And flecking eegits. Just decided Enda kenny politician of the year. Wtf???

I reckon Browne is brown-nosing Kenny, to make up from pre-election spate when he suggested Kenny should do himself in.

@reada, the guy went from heave to Taoiseach in about 8 months, largest FG ever, got stuck into the church. Not too shabby.

Doubt it. Think those clowns on the panel chose him. Did you ever hear such nonsense. 1 speech about the Vatican, rehashing what the whole country had been saying for years, and they call him politician of the year. it was good granted but we all know Enda doesn’t write his own speeches.

He won the election??? Ffs he could hardly have lost it. Did you ever hear such rubbish.

@ Réada: Very few, if any, modern politicians write their speeches these days. I mean Barack Obama has a full time “Director of Speechwriting”, Jon Favreau. And even that speech writer has his own deputies.

@reada ok then who would you chose ? You are obviously completely biased against FG ! Open your eyes and see how he went from nearly being ousted from his own party and replaced by Bruton to winning their biggest election on record! Complain about him and his party but he and his party will be here for the next 4 years !

@Donncha

So do you base how successful a politician is on how well he does for his party or on how well he does for his people?

@Donncha

And if “he got stuck into the church”, should there not be a load of priests in prison now?? Or maybe you think that’s the way we should treat all pedophiles in our society? Just let them wonder around as if nothing happened??

Ah sure his 5 point plan deserves the award! He deserves European award too for propping up French n german banks at cost of Irish taxpayers.

Hey you guys. Think I’m becoming psychic Donncha cos I answered your post while you were only typing the question. He could hardly have lost!!!

Ryan. Indeed but I take some comfort in the fact that she’s not FG.

Finnian. Very observant of you. You won’t be overly surprised therefore to know there’d be a few in the running but my award would go to Patrick Nulty for his post budget stance. My only regret was the rest of the backbenchers couldn’t stand up (it takes a backbone). And Finnian there was no need for the 4 year threat thrown in there at the bottom. Can’t you see I’m battered. Battered but not broken!

And voice of reason, always good to have the voice of reason. Just to keep me sane. ;)

Sorry for all the emails Cpm

@Finnian

Most votes were anti Fianna Fail and the only reason FineGail won was because they were the best of a bad bunch and they made numerous lies to get our votes. We need a new party whose only interest is the people. Can somebody please tell me one thing that FineGail has done to create jobs since they toke over?

And Reada, same goes for you :-)

Truly amazing stuff , Kenny politician of the year , well it shows why we are where we are ,when he is the best we got , winning the election with a pack lies is hardly an achievement when you consider jedward were more electable than the toxic FF. you just never get a sense mainstream politicians in Ireland actually have vision for a better Ireland , it’s usually a family or local power thing, in fairness some of the lefties do but most of them are delusional in practical terms….. Sigh!

The nice thing about our democracy is that you can actually mock Enda or the government and not be thrown in prison or be put to death like North Korea.

We are being put to death but by a thousand cuts.

Dave,

The cuts are a result not a cause. The problem with the last government (and me feiners in general) is that they concentrate on doing everything in the now and make no provision for long term consequences.

But such common sense seems lost on the internet.

Not sure where you’ve been, but in previous years unemployment soared, exports dropped, public spending went out of control and our government was incompetent. And now you decide to get dispondent. I’m the other way around. Time to be optimistic.

Being upf rt ont and honest, I gave you a red thumb, even though what you are saying is correct, the rose tinted glasses are too much for me. Are forgetting that as the Minister for Finance and Social Welfares boss, he stood over trying to devastate Disability Allowance for young people. It was shameful on his part, and think he done himself and FG mortal damage towards any future ballots.

Sorry for typo errors. Damn touchscreens!!!

I don’t think its rose tinted glasses (I thankfully got laser in June of this year so no longer wear glasses!) Its just I find all the rhethoric on here goes too far sometimes. For example I facepalm every time I read here about the Irish “bending over” or “the ordinary people being raped by these politicians”. If any of these people had been raped themselves, I’m sure they’d tone down the wording.

Rather than looking at an overall view of what a politician has done, people only pick out the bad things. Something in Fiach Mac Conghail’s recent piece on here has stoof out for me in particular: “participants had become me more aware of the complex trade-offs to be made in coming to political decisions.” There’s always more to the story, whatever story it may be, than anyone here seems to give thought to. Watching the West Wing at the moment and it reminds me that sometimes you have to do the wrong thing to get something else right.

And in fairness it was Politician of the Year, so that is the whole 12 months rather than just the most recent 2 months.

Personally, I never believed a word he said and I’ve been proven right, consistent lies were made pre election. I was hoping that he’d prove me wrong but alas here we are and things are looking worse than ever :-(

I don’t like that either Ryan. Sick of reading the bending… Don’t even want to type it.

Excellent post Ryan. I take thumbs down as a badge of honour on this forum. A load of contributors have the political sophistication of saying Enda is uncool. A good performance and he relishes people dismissing him.

Btw agree 100% about distasteful rape analagies. I’d also add Hitler and Napoleon comparisons and Nazi analagies into the group of things I find utterly distasteful.

Tom. You leave Ryan in the halfpenny place re the red thumbs. That badge of honour goes to you! Couldn’t help giving you a green one re your second post though. Sorry. :)

Btw you forgot to wish us a merry Christmas.

Ryan – your post is littered with the things Mr Kenny has done for Fine Gael not for the country.

Dermot,

The renegotiated interest rate on the EFSF part of the bailout.
That alone is worth over 500 million per annum. :)

Damn it, you have me there! There’s no alternative though. And why no sport?

Your joking me. Left? It’s a business paper , Takes a pretty right wing economic stance. I presume the sindo and the mail are more up your street.

Any.opportunity the sbp gets to report on an abuse/rape case it goes at it full.tilt. In my opinion they reported every gruesome salacious detail that they could get their hands on. I stopped reading it.

Have you any criticism of his performance yourself Tom or are you happy enough so far?

Good and Fair Question Dermot.

In the context of the budget, I don’t have any criticisms. I’m not too pushed about the property tax, though I do think children’s allowance should means tested, or at least taxed, but I appreciate how hard it would be to implement such a policy. I get 1680/year from the taxpayer. Madness but I know it wouldn’t be easy to implement. I have no problem with students paying for college, or a 50c medical card charge.

I think the communication of why the subordinated bondholders of Anglo irish had to be repaid could have been explained better. The decision to repay itself makes perfect (albeit emotionally grating) sense, but it is such a complex issue that some folks got away with saying it would be a consequence free decision if we defaulted. I think the great unsaid (ie that we are a busted flush and our cards are on the table for everybody to see) is that our negotiating position on this is virtually zero, but what we are getting in return is greater EFSF support, though it is difficult to quantify that. On reflection, it would be impossible for anyone to explain this comprehensively in a sound bite world and that’s why complex decisions like this are taken after research and not on foot of LiveLine shones.

On a personal level, I think the Taoiseach has done very well. he presents a much better and more professional image than his immediate predecessors (plural) and I don’t think anyone would doubt his bona fides.