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THE PAST TWO nights have seen the Fine Gael leadership contest step up a gear with the first hustings between Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney.
Coveney hit out at Varadkar over just how long the Minister for Social Protection had been laying the groundwork for contest.
“I don’t think it’s such a bad thing in politics to be prepared,” Varadkar told the crowd,
I was pretty prepared in the last couple of days, and as a famous man from Cork said, it was Roy Keane of course, ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’.
Shortly after, Coveney followed up this comment:
I think it might be better that I don’t comment on the preparedness in relation to this campaign. This preparation was going on for about 12 months from what I understand.
Varadkar came back with a brief and to-the-point answer:
In terms of preparation, the Taoiseach indicated in February that he would step down, and I can assure you that’s when preparations began for my team, and not before.
However, information filed with the IEDR – the organisation with manages the ownership of .ie domains – reveals the website used for Varadkar’s campaign was created before then.
CampaignForLeo.ie was registered on 5 September 2016, the records show, some five months before Enda Kenny announced he planned to step down.
This website offers policy documents, information about Varadkar and his background, as well as other campaign material.
LeoVaradkar.ie, the website used previously by the Minister, now redirects to the CampaignForLeo.ie site.
An email address attached to the domain began issuing press releases to this publication on 18 May, although it is possible other @campaignforleo.ie addresses were active before this time.
The first activity on the site to be recorded by the Wayback Machine, a website dedicating to archiving the web, was the following day on 19 May.
Is this an indication that the wheels began to slowly move on Varadkar’s campaign as far back as five months before he said they did? Not so, according to a spokesperson for the campaign.
They told TheJournal.ie that the creation of the domain was part of a move to create consistency across Varadkar’s online presence.
They said use of the slogan dates back to 2007, adding that the Minister’s two other main online outlets – Facebook and Twitter – both have @CampaignForLeo as their usernames (as seen above), the latter being active as far back as the end of 2010.
However, despite LeoVaradkar.ie being registered in 2007, it was only decided to switch the website to Campaign For Leo brand recently.
“It makes perfect sense” to keep this uniform, they said, and stressed that the creation of the domain in September was not connected to the Varadkar’s preparation for the leadership contest.
The suggestion that website was created at a time when the leadership contest was starting to appear on the horizon was dismissed as “codology”.
The contest began in earnest on May 17, when Enda Kenny announced he was stepping down as Taoiseach, but there had been rumblings of that taking place for months, if not years.
Almost a year ago in June 2016, it was speculated that might set out a timeline for his departure at a parliamentary party meeting after growing unrest among backbench TDs that month, but he kept tight-lipped.
Now it’s out in the open, and things are heating up between the two candidates, both long seen as potential successors to Enda Kenny.
The next hustings takes place this evening in Ballinasloe, Co Galway.
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The minister for everything is getting found out,the Irish media have been rather quiet about the leadership race the last day or two after there darling boy Leo seems to be letting his lead slip a bit.hopefully leo the Tory blows it because his bad for the common people of this country
@dick dastardly: the tory … What about bilderberg Simon
Two of them are the same . More of the same
@dick dastardly:
The reason the Irish Media are being quiet is cos nobody cares about fake contest
@dick dastardly: Irish Times story from 2014 using @CampaignforLeo twitter handle.
Journal – think you should amend the article to include the fact that he has been publicly been using the slogan for 6 years at least.
In fairness, it works for all elections – not just leadership contests.
@Brinster:
Here’s the link – https://liveblog.irishtimes.com/fe040e921b/Cabinet-Reshuffle/
@Brinster: Fair play Journal – can see the article says this now.
Leo is a bull$hitter if he expects us to believe that.
By the way, an Irish Independent poll yesterday had the public backing Coveney 64% to Varadkar 36%.
The politicians are not listening to the people.
@Tom Burke: Irish independent poll. Yep …..
@JustOneScoop: it’s not scientific but I wouldn’t think it’s too far off the Mark.
Leo is Brexit.
He has the numbers but it’s not reflective of public opinion.
FG need to be careful not to foist him on a public who don’t want him.
@Tom Burke: Story is demonstrably false.
Here’s a tweet from President Higgins from 2012 using @CampaignFor Leo.
This is fake news.
@Brinster:
Apologies to all – my link above was to a tweet from 2017, not 2012. My mistake.
Here’s one quoted in the Irish Times from 2014 though –
https://liveblog.irishtimes.com/fe040e921b/Cabinet-Reshuffle/
As quoted in article ” fail to prepare, prepare to fail”. Simons campaign was holed beneath the waterline before it got going. Bleating about his opponents preparedness sounds like sour grapes.
@Eamonn Duggan: in fairness he had a day job as well thought Leo does have to comment on other minister portfolio. Look let’s be honest here, Leo has been prepped for a long time and the TD backing him ramped as soon as the bandwagon took off even before Leo vision was published. Lack of backbone in that party has cost the whole country dearly.
