AN UNAPOLOGETIC BLUESHIRT for as long as he can remember – you may recall how George Hook surprised readers of the Sunday Independent last autumn by announcing he was mulling a Dáil bid under the banner of ‘Michael Collins Fine Gael’.
The veteran Newstalk presenter and rugby pundit wrote that he had become disillusioned with the party in recent years and was considering a run in Dún Laoghaire.
He wanted, he insisted, to appeal across the party-political divide “to the middle classes, who see their views and beliefs are no longer represented”.
Candidate Hook?
The broadcaster dropped by TheJournal.ie for an interview yesterday – and as you might imagine with an election just around the corner, his mooted Oireachtas bid was high on our list of questions.
The latest?
Well, while he wasn’t ruling anything in or out for definite – we spent a great deal of time during the interview talking about his plans for The Right Hook between now and election day.
“I think you can take it that I’m unlikely to stand for Dún Laoghaire,” he said – pointing out that, of course, he still had time to make up his mind.
He added that he had had a chat only that morning with an unnamed gentleman – “a non political person, but somebody I would trust hugely in terms of advice” – who encouraged him to run.
As for this mystery man’s identity – Hook wasn’t giving much else away…
The political fate of another broadcaster, George Lee, weighed on his mind as he mulled the move, he said.
He was worried he would end up ”sitting there on the backbenches going mad”.
Courted by ‘Big Phil’
It’s not the first time the outspoken host has toyed with running for office.
Fine Gael had asked him to run in the Euro elections in 2009, he said.
“I was really serious about it,” he insisted – recalling conversations with strategist Frank Flannery and a breakfast meeting with Phil Hogan on the road to Cork.
After giving it further consideration, he eventually demurred.
I suddenly thought… that’s not really for me. And, well, what would I be doing in Brussels?
We’ll have more from our interview with Hook at the weekend…
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