The cheek of Brian Cowen

Slideshowbob

For whatever reason BC seems to have turned things up a notch in interviews over last 36 hours

I found it perplexing today, given where the economy has descended to under FF control, and Cowens actions as minister for finance to say oppositions proposals lacked credibility. If you wrote the story of FF's governance over last 10 years that would lack credibility!!

The opposition weren't the ones who cocked things up

Let the opposition be answerable when they have the reigns of power!

Also he said he took best advice at the time absolving him of wrong decisions made. If it's the case that advisors were running the show we would not need a political system.

Brian u let us down. Stop defending the indefensible Go go go

delta720

Slideshowbob wrote: »

The opposition weren't the ones who cocked things up

Brian u let us down. Stop defending the indefensible Go go go

Am I the only one tired of reading posts like this?

While your general statement is true, it has been posted at least 10,000 times before. Could people not put in some effort and at least say, 'I disagree with X decision that was made, we clearly should have done Y'

'BC's and FF's Z policy has led to ....'

At least then it's clear you know what your talking about, instead of the usual posts which seem to revolve around the theme of 'My life is now ****e, it's the fecking governments fault.'

The politics forum seems to have turned into a place to vent anger instead of discuss politics.




Happily awaiting the usual flood of general comments about how Brian Cowen is responsible for everything bad in Ireland!

later12

Brian Cowen ate my dog!!

No, really I agree with the above poster; there's too much whining about the situation without enough emphasis on why one might disagree with the policies the government pursued. It's the same old tired formula where bondholder and politician are dirty words and the taxpayer is always right (and sad).

No really, Brian Cowen ate my dog!!

brendansmith

FF have ruined this country. They have fail in their name.

yoshytoshy

Fianna fail put the fail into fianna fail.

mikemac

brendansmith wrote: »

They have fail in their name.

Oh I'm going to be taken apart for being pedantic. Anyway;

Fáil

steve9859

I agree BC has finally got some fire in his belly the last 36 hours. His interview with Ivan Yates was about the strongest I have ever heard him do (irrespective of whether or not you agree with his policies). A bit little a bit late unfortunately!

But he ate my dog, so f**k 'im

steelcityblues

Get the feeling Cowen will tender his resignation as leader/Taoiseach one of these days.

He must be looking and sounding comfortable in recent interviews for a reason.

Happyman42

Brian is filleting Miriam at the moment...lol
Wonder who is coaching him...somebody is that is for sure.

Slideshowbob

delta720 wrote: »

Am I the only one tired of reading posts like this?

While your general statement is true, it has been posted at least 10,000 times before. Could people not put in some effort and at least say, 'I disagree with X decision that was made, we clearly should have done Y'

'BC's and FF's Z policy has led to ....'

At least then it's clear you know what your talking about, instead of the usual posts which seem to revolve around the theme of 'My life is now ****e, it's the fecking governments fault.'

The politics forum seems to have turned into a place to vent anger instead of discuss politics.




Happily awaiting the usual flood of general comments about how Brian Cowen is responsible for everything bad in Ireland!

Delta

Do you think the government over the last 10 years made any bad decisions?

yoshytoshy

Looking at cowen on tv now ,it's like he's starting to realise what the country has turned into.
Not nice being uncertain about your future ,Mr.C.

alexonhisown

He must be off the drink, he seems to have found a voice, never heard him talking so much

namloc1980

Haven't seen Cowen this passionate (sic) in a long time. He's giving Miriam a tough time.

Sherifu

steelcityblues wrote: »

Get the feeling Cowen will tender his resignation as leader/Taoiseach one of these days.

He must be looking and sounding comfortable in recent interviews for a reason.

Not a chance unfortunately, he's going to cling to power as long as he possibly can to the detriment of FF which I don't mind.

Listening to him now on prime time and earlier on radio one I honestly think he's deluded.

alexonhisown

The pr**k is smiling also

Plenty of passion from him, clinging on.

On another note, where's Enda Kenny hiding ? Not a peep from him recently

Teclo

Hehe, he calls the the nation's great emotion peddler a tabloid journalist. All of a sudden I want to vote for him. Well almost...

steelcityblues

Sherifu wrote: »

Not a chance unfortunately, he's going to cling to power as long as he possibly can to the detriment of FF which I don't mind.

Listening to him now on prime time and earlier on radio one I honestly think he's deluded.

Watching him now too and his body language is clearly more upbeat - that looks like a party leader who will get the hell out of dodge before the s*it gets even worse.

yoshytoshy

namloc1980 wrote: »

Haven't seen Cowen this passionate (sic) in a long time. He's giving Miriam a tough time.

