Vincent Browne yesterday on Enda Kenny and his waffling...

Darragh29

This is Vincent Brownes article from the Sunday Business Post yesterday. This article explains exactly what the problem is with Enda Kenny and why is will never be Taoiseach.

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=VINCENT+BROWNE-qqqs=commentandanalysis-qqqid=39953-qqqx=1.asp

The most dispiriting feature of our present discontent is the absence of a credible alternative to the current incompetent, becalmed government.

It may be that Taoiseach Brian Cowen and his cohorts are now incapable of rescuing the country from calamity because of the political capital they have squandered by their bungling.

If that is so - and it probably is - the scale of our peril can be measured by the improbability that any government led by Enda Kenny, leader of Fine Gael, can do any better.

Clearly, this is not just my perception. It is also the perception of the best part of the electorate, who rate Kenny as incompetent - almost as bad as the Taoiseach. We have had incompetent taoisigh before, and we have had people come to that office who did not have the personal capacity to fulfil the role with credibility. But it didn’t much matter then, for the situation was not grave; the country was not heading towards catastrophe.

Now it is different. The country really is heading towards catastrophe and the election of someone as taoiseach who manifestly has not the ability to be a credible taoiseach will compound our misfortune.

Fine Gael’s whistling in the dark about its leader amounts to a betrayal of the national interest.

In the Irish Times last Friday, Kenny outlined what he thought should now be done to rescue the country, starting with an immediate mini-budget, involving public expenditure cuts and increases in taxation.

There is hardly a person in the country - outside Fianna Fail and the Greens - who did not know that this is necessary, but so far so good.

Kenny then went into waffle mode: “We will look at ways of increasing taxes and broadening the tax base into new areas that do not fundamentally damage our competitiveness and economic model.”

Fine Gael will begin to “look” even after months knowing a disaster was on the way. No specifics on what and where public expenditure would be cut, no specifics on how taxes would be increased or new taxes introduced.

Just the old blather about taking a look.

A look at increasing the top rate of income tax. A look?

How could our difficulties conceivably be addressed without increasing the top rate of income tax? A “look at the scope for a new top rate of tax for those on very high income”.

Don’t the mice under the floorboards know that this is an inevitability?

What we need to know now is at what rate the tax would be introduced, and covering what income band. And a “look at the introduction of a carbon levy at, say, €25 per tonne of carbon”. Just a look?

There’s more “looking” at what infrastructural projects can be deferred and “at radical reforms to our budgetary system that squeezes out waste and poor value for money”.

Fine Gael is getting a hefty payment from the public purse every year for political purposes, and Kenny has the disposal of that. In 2007, he got €2.5 million in the party leaders’ allowance. The point of that - or part of the point - is to fund political research.

How, then, is the party so pathetically bereft of policy proposals, especially at this crucial juncture, that the best it can offer - or the best its leader can offer - is a series of airheaded platitudes that Kenny offered in print last Friday and repeated on RTE’s Morning Ireland that morning? What has Fine Gael been doing with this €2.5 million?

How could a serious political party or a serious party leader, especially one who is offering himself as taoiseach, be so empty-headed about the specifics on what needs to be done, especially at a time of such national adversity?

It is probably much worse than that, for Fine Gael is not empty-headed. It has Richard Bruton, who is certainly not suffering from that condition.

Bruton could sketch, in half an hour, the concrete measures that now need to be taken. Indeed, it is implausible that he has not done so long ago.

The only credible reason that whoever wrote the Irish Times article for Kenny did not include those concrete proposals in the piece is that Kenny either did not understand them or wanted to “look” at them, not having previously “looked” at them. Alternatively, he did not want to be tied down on specifics that he would be unable to explain or defend in debate or interview.

All this may seem harsh on a decent, likeable fellow who is trying to do his best and who has been able to perform in the Dail with some plausibility, as well as cohere his party in a way that no Fine Gael leader has for more than 20 years.

But the civilities of political discourse that would be appropriate in calmer times are now not appropriate.

This government has to be replaced by a government that is capable, clear-headed and decisive, a government that knows what it is doing and is led by someone who enjoys public confidence.

Kenny does not enjoy public confidence, and there is no reason to believe that he can give the sense of direction that the country requires, since he seems to have no sense of direction himself. This does not mean that he is not a worthwhile person (he certainly is) or a person of integrity (he certainly is). It is just that he is not suited to be Taoiseach.

