Car Crash: why Bruton dunnit

Penny_Wort

Watching Leo Varadkar and Dr O'Reilly go head to head on Prime Time was like a car crash. Varadkar said basically don't vote for Kenny at the helm because Richard Bruton should be getting the 3am Hilary Clinton call, in short that Fine Gael has been a disaster all along. O'Reilly said basically that Brian Linehan has been a fine finance minister. The baffling implosion of Fine Gael makes me wonder if it wasn't the poll but the no-confidence vote in Brian Cowen that spooked Bruton.
Maybe the thought of having Brian Cowen on the ropes, potentially winning a no-confidence vote and forcing an election spooked him? Because then he'd be finance minister and Monsieur Guillotine, and that was keeping him up at night? A bit like the story of Dessie O'Malley getting bad news about the economy and puking in the toilet. If an election was to be held in the next couple of months, Fine Gael would have been the biggest party in the country. Not anymore.

Sponge Bob

Go away ya Carlow Institute of Technology grade FF spin doctor ya

Liam Byrne

As has been pointed out, short of an amazing crisis of conscience by some Greens or Independents, and a sudden outbreak of ethics, Cowen wasn't going to lose that vote of confidence.

And as someone who had hoped that justice would be done, and has had my eyes opened by some posts on here stating that there was no way that would have happened once FF delayed it until their dossers were back, I'm sure I can stand over that statement.

Kenny tried for it on the only day that it was even remotely likely to happen. That backfired badly, both in terms of Cowen's two-fingers to democracy (which Kenny should also have questioned, highlighting FF's disregard for the electorate given their already too-long holidays) and in the sense that once that advantage was refused it was actually far too early as in-depth reading of the reports actually makes Cowen look even more culpable.

Banned Account

I still think that FG, Labour etc should have banded together and mounted a constitutional challenge against the gov refusing to hold the bye-elections. There would be a slim chance of being successful admittedly but there is a chance - more importantly the government would have to come out and publicly state why it would not be in the interests of democracy to hold them - this would have been damaging either way.

Should they succeed in forcing the bye-elections, they would then be in a much stronger position in terms of numbers and this would be the optimal time to call a motion of no-confidence - going on the figures last night, there would only be a margin of 2 votes.

As it stands, the motion was a wasted opportunity and was unlikely to do anything other than give FF a platform for spin. Bruton should have kept schtumm until today, Kenny shouldn't have sacked him. Either way, it will blow over in the weeks to come, Bruton will take the helm and FG will poll better as a result.

Will they be a better party? I honestly don't know but in politics, perception is 9/10ths of the law.