Passionate for his salary ,thats about it I'd say.

Tech3

FF are already gearing up for the general election by questioning the oppositions proposals. Now we have cowen out barking.

TheBouldNaoise

Cowen's performance in the interview with Miriam Callaghan was a disgrace. Agressive, blustering and ignorant - an unfortunate manifestation of what we Irish have become. Did he come across as a statesman? Not in a million years.

The bottom line is that he was finance minister and subsequently Taoiseach, and more than anyone else carries responsibility for the mess we are in.

If he (and the other FF lackeys) for once showed some humility and accepted they were instrumental in causing this mess, not point to so called external factors, it might start the process of healing.

Shameful.

tech2

tech2 wrote: »

FF are already gearing up for the general election by questioning the oppositions proposals. Now we have cowen out barking.

I have a feeling they will perform far batter than most people expect come election time.

delta720

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Delta

Do you think the government over the last 10 years made any bad decisions?

Yes, I think that they shouldn't have reduced taxes during the boom, it's commonly seen that taxes should be higher in economic booms and reduced during recessions to allow people more spending power to help the economy recover. But FF reduced taxes coming up to the last 2 elections and we voted them back in thinking they were great and everything was awesome.

I also think they should have overhauled the HSE long ago and gotten rid of the massive surplus in admin staff left over from the regional board days.

However all of this is irrelevant as there was no wedges left for me breakfast roll in the shop this morning and I'm certain it was that ****er Brian Cowen who ate them!

rkeano5

rarnes1 wrote: »

Plenty of passion from him, clinging on.

On another note, where's Enda Kenny hiding ? Not a peep from him recently

Clearly FG don't want to be embarrassed by his total ineptitude in relation to the economy etc. Trust me, it's better for FG if he says as little as possible.

bmaxi

It's said the best form of defence is attack and that presumably is what Cowen is doing, he's in a corner now with nothing to lose.
There are no more rabbits in the hat so he might as well go down fighting in order to preserve whatever credibility he thinks he has left.

Mr.Micro

rarnes1 wrote: »

I have a feeling they will perform far batter than most people expect come election time.

There will be many a fool yet who will wobble at the ballot box, no doubt about that. Cowen is putting on the mock anger simply to keep his job as FF leader so he is not ousted or challenged and all the while they fiddle with this budget it keeps the true fact of the billions that we owe out of the fray. No new schools,hospitals, services,development and hundreds of future projects in the future while this giant cod acts angry. It does not cut any mustard with me but there will be many that will buy it. Too late to get angry Biffo after you and Lenny et al sold us out. So if the fools vote for these clowns again this time we literally will not have pot to pee into.

yoshytoshy

I think fianna fail are going to do very ,very badly in the next elections. They might put the fear into public sector in the next couple of months with regards to fine gael.

Everyone knows that more cuts are needed ,so it doesn't matter if fine gael make them.

TheBouldNaoise

rarnes1 wrote: »

I have a feeling they will perform far batter than most people expect come election time.

Profoundly worrying assessment of the decision making ability of the Irish voter. If anyone votes for FF on the basis of their past performance, they need their head examined.

Mr.Micro

yoshytoshy wrote: »

I think fianna fail are going to do very ,very badly in the next elections. They might put the fear into public sector in the next couple of months with regards to fine gael.

Everyone knows that more cuts are needed ,so it doesn't matter if fine gael make them.

No matter what FG/Labour dream up they will be nothing to what FF have put in place now and people will only realize in the year/s ahead. Paying the IMF/EU loan other loans eg from the UK. Then we will have water charges. property tax and increasing vat and so on. This is Ireland where anything can happen and FG have a very poor leader and I fear they will pay the price.

yoshytoshy

Mr.Micro wrote: »

No matter what FG/Labour dream up they will be nothing to what FF have put in place now and people will only realize in the year/s ahead. Paying the IMF/EU loan other loans eg from the UK. Then we will have water charges. property tax and increasing vat and so on. This is Ireland where anything can happen and FG have a very poor leader and I fear they will pay the price.

Things are going to be tough alright ,one good thing though that might come of it is that people will cherish their vote ,more than they ever did before.
I know I will.

super_furry

He's 'turned it up a notch' because he's now on an election footing. He's actually going to attempt to be re-elected as Taoiseach and this is his first step in this farce.

marienbad

delta720 wrote: »

Am I the only one tired of reading posts like this?

While your general statement is true, it has been posted at least 10,000 times before. Could people not put in some effort and at least say, 'I disagree with X decision that was made, we clearly should have done Y'

'BC's and FF's Z policy has led to ....'