In any election campaign, as in the last campaign, his unsuitability is likely to become embarrassingly obvious, and an obstacle to the replacement of the present Taoiseach and government.

ManFromAtlantis

no

holly1

I agree that Richard Bruton would make a very very good MF,if not Taoiseach!!!

deadhead13

In a Sindo poll yesterday, asked "who would you see as an alternative to Cowen" -

Gilmore 40%
Bruton 26%
Another ff'er 18%
Kenny 16%

For a leader of the oppostion, in the current crisis, to inspire such a lack of confidence in his ability to lead the country is quite damning.

Darragh29

I've seen Kenny doing this on a few occasions now, being vague and extremely woolly when talking about things like public sector waste and inefficiencies.

I wouldn't give FG a vote because if they cannot get the party right, then it's hard to see how they can get the country right...

mike65

Kenny is the very model of a modern moderate-portfolio minister. He may have done good stuff within the party post the 2002 election disaster but clearly nothing about him says leader of a country or even a council.

Richard Bruton is so obvious a candidate its actualy a problem for FG, I imagine many would love to see RB get the job before the next general election but how to engineer it?

Darragh29

mike65 wrote: »

Kenny is the very model of a modern moderate-portfolio minister. He may have done good stuff within the party post the 2002 election disaster but clearly nothing about him says leader of a country or even a council.

Richard Bruton is so obvious a candidate its actualy a problem for FG, I imagine many would love to see RB get the job before the next general election but how to engineer it?

I don't know why they can't just sit down over coffee and work the bleeding obvious out for themselves. Is there nobody with an ounce of courage or cop-on left in FG??? The man ain't electable as the leader of the country, what are they planning to do, spend the next 2 general elections figuring that one out while the orangatangs down in the zoo have it sussed???

turgon

Its human pride. In the same way it has crippled the FF government, with an inability to admit mistakes, so does FG fail to concede that Enda is not suitable for leadership.

LoveDucati2

It really is about time that we should demand that our 80 best TD's should join together and form a new government.

Then maybe they can form some type of plan.

Darragh29

turgon wrote: »

Its human pride. In the same way it has crippled the FF government, with an inability to admit mistakes, so does FG fail to concede that Enda is not suitable for leadership.

So all the people who are on the doles queues can shelve their pride for as long as is necessary and the girl in PI who is getting kicked out of her house with her kids because she cannot pay her rent to the council, pride has to be set aside there, but the people on 100K plus a year with unvouched expenses can't have their pride interfered with???

This country is making me want to throw up lately...

Jimdagym

I dont know where this notion has come from that richard bruton would make a good party leader, let alone taoiseach. He is an absolute ninja with a set of figures, that is beyond question, but he has done nothing to signify and leadership qualities. Also, there is the issue of if FG were to get into power with Bruton at the helm, who would he put in charge of finance?

mike65

Well, as tradition dictates, the least numerate senior figure in the party.

ntlbell

Darragh29 wrote: »

So all the people who are on the doles queues can shelve their pride for as long as is necessary and the girl in PI who is getting kicked out of her house with her kids because she cannot pay her rent to the council, pride has to be set aside there, but the people on 100K plus a year with unvouched expenses can't have their pride interfered with???

This country is making me want to throw up lately...

I have a feeling that PI thread is going to keep popping up like some virus from sky news.

It's irrelevant.

sceptre

Jimdagym wrote: »

I dont know where this notion has come from that richard bruton would make a good party leader, let alone taoiseach.

It's because he's the competent one. Of course, he's always been the competent one. Put him in charge of the abacus.

Daithinski

mike65 wrote: »

...

Richard Bruton is so obvious a candidate its actualy a problem for FG, I imagine many would love to see RB get the job before the next general election but how to engineer it?

I think FG are holding Bruton back as a trump card to pull out when the next general election is going to be held.

I think they'll let Kenny draw all the fire from the FF machine, thus keeping Bruton all nice and fresh.
By keeping Bruton's leadership takeover in reserve until as close to election day as possible they are probably hoping for a bounce in polls that will benefit them over the Labour party (because that is their competion now, not Fianna Fail).

I think Kenny will is just being used as a flak jacket for Bruton and if FG get in government I'm convinced it will be with Bruton as leader.

ManFromAtlantis

kenny there since 77 ? huge support among fg believe it or not.