RADIO REVIEW:OFF WITH their heads. That was the resounding message from the electorate in the local and European elections. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny tabled a motion of no confidence in the Government, while Labour leader Eamon Gilmore called on the Green Party to quit the coalition and for the Government to be dissolved. As if . . .
The Right Hook (Newstalk 106-108, weekdays) on Monday played a clip from Kenny, but he sounded more miffed than triumphant. “It was such a devastating defeat,” Kenny said. “Any other government would have resigned by now.” It was up to George Hook to state the obvious – that most governments would actually hang on in there.
Barnardo’s chief executive Fergus Finlay said Kenny played his trump card at the wrong time. “I don’t think it’s tactically wise,” he said. “It will immediately be taken by the Government and turned into a motion of confidence.” Which, obviously, is exactly what happened.
Finlay said Brian Cowen appears to have retreated into a bunker. “He sounded like a man in denial who was trying to pretend that the election never happened.” Don’t knock that strategy. It’s working very nicely with Lisbon 2.0, coming soon to a polling station near you.
One triumphant winner was Joe Higgins, speaking on Fran McNulty’s news report on Monday’s Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio One, weekdays). When asked if the EU should be fearful and if his election to the European Parliament will be bad for Europe, Higgins said, effortlessly harnessing his new-found power, “I should think they have a lot to fear.” The Socialist Party politician was relishing his moment in the sun, which is how Cowen described the opposition parties’ success in the elections. “It’s bad for corporate Europe, it’s bad for big business Europe, the armaments industry-dominated Europe,” Higgins said. “It’s bad for them, yes, because I’m a voice of opposition to all of that.”
On Tuesday’s The Last Word (Today FM, weekdays), the Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Dara Colleary, said the Government received a mandate in the general election in 2007 and was proceeding on that basis. Matt Cooper suggested those in Government choose to listen to the electorate only when it suits them. Colleary said by voting against the Lisbon Treaty last year, the electorate was actually saying, “Go back and get a better deal for Ireland.” Cooper, understandably, lost the rag: “That was market research!” Later, he asked Colleary if he was happy to see Libertas leader Declan Ganley leave politics. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Colleary said.
After, Kenny was on the phone. Cooper asked him if his no confidence motion will drive Fianna Fáil and the Greens closer together. “This is not about Dáil tactics – this is about the 400,000 people who are unemployed,” Kenny said. “The reflection of anger that was given on Friday in the vote is what drives this motion of no confidence,” he added. Well said.
But Kenny then went on to say the Government was giving “two fingers” to the wishes of the ballot box. Perhaps, but after the linguistic gymnastics of Bertie Ahern and those “lulus” he used to think were out to get him, not to mention Brian Cowen using the word “f***ers” in the Dáil chamber, we really do need more eloquence from a future leader.
Surprisingly for such an eloquent writer, Joe O’Connor’s essay on Wednesday’s Drivetime (RTÉ Radio One, weekdays) left my inner ears burning. O’Connor (left) did a riff on Alan Sherman’s Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp), but it sounded like one of those awful Liveline bank holiday limericks where listeners sing “hilarious” ditties.
He half-spoke, half-sang in a fake American twang. “Life in Ireland is gettin’ harder, it isn’t much fun in this recession, yet things are bleaker every week we’re in depression. We’re feelin’ barer, the downturn’s bitin’, and things in Eire ain’t too excitin’. In sadness covered we’re feelin’ muggered, the Celtic feline made a beeline now we’re buggered.”
Still, there was some delicious post-election Postergate. While some took posters down, radio callers reported, others lazily left the wires on the poles. And, on The Ray D’Arcy Show (Today FM, weekdays) on Wednesday, one texter said he saw a pyre of George Lee posters in Rathfarnham at 1.30am. No word on who may have started it.
Spookiest of all was a texter on Tuesday’s The Last Word who claimed he saw a Bertie Ahern poster from 2007 up a pole in Rossnowlagh, Donegal. Would somebody please give that man a wire-cutter and a ladder?
qfottrell@irishtimes.com