At least then it's clear you know what your talking about, instead of the usual posts which seem to revolve around the theme of 'My life is now ****e, it's the fecking governments fault.'

The politics forum seems to have turned into a place to vent anger instead of discuss politics.




Happily awaiting the usual flood of general comments about how Brian Cowen is responsible for everything bad in Ireland!

2003 onwards , Eliminated Construction industry incentives/tax breaks
2006- Not caved in on Benchmarking in the public service .
2006- Fired the Financial regulator as advised .
2008- Listened to their own advisers (Goldman Sachs I think) not to give a blanket bank guarantee.

and thats just a sample

and all of the above were given at the time as alternatives so it is not just hindsight. We got every decision - not some- but every decision wrong

LostinBlanch

TheBouldNaoise wrote: »

Cowen's performance in the interview with Miriam Callaghan was a disgrace. Agressive, blustering and ignorant - an unfortunate manifestation of what we Irish have become. Did he come across as a statesman? Not in a million years.

The bottom line is that he was finance minister and subsequently Taoiseach, and more than anyone else carries responsibility for the mess we are in.

If he (and the other FF lackeys) for once showed some humility and accepted they were instrumental in causing this mess, not point to so called external factors, it might start the process of healing.

Shameful.

100% true, that's all Cowen can do is put up a show of bluff and bluster while passing on the blame to others. He's been doing it since he got a position of responsibility.

1. Remember when he was minister of foreign affairs in Angola EDIT: minister for health? See, if it was that bad nobody could fix it so it wasn't his fault.
2. Remember when he was Minister for Finance and he would react in the same way shouting over anyone questioning his stewardship of the economy. Remember him continually shouting The fundamentals of the economy are sound? Yeah, we know exactly how sound they were!
3. Remember when he was appointed taoiseach and went on his 3 month long coronation/binge/whateveryourhavingyourself? All the bluster about how FF backbenchers needed to sharpen themselves up as Cowen was tougher than Bertie? How he only wanted the best of the best? How he was going to be the best taoiseach since Lemass?

All of the above turned out to be the usual bluff and bluster from BIFFO the blowhard?

The sh*te he is coming out with now is just more of the same, aimed at fooling the troglodytes* of the core vote into coming out and voting early [and often] instead of abstaining in disgust.

*In a political sense. Voting for one party because your grandfather did? WTF?

LostinBlanch

super_furry wrote: »

He's 'turned it up a notch' because he's now on an election footing. He's actually going to attempt to be re-elected as Taoiseach and this is his first step in this farce.

And how many elections has he won as Taoiseach?





That many huh?





Let's add one more loss to that list.

LostinBlanch

So it looks like all this "performance" is Cowen trying to head off Lenihan or Martin for leadership of FF.

Typical FFer. Mé féinn first, party 2nd, country a very distant 3rd.

scr123

Reasoning with the ABFF is pointless. They ABFF have taken over the internet and spend their miserable lives not only denigrating FF but denigrating the country as a whole. The pleasure they take at every problem the country faces is disgusting in the extreme. The sad part is that huge numbers of people from outside Ireland read message boards and the image sent out by the ABFF is very damaging.
Just to remind the ABFF

This country went on the biggest boom we ever knew

Every boom ends with INFLATION

We had a double whammy. We had INFLATION coupled with INFLATED EXPECTATIONS. We thought the boom would never end

Boom leads to BUST

BUST leads to DEFLATION

Dont believe just look at economic history

When the bust came the government set about the job of DEFLATION

Cowen and the government had no choice but to keep heads down and get on with the job of DEFLATION

Four Budgets later FF are on the way out of government and whatever work F had to do in the process of DEFLATION is complete as far as they are concerned

The new government will cary on the job of DEFLATION over next few years

After 30 months of gruelling experience Cowen and his government can unleash suppressed contempt at the antagonists.

Between now and the election the ABFF will be on the receiving end of attacks never before seen in Irish politics.

When the ABFF come to government people like me will be wound up like never before

The cheek of Brian Cowen ? Just wait till you see whats in store for you ABFF !!

Mr.Micro

Is it not incredible that Biffo has become more aggressive in recent days fighting for his job that he did so badly and previous to that Finance Minister. Its pity he did not fight when it came to saving the country but now its his own skin that he is trying to save.....just look at his CV, his leadership puts the FAIL in Fianna Failure.

