Brian Cowens 'interesting' start to his Taoiseachship continues. Yesterdays lead story in the Irish Times carried quite an extraordinary comment from BIFFO.
Cowen claimed that Fine Gael and Labour were not investing sufficiently in securing support from their own supporters for the Lisbon Treaty. His comments followed a Sunday Business Post poll which showed the No side closing the gap on the lead the Yes side enjoys.
Naturally the comment irritated Fine Gael, and in my opinion quite rightly so. While I completely disagree with FG position on Europe, they being self denial federalists, it has to be accepted that they have taken a honorable position on the referendum, by repeatedly calling on their supporters not to use the Treaty to punish the Government.
Party icons such as Garret Fitzgerald, Alan Dukes, Peter Sutherland and others have all engaged and debated (even if their debating style is limited to saying "Europe is great, your wrong").
Cowen claimed that Fine Gael and Labour were not investing sufficiently in securing support from their own supporters for the Lisbon Treaty. His comments followed a Sunday Business Post poll which showed the No side closing the gap on the lead the Yes side enjoys.
Naturally the comment irritated Fine Gael, and in my opinion quite rightly so. While I completely disagree with FG position on Europe, they being self denial federalists, it has to be accepted that they have taken a honorable position on the referendum, by repeatedly calling on their supporters not to use the Treaty to punish the Government.
Party icons such as Garret Fitzgerald, Alan Dukes, Peter Sutherland and others have all engaged and debated (even if their debating style is limited to saying "Europe is great, your wrong").
Even the unhinged Gay Mitchell MEP has been travelling the country scowling at undecided voters in a somewhat futile attempt to win support for his argument. In the numerous Forum on Europe meetings that I attended in a dozen counties, the local FG organisation was there, vocal and their presence felt. In contrast at numerous venues I saw local FF TDs attend the meetings note that the prevailing opinion was anti-treaty and then sit through the meeting without publicly commenting.
It is also said that FG are planning to spend €700k of their own resources attempting to secure a Yes vote.
Nobody would even suggest that if the positions were reversed that FF would lift a finger or spend a cent to help get this referendum passed.
In relation to Labour, Cowen may have a point, feedback suggests that they are feeling a little vulnerable on this Treaty. The Unions have either been hostile or lukewarm and that has fed into a limp campaign summed up with a cynical postering campaign of using the Treaty to put up posters of zero-profile candidates for next years Local elections. They encourge us to vote "Yes to Lisbon", well, if you look really closely with yellow tinted glasses, just before Venus rises and from a 34 degree angle.
The question remains on what was Cowen thinking by having a go at FG and Labour. Given that FG is now only defined by its opposition to FF, surely he must have known that having a go at the party's campaign would have the opposite effect of securing support.
Is Cowen's comments a sign that a political bruiser does not make a good Chief, or is it part of some cunning FF plan.
These possible cunning plans include a theory from the blueshirt in-house loudmouth, Leo Varadkar, who claimed "It is very obvious that in the event of a referendum defeat, Fianna Fáil's cowardly PR strategy will be to blame Fine Gael. They are putting out this 'spin' for a few weeks now."
Perhaps.
My favourite "cunning plan" conspiracy theory is the one that suggests that FF are content to lose the referendum on the basis that it will be another external factor they can point to, so as to deflect attention, and more importantly blame, away from the Soldiers of Destiny in relation to the probable fiasco that will be our economy over the next three years.
Alternatively we are all wrong and the truth is Brian Cowen is a chronic bully and totally unsuitable Taoiseach incapable of being anything more than a party loyalist.
It is also said that FG are planning to spend €700k of their own resources attempting to secure a Yes vote.
Nobody would even suggest that if the positions were reversed that FF would lift a finger or spend a cent to help get this referendum passed.
In relation to Labour, Cowen may have a point, feedback suggests that they are feeling a little vulnerable on this Treaty. The Unions have either been hostile or lukewarm and that has fed into a limp campaign summed up with a cynical postering campaign of using the Treaty to put up posters of zero-profile candidates for next years Local elections. They encourge us to vote "Yes to Lisbon", well, if you look really closely with yellow tinted glasses, just before Venus rises and from a 34 degree angle.
The question remains on what was Cowen thinking by having a go at FG and Labour. Given that FG is now only defined by its opposition to FF, surely he must have known that having a go at the party's campaign would have the opposite effect of securing support.
Is Cowen's comments a sign that a political bruiser does not make a good Chief, or is it part of some cunning FF plan.
These possible cunning plans include a theory from the blueshirt in-house loudmouth, Leo Varadkar, who claimed "It is very obvious that in the event of a referendum defeat, Fianna Fáil's cowardly PR strategy will be to blame Fine Gael. They are putting out this 'spin' for a few weeks now."
Perhaps.
My favourite "cunning plan" conspiracy theory is the one that suggests that FF are content to lose the referendum on the basis that it will be another external factor they can point to, so as to deflect attention, and more importantly blame, away from the Soldiers of Destiny in relation to the probable fiasco that will be our economy over the next three years.
Alternatively we are all wrong and the truth is Brian Cowen is a chronic bully and totally unsuitable Taoiseach incapable of being anything more than a party loyalist.
3 comments:
To paraphrase from Seamus Mallon, "Brian Cowen is Michael Noonan for slow learners". Noonan had a great talent for marking his opposite spokesperson, a neat turn of phrase and was very popular with the party stalwarts for his willingness to get stuck into people he was debating with. And yet for those same reasons he was the wrong person to lead Fine Gael.
Yeah Dan this may turn out to be a (welcomed) monumental mistake by FF. Cowen has made a series of mistakes since he started, which really was only a wet week ago. Out canvassing tonight and last night and its seems clear that there is a organic bertietalgia brewing.
It will be interesting to see whether over the summer FF can mould him into away from a FF leader into a leader of the country.
In reagrds to Noonan I thought the problems were more asethic than anyhthing else. I never thought of him as agressive as Cowen.
Noonan wasn't as needlessly aggressive as Cowen can be but his appeal to the party footsoldiers was similar.
I suspect that someone somewhere will take Cowen off and attempt to do what they must have done to O'Donoghue last summer and get him in touch with some Zen master. Otherwise, he is going to blow his top every other week.
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