How does Joan Burton get sooo much (hot) air time?

JonathanAnon

Here she is again on Questions and Answers. Always on the radio, and on with Vincent Brown. Richard Bruton is the Finance spokesperson for FG, who are a bigger party, and he is rarely on telly or radio. How does she do it?

I would rather listen to Bruton in fairness, he speaks a lot of sense.

dresden8

Eh, main opposition party, perhaps?

All we heard from Inda last election was about what a great guy Bertie was.

Labour are out there.

jdivision

Labour are backed by the unions, who are backed by RTE. In fairness to Burton, while she is head wrecking to listen to she does come from an accountancy background and has been pretty good at highlighting some of the idiotic things being pushed by current government in response to recession.

FlutterinBantam

I too agree that she has heightened her profile considerably in the immediate past.Yes, she is totally headwrecking to listen to, but my main complaint is that she does not answer direct questions.

When challenged about taxation increases recently she fudged the issue totally.

On the good side she performs well in debate and has the economic background.

ednwireland

as the man on the newstalk lunchtime show said, we keep asking brian lenihan to come on the show but he keeps refusing.

Darsad

Has she no home to go to !

bmaxi

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

I too agree that she has heightened her profile considerably in the immediate past.Yes, she is totally headwrecking to listen to, but my main complaint is that she does not answer direct questions.

When challenged about taxation increases recently she fudged the issue totally.

On the good side she performs well in debate and has the economic background.

Come on Bantam, when was the last time you heard any politician answer a direct question? Double talk is their stock in trade, the only other option would be to tell the truth and that wouldn't do.
Having said that, Burton does seem to have a grasp on her brief, more than can be said for Lenihan.

FlutterinBantam

bmaxi wrote: »

Come on Bantam, when was the last time you heard any politician answer a direct question? Double talk is their stock in trade, the only other option would be to tell the truth and that wouldn't do.
Having said that, Burton does seem to have a grasp on her brief, more than can be said for Lenihan.

Sorry you are right, don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that.

LoveDucati2

jdivision wrote: »

Labour are backed by the unions, who are backed by RTE. In fairness to Burton, while she is head wrecking to listen to she does come from an accountancy background and has been pretty good at highlighting some of the idiotic things being pushed by current government in response to recession.

She should go to a voice coach, her voice just makes me want to silence her when she speaks. She sounds awful, like a whiney kid being tortured.

whippet

I for one don't have a lot of time for her and on questions and answers last night, the guy asking the first question was out and about with her on saturday in Dublin 15 handing out flyers, and I think the girl with the green top could have been there also.

I don't know if this is the done thing on Q&A ... people with agendas supporting members of the panel asking specific questions. If so then it was just a party political broadcast rather than a debate.

It was sort of touched upon during the show that alot of the contributors were Labour supporters.

Labour are riding high on the wave of socialist thinking that prevails during a recession, however when push comes to shove the will always be a minority party in any near future government.

They seem to be shying away from their close union ties and with impending public sector industrial action and the negative feelings towards unions in general I feel this will affect the electorate's view of Labour.

JonathanAnon

arrgghhh .. she's on the lunchtime news (TV) now. Something about women in politics.

Regarding QnA, John does his best to ask people if they have a political bent when they say something that seems to be partisan. But the people in the audience could be lying.

tomcosgrave

jdivision wrote: »

Labour are backed by the unions

No, you are wrong- they are affiliated with six unions. Not "the unions".
They get about 60 grand a year off these six unions.

By comparison, FF have gotten millions from property developers over the years - and given where Ireland has been going, that's what I call a real corrupting influence - light regulation, juicy tax breaks, the lot.

jdivision wrote: »

who are backed by RTE.

Care to explain that comment? It seems far fetched to me.
How do RTE back the unions? Do they give them free airtime or something?

jdivision wrote: »

In fairness to Burton, while she is head wrecking to listen to she does come from an accountancy background and has been pretty good at highlighting some of the idiotic things being pushed by current government in response to recession.

I watched the Dáil broadcast the day Anglo Irish Bank was nationalised. Richard Bruton ran away from asking the hard questions about cronyism - and he's the finance spokesperson in the largest opposition party. The only one doing the asking of hard questions was Joan Burton.

is_that_so

tomcosgrave wrote: »

I watched the Dáil broadcast the day Anglo Irish Bank was nationalised. Richard Bruton ran away from asking the hard questions about cronyism - and he's the finance spokesperson in the largest opposition party. The only one doing the asking of hard questions was Joan Burton.

FG supported the nationalisation. Richard Bruton has been going on at the government for the best part of the last year with actual proposals. Given they've also had their own cronies over the years the question from Labour was likely to have more impact. But then that depends on whether you see that as one of the hard questions or merely a populist one. Burton has improved substantially in her brief. Six months ago she was babbling incoherently, in particular at the time of the bank guarantee. That said her voice does grate but you can learn to block it out and listen to what she says.

tomcosgrave

is_that_so wrote: »

FG supported the nationalisation. Richard Bruton has been going on at the government for the best part of the last year with actual proposals.

