Late Late... what the ? ? ?

AidoCQS

What the hell was that? Did anybody see the late late show last night?

A deranged old timer ranting on about media conspiracy's, his love of Cork/Bertie, Waters - philosopher turned popflop and well…Dunphy (Can anybody explain to me how Dunphy is qualified to discuss anything except overpaid soccer playing man-children?)

Is this what qualifies for political debate the week before one of the most tightly contested elections in years?

We all knew that Pat Kenny has no sense of humour, and has as much personality as well.. what he is – a Chemical Engineer. But he could always be relied on to stir up lively political debate, on the radio anyway. Even he sat glibly by while this train wreck continued.. This show is done – stick a fork in it. :eek:

Seth Brundle

It was Eoghan Harrass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eoghan_Harris). He looked such a fool on it but thankfully all his arse licking of Bertie was shot down when Dunphy reminded him that we were not having a presedential election but electing an entire government.

I thought is was a decent enough debate - far better than any other held so far but yes these three are just mouths and not political mouths!

LuckyLloyd

AidoCQS wrote:

Dunphy (Can anybody explain to me how Dunphy is qualified to discuss anything except overpaid soccer playing man-children?)

Is this what qualifies for political debate the week before one of the most tightly contested elections in years?

I didn't know that a degree in political science was a universal pre - requisite before one was allowed to give their individual political opinion. Nice to learn something new though.

We have seen the politicians go at each other over the last few weeks. They stick to their guns, dig their heels in and occassionally catch thew opposition out or are caught out themselves. Ho hum. Different strands and spectrums of debate are now welcome in my mind.

The White Rose

The best entertainment in ages

Much better than the leaders debate. Ahern and kenny should have been given 10 minutes each to lay into each other and then we cud hav watched the sopranos

Voipjunkie

Eoghan Harris is a nutjob he has been through every political party in the country.
He is for who ever is in power in 1997 when John Bruton was Taoiseach he was an advisor to Bruton and reminded us week in week out of the dangers of Bertie and FF and how great Bruton and FG were in his Sindo column.
Now lo and behold now it is Bertie is the best thing since sliced bread and we would be mad to change again.
Guaranteed if Kenny is Taoiseach in 5 years time that moron will be back in the Sindo telling us how great Enda is and we should hang on to him.

guinnessdrinker

AidoCQS wrote:

Dunphy (Can anybody explain to me how Dunphy is qualified to discuss anything except overpaid soccer playing man-children?)

I think Dunphy speaks a lot more sense than a lot of other so called political commentators. Actually I preferred listening to the Last Word when he presented it too. I don't really like Matt Cooper's style, arguing for the sake of it. Also football anaylisis would be so boring if he was not on the panal to provide the entertainment.

joecoote

I thought the old geezer was a blast from the past. Old pump style politics. No real substance to any statement. Classic statement about Bertie in Westminster. Something along the lines of: a wee battered warrior holding his own on the big stage. Wink, nod. He. He. Isn't Bertie a great one - and so on.

This type of electioneering appeals to the FF old gaurd. Unfortunately for FF this old gaurd is dying off. FF no longer appeal to the young idealogues from either the left or right, so I don't think it will have any impact on the election whatsoever.

galactus

A classic from Dunphy when Harris was berating the media for castigating "this small disheveled man from Drumcondra" (ie Bertie).

Dunphy: "I'm from Druncondra as well...and disheveled".

I take the OP's point: but it wasn't a serious political discussion, more three guys in the pub talking sh***.

KerranJast

Surprisingly Dunphy actually made some sense. Harris was ranting about how great Bertie has been for the country and we shouldn't punish him after all he's done but then Dunphy responded with the Presidential election jibe and how it's Ministers we're elected not just the Taoiseach. That pretty much mirrors my own view. Bertie's been a great Taoiseach unfortunately it's the likes of Cullen, Roche, Dempsey, Martin and Hanafin that have made my mind up for me. Muppets the lot of them.

