on me that he was the leader of the country, some days I think Eamon Ryan is running the whole show as his policies are destroying the road network around Dublin City and I curse him most days