Mr. Hobson goes to the Polls

In my last post I criticised the Irish media for being too supine in it’s response to the very plausible accusation that our benevolent leader may be the son of a cop-killer.

It would have made interesting reading for the Taoiseach if he was on to pay attention to anything my family had to say.

Apparently Red Ahern was at a function to honour the composer of the Fields of Athenry a few years ago, ironically as it’s sung by supporters of his least favourite soccer team, the one appearing in the Champions League Final for the 7^th time, though that’s by the by. Anyway, my great-uncle, who taught the composer at school, was also there, and it turns out he comes from the same area of the country as Dirty Bertie.

My Uncle did some extensive genealogical research into the then finance ministers ancestry yet found himself cruelly snubbed by Ahern, who decided the person on the other side of him would be more help on his way up the greasy pole.

Unlike many of the things Bertie has done this was neither illegal nor greatly damaging in the greater scheme of things. My uncle is hardly the only older person to be shafted by this administration. Yet the incident does demonstrate in microcosm the colossal arrogance of Bertie and his coterie. He may like to present himself in heavily photo-shopped posters as someone in touch with ordinary people and in soft-focus interviews as someone who likes nothing more than to go out with his mates from Drumcondra.

But politicians have a different concept of friendship to the rest of us. All of us are really there for our friends when we need them, but very few of us would choose our friends as coldly and as ruthlessly on the basis of what they can do for us as the likes of Bertie. Call me a cynic if you like, but it seems like a bit too much of a coincidence that all of Berties friends from a rough area of Dublin all seem to be able to lay their hands on a big wad of cash whenever he needs it, which seems to be alarmingly often.

It’s true that the figures involved are fairly small compared to what Haughey received though that hardly makes it okay, I never heard Idi Amin defend himself by saying that he only killed a twentieth as many people as Hitler. It’s also true that someone with Ahern’s street smarts could have made a lot more money drug-dealing (for example). But then power has an attraction all of it’s own, Ken Livingstone said that he was only paid £6,000 a year for running the GLC but he didn’t care as he was the most powerful man in London.

But Livingstone was certainly someone who believed in something at some stage, whereas it’s hard to make that statement with any certainty about Ahern. It’s true that in many democracies the dominant party attracts the most ambitious people regardless of ideology, but here the two main parties have traditionally been so non-ideological that the only reason for joining either of them could be personal ambition. The lack of any major ideological difference between the blueshirts and the soldiers of destiny has suited Ahern down to the ground until now, in a vapid beauty contest against the likes of John Bruton or Baldy Noonan there was only going to be one winner. But it seems people have finally woken up to what a phoney he is and how our money has been wasted, how many promises have been broken. To take one example, we were told that by this election we’d be spending .7% of our GDP on foreign aid, though it still languishes at .42%. This may seem minor, in fact it almost certainly does seem minor to Bertie, as Fianna Fail aren’t putting up any candidates in Tanzania, but it’s a big issue for people who depend on us to provide them with food and medicine.

In a recent interview with Hot Press, Enda Kenny recycled this promise. I think we should take him at his word… What other choice do we have? Much of the rest of the interview was disappointing. He’s against liberalising drug laws as it could lead to drug tourism. Would that be such a disaster? It might give someone in the tourist offices in places like Portlaoise something to do. But seriously, it’s a misjudgement on his part as many younger voters know how out of synch we are with the rest of Europe and his traditional supporters aren’t going to defect to the crowd who killed their parents during the civil war.

And what of Micheal McDowell, the man who promised us he’d keep a leash on Bertie but has been like a little lamb (except fatter and balder) on the issue of Bertie’s corruption (I don’t see any point in using the word “alleged” anymore) while he’s been tearing into Trevor Sergeant for having the temerity to disagree with McDowell on some of the major issues. Then the PDs issued a statement saying that a vote for them is a vote on Fatty Harney’s record as minister for obesity. Do they actually want to lose?

The answer, surprisingly, could be yes, as the PDs and the ideological soul mates in FF might want the Rainbow to get in narrowly, have to deal with the coming house price crash and be condemned to opposition for another generation.

So will I be voting for Fianna Fail to make their plan backfire?

Um….NO.