A chara, – Why is Enda Kenny’s margin of victory being kept secret? This makes a mockery of open politics. A margin of 20 votes would certainly reinforce his position, a margin of four rather weaken it. Secrecy certainly enfeebles it. – Is mise,
Madam, – Rather than subjecting the rest of us to their internecine shenanigans, might I suggest to the Fine Gael party that as part of its normal way of doing business it would have a regular leadership vote at the start of, and mid-way through, each Dáil term? This would eliminate the juvenile squabbling that seems to be part and parcel of party politics. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Leo Varadkar has said in several interviews that “it is never the wrong time to ask the right question”. Obviously, he asked the wrong question. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Enda Kenny wants to abolish the Senate and to do so within 12 months of assuming office. Is it not somewhat peculiar then that a Fine Gael senator’s vote should have the same democratic weighting as a Fine Gael TD’s in a motion of confidence in that party’s leader? Given that it is by virtue of the size of its Dáil representation, Fine Gael’s leader is Ireland’s leader of the Opposition, should not its TDs alone be decisive in such a vote? Does Ireland now find itself in the bizarre position of having a leader of the opposition who owes his survival to members of a body he has pledged to abolish?
Has Fine Gael merely illuminated a serious democratic deficit in its own internal procedures, with all the repercussions that will entail for Ireland’s democracy? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Richard Bruton and Fine Gael just didn’t get it. The party is in decline for the same reason that Fianna Fáil is in decline. Throughout the history of this State, they have collaborated with each other in maintaining a status quo of complacent political privilege. At last that status quo is accepted by the people as unacceptable. Their cynical game of sameness now binds them together in mutually assured decline. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Regarding the re-election of Enda Kenny: DisMayo. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – A majority of his former front bench claims Enda Kenny (a man who never had an original idea in his life) a not-fit-for-purpose leader of the opposition.
How then can the electorate be asked to consider him as a possible future taoiseach? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – One thing Enda Kenny has over Richard Bruton, which was illustrated perfectly at Thursday’s press conference where the first question and answer were in Irish, is that by having both languages he can represent all of the people. As Brian Cowen and Eamon Gilmore are also bilingual, we can look forward to three-way debates, not only on RTÉ and TV3, but also on TG4. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Might I suggest to Fine Gael that its recent failure in the opinion polls is not about leadership, it is about policy. Whether it be Enda Kenny or Richard Bruton leading the party, on fundamental areas of economic and banking policy, Fine Gael is in agreement with Fianna Fáil.
Fine Gael opposes nationalisation of the banks and supports Nama. It has also supported paycuts imposed on public sector workers. To many people, voting for Fine Gael rather than Fianna Fáil might not make sense because policies will remain largely the same. The Labour Party has taken a different view on both the economy and how to deal with the banks. Maybe it is for this reason that the Labour Party is soaring in the opinion polls? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I still have breakfast, dinner and tea but I am friendly with people who have brunch, lunch and supper (Home News, “Cappuccino generation falls to those who eat dinner at midday”, Miriam Lord). I don’t know who the cappuccino generation are, I drink black coffee. Will this reveal my voting preferences to the Dublin print media? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – So, a second-rate leader with a first-rate front bench is going to end up with a new second-rate bench. Hardly a recipe for electoral success. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Tim McDonnell (June 18th) said a lot about the way many Irish people think about politics. What was most interesting was the use of the phrase “as long as they got the job done”. It’s this thinking that has led to where the nation finds itself today, because it completely negates the need that we actually decide 1. What the job is, and 2. How do we do it?
The refusal of the writer, like many Irish people, to accept that we have to make choices between finite resources and infinite demands, and that (some) parties offer differing choices sums up why we are a dysfunctional State. Does he really believe that there is no difference in the choices offered by Joe Higgins’s party as opposed to Brian Cowen’s party?
He argues for a government of independents, and I find myself racking my brains for the examples of all those independent TDs who have displayed such breathtaking national vision. An taoiseach, Jackie Healy-Rae? Minister for finance, Michael Lowry? But what’s most telling is his last sentence, where he complains how they “sell their party for re-election”. In other words, they seek the approval of millions of other Irish people to make the final call.
What is the problem with that? – Yours, etc,