Roanmore

Voipjunkie wrote:

Eoghan Harris is a nutjob he has been through every political party in the country.
He is for who ever is in power in 1997 when John Bruton was Taoiseach he was an advisor to Bruton and reminded us week in week out of the dangers of Bertie and FF and how great Bruton and FG were in his Sindo column.
Now lo and behold now it is Bertie is the best thing since sliced bread and we would be mad to change again.
Guaranteed if Kenny is Taoiseach in 5 years time that moron will be back in the Sindo telling us how great Enda is and we should hang on to him.

I think Eoghan Harris' comments are a foretaste of what we can expect in the Sunday Indo this weekend. If I was in FG and Labour camp I'd be bracing myself for similar rubbish from Brendan O' Connor, EH, Aengus Fanning & Jody Corcoran.

I read in The Phoenix (how true I'm not so sure) that Bertie and Brian Cowen visited Tony O' Rielly's house and persuaded the Independent group to throw their support behind FF. The fact that the SI changed within the space of a week from being anti Bertie to full blown support for him lends credence to it. If true it's an awful indictment of one of the country's biggest selling papers and it's journalists.

KerranJast

Roanmore wrote:

I think Eoghan Harris' comments are a foretaste of what we can expect in the Sunday Indo this weekend. If I was in FG and Labour camp I'd be bracing myself for similar rubbish from Brendan O' Connor, EH, Aengus Fanning & Jody Corcoran.

I read in The Phoenix (how true I'm not so sure) that Bertie and Brian Cowen visited Tony O' Rielly's house and persuaded the Independent group to throw their support behind FF. The fact that the SI changed within the space of a week from being anti Bertie to full blown support for him lends credence to it. If true it's an awful indictment of one of the country's biggest selling papers and it's journalists.

Check this out -> http://politics.guardian.co.uk/northernirelandassembly/story/0,,2062990,00.html
If it's true it makes a mockery of the so called independence of the media.

cast_iron

Last time I checked, the Late Late was a light entertainment show. If you want political debate, watch Prime Time - there's enough of it on during the week for anyone.

I found it very entertaining. Best laugh on the Late Late in ages.

LuckyLloyd

Roanmore wrote:

If true it's an awful indictment of one of the country's biggest selling papers and it's journalists.

It might sell a lot of copies - but it is nothing more than a tabloid rag in more sophisticated clothing.

DeepBlue

Roanmore wrote:

I think Eoghan Harris' comments are a foretaste of what we can expect in the Sunday Indo this weekend. If I was in FG and Labour camp I'd be bracing myself for similar rubbish from Brendan O' Connor, EH, Aengus Fanning & Jody Corcoran.

And don't forget Willie O'Dea giving his usual un-biased views .
I'd be surprised if FG/Lab really were too worrried about it as it's all pretty transparent. Harris has no credibility left, O'Connor has completely embarrassed himself with his "You're a Star" Simon Cowell wannabe act and probably has even less credibility. Hanlon is just a female Harris and Jody Corcoran is more concerned about reporting his own role in the story than the story itself :rolleyes: .

The pity of it is that the Sindo actually have a few decent political journalists that haven't sold out yet and they must be embarrassed to be working beside those other "journalists".

Roanmore

DeepBlue wrote:

And don't forget Willie O'Dea giving his usual un-biased views .
I'd be surprised if FG/Lab really were too worrried about it as it's all pretty transparent. Harris has no credibility left, O'Connor has completely embarrassed himself with his "You're a Star" Simon Cowell wannabe act and probably has even less credibility. Hanlon is just a female Harris and Jody Corcoran is more concerned about reporting his own role in the story than the story itself :rolleyes: .

The pity of it is that the Sindo actually have a few decent political journalists that haven't sold out yet and they must be embarrassed to be working beside those other "journalists".

O'Connor, don't get me started. Two weeks ago he says they gave FG the election on a plate with the Stamp Duty issue even though their sister paper had Stamp Duty as one of the lowest issues affecting voters. Then last week he tries to row back on the full blown support for Bertie by saying "I don't even like Bertie but he's the best man for the job". It always raises suspicion when somebody starts a sentence like that. I wonder what he'll be on about tomorrow. Probably something like "FG and Labour made a mistake by trying to make Stamp Duty an issue in this election, it was the economy the whole time".

bemmet

Maybe,just maybe,Harris and Waters were expressing their own thoughts.

