Brian Cowen and Prince Machiavelli. Yes indeed. The Minister for Health quoted the master strategist when he told health board CEOs and hospital managers this week that now they have the funding it is up to them to manage.
The passage he chose was: "There is nothing more difficult to carry out, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who profit by the new."
That should scare them.
Quidnunc is at rholohan@irish-times.ie