@Eamonn Duggan:
His twitter handle has been @campaignforLeo since December 2010.
He’s clearly been using the slogan for years.
This is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
@lavbeer: Leo the lip.Engages his mouth before consulting his brain.
@Eamonn Duggan: someone should tell Leo that it was Benjamin Franklin who said that long time before Roy.
Leo is fond of the porkies.
@RG Law:
Well this story doesn’t stack up.
Here’s a tweet from President Higgins from 2012 using @CampaignForLeo.
So it’s verifiably true he’s been using the slogan for years?
@Brinster: Tweet is from Feb 12th 2017, not Feb 2012
@Brinster: he might have been using the slogan but he’s formed the website in preparation for the leadership campaign. That’s the point.
@Ciaran Twomey: Whoops – you are absolutely right Ciaran – my mistake.
Here’s one from 2014 – as quoted in the Irish Times –
Here’s the link – https://liveblog.irishtimes.com/fe040e921b/Cabinet-Reshuffle/
@Tom Burke: Zero evidence for that though, Tom.
If your major social presence is on Twitter, it makes sense to align the other media with that.
@campaignforleo works for all elections, not just leadership contests.
@Brinster: His people told TheJournal.ie that the creation of the domain was part of a move to create consistency across Varadkar’s online presence. Go on will ya … it’s not the preparing that’s annoying, it’s the porkies.
2 gobs hites
@dublinsnap:
“It’s me verses Dublin” and now the “Prepare to Fail” negatives show Coveney’s camp as a bunch of choirboys singing out of tune.
public is not going to get who they want , just like Joan Burton taking the Crown from Gilmore, it will just speed up their demise….
Enough of these 2 prcks already
@Eddie Byrne:
Pinocchio to replace Pinocchio.
A bit of a non-story. Enda made it clear in February that he was going “soon”. It would be more surprising if any who considered themselves as potential successors did not begin preparations “months ago”.
A choice a rich boy from Dublin or a rich boy from Cork. Both cut from the same cloth. Leo is loved by the media because he had an opinion on everything. Not exactly leadership material. A general election would tell a lot.
What an utterly ludicrous non-story. So Leo actually prepared for the leadership campaign and his opponent is irked! If you want a job badly enough aren’t you expected to prepare? This goes beyond sour grapes and looks like sheer naivety. Simon thought he had it in the bag.
I would rather a person as Taoiseach who is prepared and who likes to win than someone who simply complains about someone who is prepared and has a hissy fit when things don’t go their away. In any event two Corkmen as leaders of our main political parties is one too many. They have a big enough chip on their shoulder as is.
Hardly newsworthy
Leo is Brexit.
He has the numbers but it’s not what the public majority want.
The public prefer Coveney 64 to 36%
@Tom Burke:
Huh?
I think Brexit is a terrible idea, but to say it isn’t wasn’t what the public wanted is ridiculous, given they had a referendum on it and 52% voted for it.
@Brinster: it’s not ridiculous.
Think about it.
The Irish independent poll has the public favouring Coveney 64 to 36
@Tom Burke:
Link to this poll, please?
@Tom Burke: Also, I’d say FF and SF supporters would far prefer Coveney.
Varadkar scares them.
@Brinster: don’t give me that.
Look it up. It got very big coverage.
Look at the Indo news page. Google it.
Use your imagination.
Anybody else here verify this poll?
The Irish times poll also verify Coveny is preferred.
@Tom Burke:
I saw the Irish Times one, Tom. It was close – 42% to 37% among FG and 48/44 among non FG.
Have gone looking for the Indo one you quoted but can’t find it anywhere.
I did google it, as you suggested, and I can’t find it anywhere.
So again – link please?
I don’t quite get why Leo is the popular candidate in FG. He’s alright, a politician who announced the move of a maternity hospital to his own constituency to co-locate with an adult hospital that does not have the specialties, facilities and expertise that makes the co-location worthy, but I guess that’s politics.
It’s really more of the same.
NEWSFLASH!!! Nobody cares about the outcome of this sham fight by two second raters for an extra pension to be purloined from the public purse! The result of which has already being decided by the FG grandees who see it as an opportunity to disseminate their lies and raise the profiles of these two dullards! Simon has already being bequeath the position, the coronation will go ahead as scheduled! Leo is probably lucky to be slipping in the race, if he had an unassailable lead I feel pretty certain some issues would arise requiring him to withdraw! Let’s have a real election! Roll on #GE2017
Politician sets up website. I’m failing to see the story here. There’s plenty of actual reasons to criticise Leo. This isn’t one.
Good to hear The Journal’s media studies interns have figured out how to use the Whois register. Expect more sensational revelations before this well runs dry.
Talking about the important things as usual.
I see a storm brewing too lol.
have your say