Perfectly legitimate within the democracy in which we live.

And just maybe they express the thoughts of an awful lot of people who at this stage have no voice in the media whipped frenzy that exists.

Lads ,face the facts ,the best that Kenny and co can hope for is a cobbled together ,sellotaped at the strained seams ,ragtag collection Of FG ,Labour(AKA Workers party in Labour clothing) ,Greens and a couple of independents.(this is not my assessment alone - have a look at all constituency breakdowns ,and as recently as yesterdays Ivan yates breakdown )
Now is that not a government to inspire one in confidence and embracing safety for our economic future .

My ass it is -
I am listening a lot recently to people who smell this potential crash waiting to happen .People who would not normally consider voting for FF in a million years that are voting for them for the first time in their lives based on lack of confidence and fear in the ragtag coalition .

Harris expressed this very well last night .You might not like what was said .You probably like even less that it was said on the high impact late late show .
But to me ,the election started this week .

mark my words ,next weekend will be interesting.

Roanmore

FF didn't have a problem with it from 97 to 2002 when they had 4 Independents supporting them.

The point made earlier was that Harris always backs the winner after they have won and will do so again in the future.

bemmet

Roanmore, I would expect a better comment from a waterford man .

Have a good look at the make up of those 4 independents ,a bit closer in politics one might think.
You completly miss ,or choose to miss my point.
I also notice that you dont care to challenge the collection of misfits that represent the alternate coalition .God help us !


You will I suspect understand more next week .

It will be a little while longer i suspect before the blue shirt flies over government buildings.

Roanmore

bemmet wrote:

I also notice that you dont care to challenge the collection of misfits that represent the alternate coalition .God help us !


You will I suspect understand more next week .

QUOTE]

First of all it looks like that the only chance of a government with independents will be the FF / PD combination. Secondly please keep your patronising comments to yourself.

bemmet

Oh stinger Roanmore

---

must be getting a bit tetchy -he he

Must be all the redmonite blood !

2040

Pat kenny's incapable of handling politics and shows like the late late show have a duty to deal with important issues head on. The late late show, historically, has done so since it started. Kenny's a lightweight.

Jonny Arson

Whoever was responsible for putting that f**king moron of a human being called Eoghan Harris on tv should be fired. The sickening pro-FF can't do nothing wrong sh!te you heard from Harris last night was just a televised version of the sickening pro-FF can't do nothing wrong sh!te you read from him in SINDO. Sure, Harris was blaming SF and the IRA for ''poor Bertie's'' housing troubles there a week or two ago :rolleyes: If FF lose the election next week watch him rambling about how great FG are and what a horrible man Ahern is!

Dunphy absolutely put Harris in his place last night.

The White Rose

Eoghan Harris says what he thinks. Of course thats the worst thing you can do in this country. Better to speak out of both sides of the mouth and be the cute hoor

BTW have you noticed the triumphalist feel to FG /Labour this weekend- shades of Neil Kinnock 1992- a big mistake

bemmet

Could not agree with you more white rose.

As for Mr ARson- seems like his lack of political nous and inabilty to argue a political thought is obvious .
If someone diasgrees with his view point its **** all the way .Deep thought there Mr Arson.

Look forward to seeing the blue shirts search for yet another new leader next week in the face of yet another miserable failure .

And no doubt we will have some more deeply political analysis from the hyper acerbic and word laden Mr Arson.!!!!!!!

Not.

DublinWriter

joecoote wrote:

FF no longer appeal to the young idealogues from either the left or right, so I don't think it will have any impact on the election whatsoever.

Well, I don't know where you've been since 1997 and the rise of 'New' Labour in the UK, but centerist politics will dominate all prosperous European states from now until the running out of oil.

Look at how even Sinn Fein are chasing the centre ground by U-Turning on Corporation Tax.

