CARL O'BRIEN'Ssideways look at Election 2011
Green efforts to hold Fine Gael to account hit brick wall
In a blaze of publicity this week, Fine Gael boldly announced it would clean up Irish politics by banning corporate donations.
Party grandee Frank Flannery even went so far as to say the party’s accounts were available for anyone who wished to see them.
It was strange, then, that when Green Party candidate Donna Cooney (inset) turned up at the party’s headquarters to check out the accounts, the door was firmly shut in her face.
She was left waiting outside for about 15 minutes, before being handed a press release on political reform and bundled out of the front door.
The best bit? When the Fine Gael apparatchik realised the entire episode was being filmed, he complained it was “an invasion of privacy”.
Don’t worry, though: we’ve been assured by party top brass that the accounts will be published in March . . . after the general election.
Check out the video at: http://tiny.cc/j0lr9
Labours’ cartoon heroes could see joke fall flat
VOTERS IN Dublin South East are being treated to the exciting adventures of Labour Party superheroes Ruairí Quinn and Councillor Kevin Humphreys as they save the country from penury.
Thousands of party leaflets being posted through letterboxes in the constituency feature cartoons of the dynamic duo in a variety of heroic poses.
In one a large ship with a Tricolour is sinking as panic-stricken passengers cry for help.
That’s until our heroes arrive in a lifeboat, as Quinn says: “Don’t worry, we know how to refloat the ship of State!”
In another, the pair are hitch-hiking and looking towards a sun-lit upland, with a signpost which reads: “The road to recovery.”
A passing bird chirps: “These boys know the way!”
It may all be cheesy, light-hearted fun, but many voters may feel the joke is on them.
Under the Electoral Act, candidates are entitled to send a single piece of election literature to each voter for free. The taxpayer is expected to fork out about €12 million for the privilege during this election campaign.
Maybe that’s something the dynamic duo can sort out in future (when not saving the world, that is).
Phrase of the Day: "Twolicy Document"
Fine Gael has attempted to get down with the kids with a cringe-inducing, Twitter-sized “twolicy” document. The miniature policy document has been derided by members of the Twitterati. The result? Party strategists have ended up looking like twidiots
Enda’s debate call – because he’s worth it?
The rough and tumble world of politics is notorious for adding years on to once fresh-faced public representatives. Just look at how quickly Tony Blair and Bill Clinton lost their cherubic demeanour.
In which case, Enda Kenny is in remarkably good shape. As this poster from the 1977 general election shows, he still sports the same boyish visage (if not the dodgy haircut) some 35 years later.
New research indicates that while our genes are the main factor behind how we age, we can slow down the ageing process through lifestyle changes like avoiding very stressful situations.
Could this be why he was so desperate to avoid last night’s TV debate with Vincent Browne?
For more old election literature, check out: http://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/
Election Online The Best Bits From Youtube
Fianna Fáil ventures into negative political campaigning with this video taunting Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny for his refusal to take part in last night’s TV3 debate.
It features Kenny’s less than convincing answer to a journalist earlier this week, asking where he would be on the night of the debate: “I think I’m at a . . . a . . . em . . . a public rally down in a . . . I think it’s Sligo-Leitrim?”
http://tiny.cc/lgu4z
Senator Fidelma Healy Eames’s campaign video has the mood and pace of a trailer for a political thriller movie. “It’s time we had someone who stood up for the people,” it says, accompanied by highlights of the Fine Gael candidate’s impassioned contributions to the Seanad. The only problem? She’s speaking in front of a thinly populated Seanad chamber, complete with dozing senators and uninterested public representatives.
http://tiny.cc/jqf6w
Quotes of the day
“Fine Gael might check in with Richard Bruton, Michael Noonan and the other Fine Gael TDs to see if they’ll be handing back the money they now claim to be outraged about.”
Fianna Fáil’s Darragh O’Brien turns the spotlight back on FG
“The fact that the Fianna Fail leader insists on taking €90,000 in severance pay has exposed his political reform proposals as little more than a stunt.”
Fine Gael TD Lucinda Creighton on the Fianna Fáil leader’s severance pay
“Young people are already leaving the country in droves because of the disastrous politics of austerity which Fine Gael are committed to continuing.”
Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh takes issue with Fine Gael’s economic policies