No, this is incorrect. Labour, FG and SF all opposed the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank - and this is exactly my point - why, seeing as FG opposed the nationalisation of Anglo, was Bruton not asking the tough questions?
It would be understandable from a political point of view if FG were supporting the nationalisation of Anglo - but they didn't support it.

is_that_so wrote: »

Six months ago she was babbling incoherently, in particular at the time of the bank guarantee. That said her voice does grate but you can learn to block it out and listen to what she says.

I thought she was the only finance spokesperson that made sense, to be honest. And given the plethora of bad stuff to have come out of the banks, which is made it all the more likely that the guarantee will be called into force, thereby bankrupting the country, I'd say she and the rest of Labour, (the only party to oppose the Bank Guarantee Scheme) in the Dáil were right not to support it.

youcrazyjesus!

Can't stand her. She's heavily borrowing Joe Higgin's lines, the casino one for example, with 1 eye on the election surely.

dresden8

whippet wrote: »

I don't know if this is the done thing on Q&A ... people with agendas supporting members of the panel asking specific questions. If so then it was just a party political broadcast rather than a debate.

It was sort of touched upon during the show that alot of the contributors were Labour supporters.

The Q&A audience is usually packed with activists of all persuasions. Sometimes Bowman will get them to state their persuasion, sometimes not.

I like to think FF are finding it harder to get stooges out there who will publicly humiliate themselves to save Cowen's arse.

is_that_so

tomcosgrave wrote: »

No, this is incorrect. Labour, FG and SF all opposed the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank - and this is exactly my point - why, seeing as FG opposed the nationalisation of Anglo, was Bruton not asking the tough questions?
It would be understandable from a political point of view if FG were supporting the nationalisation of Anglo - but they didn't support it.

Their position was that they supported the legislation in principle but didn't think it offered enough protection for the taxpayer, that it was rushed and that there was a lack of information. As a result they voted against it. They also claimed to have proposed it. Bruton here on 20/01/09.

..."Fine Gael made clear last week, before the Government announcement, the loss of trust in Anglo Irish Bank among the markets, the regulatory system and the wider public means that nationalisation of the bank is the only way to protect the wider Irish financial system....

Lots more on Anglo on Fine Gael site.

ateam

Joe Bruton, Richard's father died last week. Perhaps that's a factor for his absence lately.

Joan is fine when it comes to criticising and opposing, but rarely comes up with any substantive proposals.

irish_bob

ateam wrote: »

Joe Bruton, Richard's father died last week. Perhaps that's a factor for his absence lately.

Joan is fine when it comes to criticising and opposing, but rarely comes up with any substantive proposals.

proposals which spell out pain and no gain ( at least for a while ) dont sell well in ireland , thats why labours brand of populism is so lucrative for them at the moment

jdivision

tomcosgrave wrote: »

No, you are wrong- they are affiliated with six unions. Not "the unions".
They get about 60 grand a year off these six unions.
.

Who was talking about funding. It's the members I was talking about. Backing isn't all about money

JonathanAnon

On DriveTime (radio) with Mary Wilson today, and now on TV with Vincent Brown. Gimme a break.

Just criticizing what the government are doing. Vincent just put her on the spot there to suggest how she would increase intake into the government coffers and she cant give him figures.. waste of time.

Sully

I think its not very fair on the other partys. Hardly anybody else, even FF, are getting as much airtime as Labour. There CONSTANTLY being spoken to.

There not the only party ffs, talk to the others.

Red Sleeping Beauty

Who else do you want on telly Sully ? FF? What can they offer ? FF had their conference televised over the weekend. FG get plenty of air time.

Who else is there ?

JonathanAnon

On with Vincent Browne last nite.
Six One news today (on the Dáil report)
On Prime Time now..

Where is Richard Bruton???

10000maniacs

She is a head wrecker. She needs to be briefed to be able to talk about any subject. Otherwise she is ripped to shreds. Vincent Browne ripped her to shreds a couple of weeks ago.

snubbleste

10000maniacs wrote: »

She is a head wrecker. She needs to be briefed to be able to talk about any subject. Otherwise she is ripped to shreds. Vincent Browne ripped her to shreds a couple of weeks ago.

For which he apologised.

I suspect she gets so much airtime because she's the opposition spokesperson on finance and puts herself forward for media panels.

10000maniacs

snubbleste wrote: »

For which he apologised.

I suspect she gets so much airtime because she's the opposition spokesperson on finance and puts herself forward for media panels.

I suspect that was a case of " I will appear on your programme only if you apologise"
Vincent exposed the Labour Partys lack of alternative policies that night and fair play to him.

John_C

10000maniacs wrote: »

I suspect that was a case of " I will appear on your programme only if you apologise"
Vincent exposed the Labour Partys lack of alternative policies that night and fair play to him.

I thought that was poor from Vincent. The questions he asked the previous time were fair and the excuse he gave for the apology (That Joan didn't know the questions in advance) was weak.

JonathanAnon

I dont think he should have apologised either, if Joan Burton is allowed to continuously criticise the policies of the government then she should be prepared to least offer alternative solutions. She was very poor that night and Vincent should not be apologising. He did the country a service by highlighting the fact that although the present government do not have a clue what they are doing, the opposition (well, labour at least) have less knowledge about what to do.

"Can I just saaaaaay.. "

nesf

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

On the good side she performs well in debate and has the economic background.

She doesn't have an economic background, she was an accountant. There's a world of difference between the two.