FF or FG? McDonalds or Burgerking in my book.

irish_bob

eoghan harris while quite ego centric is my favourite journalist
he is extremley insightfull even he has to refer to greek philosophy when pointing out some home truths , he very often has his finger on the pulse as regards what middle ireland feels and both the media in general and those who contribute to poltical forums like this one are for the most part not a fair and accurate reflection of how middle ireland feels

harris while a divil for blowing his own trumpet about correct predictions he made has been right on many issues , he predicted that the irish public would take berties side in bertiegate last yr and that any politican who tried to make hay of it would suffer , harris was prooved exactly right

he is a man who is not afraid to be unpopular , he is a strong supporter of david trimble and i agree with him there , he put it so well recently when referring to both ian paisley and martin mc guiness
its good they what they have achieved but they have walked across a bridge of the bodies of better men than they are
he was referring to david trimble and john hume respectedly

i do acknowledge that he was wrong on iraq and he is too egocentric to admit it , he is also very pro israel but the sunday indo is in general as it is pro american which harris is , this is not nesscerilly a bad thing but i beleive the sunday indo has a decidedly pro american and israeli slant just because the irish times has an apparent pro palestinan and pro europe over american

this is more a sales ploy of rival papers in general , it happend in the uk too
one side takes a strong political view merely because their main rival takes a dimetrically opposing view
this is believe has a lot to do with harris pro american and isralie view


but by and large i admire the man , he was spot on last night when he said that elements within the media have become so puritan that it would put any young persons off enterring public life

his comments on connolly who made a big deal out of the bertie story in the daily mail were spot on , what is an extremly conservative british newspaper doing with a fiercly republican journalist like connolly

Jonny Arson

bemmet wrote:

As for Mr ARson- seems like his lack of political nous and inabilty to argue a political thought is obvious .
If someone diasgrees with his view point its **** all the way .Deep thought there Mr Arson.

Look forward to seeing the blue shirts search for yet another new leader next week in the face of yet another miserable failure .

And no doubt we will have some more deeply political analysis from the hyper acerbic and word laden Mr Arson.!!!!!!!

Not.

Haha the pot calls the kettle black! :rolleyes: Resorting to being a WUM on a political forum is some display of your own political nous and deep intellectual capabilities, sir.

AidoCQS

It's common in the states for Newspapers, unions, societies to row in behind individual candidates, in NYC for example, a NY Times endorsement is gold.

What bugs me most about the papers; political leaning aside is how much they are in bed with Auctioneers. The editors and managers in the indo are now earning massive money, much, much more so than a decade ago. The reason for this is that property supplement that was as big as the paper for a long time.

Anybody note the deafening silence from the papers the morning after the prime time expose on Auctioneers - I thought that was shocking, Shane Ross was the only person who even mentioned it and that’s because he is on record on those issues before.

That primetime expose, especially the one about mortgage brokers sharing spending limits with auctioneers, that is something that has effected young first time buyers, and will keep on effecting them for the next three decades. And what does the Indo have to say ...... 0

Less troublesome to me is how former media darling Minister (always good for a headline) McDowell has become persona non gratia. That’s because it was that fool who opened up the whole stamp duty can of worms. The minute he mentioned a post election review of stamp duty, the market went on hold and has been on hold since. The Auctioneers hate him for it and its notable how the papers have also dropped McDowell like a hot potato. Contrast the last elections ‘up the pole’ headlines with the one last week and you will see that it was about much more than a green party candidate’s intervention.

oscarBravo

Less of the handbaggery on this thread, please. bemmet, I'm looking at you in particular - any more personal jibes will get you banned.

irish_bob

AidoCQS It's common in the states for Newspapers, unions, societies to row in behind individual candidates, in NYC for example, a NY Times endorsement is gold.

What bugs me most about the papers; political leaning aside is how much they are in bed with Auctioneers. The editors and managers in the indo are now earning massive money, much, much more so than a decade ago. The reason for this is that property supplement that was as big as the paper for a long time.

Anybody note the deafening silence from the papers the morning after the prime time expose on Auctioneers - I thought that was shocking, Shane Ross was the only person who even mentioned it and that’s because he is on record on those issues before.

That primetime expose, especially the one about mortgage brokers sharing spending limits with auctioneers, that is something that has effected young first time buyers, and will keep on effecting them for the next three decades. And what does the Indo have to say ...... 0

Less troublesome to me is how former media darling Minister (always good for a headline) McDowell has become persona non gratia. That’s because it was that fool who opened up the whole stamp duty can of worms. The minute he mentioned a post election review of stamp duty, the market went on hold and has been on hold since. The Auctioneers hate him for it and its notable how the papers have also dropped McDowell like a hot potato. Contrast the last elections ‘up the pole’ headlines with the one last week and you will see that it was about much more than a green party candidate’s intervention.


the person the auctioneers should be up angered with is brian cowan
yes mc dowell did raise the issue of the unfair tax on the people and goverment gold mine that is stamp duty but it was brian cowan simply because he wanted to show the pd,s whos boss who knocked it on the head in the stubornly obtues way that only he can

of course the pd,s get bashed for all this goverments mistakes so it makes sense that you and the auctioneers would blame mc dowell

AidoCQS

I would agree that the PD's got some seriously crap ministry's
Health and Justice have to be amongst the worst. I have wondered before how that came about. It was risky for such a small party to take on those in the first place. I do wonder how much FF put a gun to their head to take those on. And then will it ultimatly result in the demise of the PD's?

Chardee MacDennis

to be honest the only reason they were on is cos there were no real guests. it was a thrown together show and was just using rte guests to eat up time. i wouldnt read in to it much.

Seth Brundle

AidoCQS wrote:

I would agree that the PD's got some seriously crap ministry's
Health and Justice have to be amongst the worst. I have wondered before how that came about. It was risky for such a small party to take on those in the first place. I do wonder how much FF put a gun to their head to take those on. And then will it ultimatly result in the demise of the PD's?

I believe that Harney requested Health and I would imagine given his legal background Herr Flik requested the Justice portfolio

jmayo

Does anybody think that RTE suddenly seem to be favouring poor old Bertie.

After that gobSh*te harris tirad on Friday night's Late Late, I fully expected Bertie to be up for canonisation today.

The only one that came out of that show with any credibility was Eamon Dunphy, who actaully appeared incredulous and embarassed by harris's outburst.
That other eejit Waters should have stayed in Helsinki. He makes a better songwriter than political analyst.
Kenny of course was plank like as usual, well worth the money.

Are RTE expecting a hike in the TV license if Bertie gets back in?
The fact that we have to listen to patronising cra* from harris et all about how put upon poor Bertie is, is condescending to the viewers in the extreme.

It seems that anyone that asks questions about the fact that our country's leader accepted cash payments from business men, amounting to more than the then average workers salary, while a holder of the second most important office in the land, is impertinent according to eoghan harris.
Why should the taxpayers and voters of this country know where our country's leader got money to do up his future home?

Maybe Bertie is guilty of corruption, maybe he is not, but WE do have a right to know where he got his money from and what if anything was done in return.

The White Rose

The main problem people have with Harris is that he's usually right

Dunphy is too politically correct - he chooses the rainbow and gets an big cheer from the audience. He only talks sense when he's discussing football and even at that...

nacho libre

Voipjunkie wrote:

Eoghan Harris is a nutjob he has been through every political party in the country.
He is for who ever is in power in 1997 when John Bruton was Taoiseach he was an advisor to Bruton and reminded us week in week out of the dangers of Bertie and FF and how great Bruton and FG were in his Sindo column.
Now lo and behold now it is Bertie is the best thing since sliced bread and we would be mad to change again.
Guaranteed if Kenny is Taoiseach in 5 years time that moron will be back in the Sindo telling us how great Enda is and we should hang on to him.

Exactly.
Harris has no credibility. The guy changes his allegiances as often as a prostitute drops her underwear. Harris is Insightful??, don't make me laugh
Notice how he quickly stopped talking about Iraq, being a model for democracy to flourish in the Middle East, around late 2004.

Harris is an irrelevancy, a windbag.

I'm sure every party has its fans that cause embarrassment within the ranks.

irish_bob

what amused me about dunphy the other night was his hypocrosy
dunphy clearly was in favour of the rainbow winning and when he was refferring to hard faced politicians , he meant the pd,s
yet who was the politican who dunphy only a few yrs ago used to celebrate all the time , he had him on his tv show
yes it was charlie mc reevy , irelands foremost thatcherite

oh and i dont use the terms thathcerite as a term of abuse to describe charlie