Sir Oxman

Mr.Micro wrote: »

Is it not incredible that Biffo has become more aggressive in recent days fighting for his job that he did so badly and previous to that Finance Minister. Its pity he did not fight when it came to saving the country but now its his own skin that he is trying to save.....just look at his CV, his leadership puts the FAIL in Fianna Failure.

This is true.
The only reason we are hearing the 'new, all-improved' Cowen is that a leadership fight in that party is gearing up.
Party first. As always.

Sir Oxman

scr123 wrote: »

When the ABFF come to government people like me will be wound up like never before

With no shred of credibility remaining, who the féck is going to listen to you and your 'partee'?
Of course, you are hoping for the usual bounce back in 4-5 years time (laying the ground right now with typical FF cowardice) after leaving the next govt to clean up after your appaling corruption and ineptness for the second occasion in my lifetime.

No-one will listen to you when you bellyache and try to point the finger at anyone, ever.

Liam Byrne

scr123 wrote: »

Reasoning with the ABFF is pointless. They ABFF have taken over the internet and spend their miserable lives not only denigrating FF but denigrating the country as a whole. The pleasure they take at every problem the country faces is disgusting in the extreme. The sad part is that huge numbers of people from outside Ireland read message boards and the image sent out by the ABFF is very damaging.
Just to remind the ABFF

Reasoning with people who refuse to see the facts is even more pointless, so I don't even know why I'm going to try this, but hey, I'll give it a shot......

scr123 wrote: »

We had a double whammy. We had INFLATION coupled with INFLATED EXPECTATIONS. We thought the boom would never end

We had a triple whammy. We had a government that ignored the warnings and even refused point-blank to acknowledge that it was a "boom".

scr123 wrote: »

The new government will cary on the job of DEFLATION over next few years

Yes, and they have absolutely no choice because of FF's monumental cock-ups.

scr123 wrote: »

After 30 months of gruelling experience Cowen and his government can unleash suppressed contempt at the antagonists.

I have no idea what that means; "suppressed" contempt ? I would suggest that Cowen & Co have shown unsuppressed contempt for everyone (bar their cronies) for the last 2 years or more.

scr123 wrote: »

Between now and the election the ABFF will be on the receiving end of attacks never before seen in Irish politics.

What about all that talk about "pulling together" and "concensus" and "necessary decisions" ? Was that just more deflection and waffle ?

scr123 wrote: »

When the ABFF come to government people like me will be wound up like never before

Define "people like you", please ? I am forming an opinion but I don't want to get banned, so I'd like to hear your own definition of the phrase that you used.

scr123 wrote: »

The cheek of Brian Cowen ? Just wait till you see whats in store for you ABFF !!

We've seen what's in store........scraping by while Cowen & Co bail out their mates, keep their unwarranted pensions and "expenses", and wash their hands when anything needs to be done that might even remotely be for the good of the country.

Petty and zero-credibility sniping, delusion and name-calling won't change that, and is just gutter politics.

domrush

I realise I'm gonna be ripped apart for this but does anyone think he's getting an unfair proportion of the blame simply because he's the taoiseach?
IMHO the banks were far more to blame?

I may be wrong on this but if they had provided the correct figures at the start of the crisis but Cowen probably wouldn't have bailed them out. As regards to when he was finance minister was the bank regulator or whoever was supposed to check the banks books not more at fault?

(Not a fianna fail supporter at all btw)

Darsad

Well I for one am very happy to see Cowen making all the noises about staying on and leading FF into the next election . I cant think of anybody the public revile more than Cowen at present I hope they have his poster on every road in every constiteuncy just to remind us all.

I believe if Michael Martin were to take up the reigns they would fair much better, Lenihan is clearly a deluded liar and actually not much more intelligent than his brother Conor which is saying something.

FF would probably do better if JOD or Ivor Callely were to lead them into the next election ahead of Cowen so rock on Biffo !

Liam Byrne

domrush wrote: »

I realise I'm gonna be ripped apart for this but does anyone think he's getting an unfair proportion of the blame simply because he's the taoiseach?
IMHO the banks were far more to blame?

He chose to bail out the banks. He's apparently / allegedly on record as saying "we're not f**king letting Anglo fail!".

He was also Minister for Finance while both (a) the policies that fuelled the boom and (b) the goings-on that have now been exposed were underway.

Liam Byrne

feelingstressed wrote: »

Brian Cowen really turned it up a notch in the last few days and was impressive.

Then you've a completely different definition of "impressive" to me.

BlaasForRafa

feelingstressed wrote: »

Well then Liam Byrne don't bother quoting me as an infrequent poster in Politics forum. Though I do reckon Brian Cowen changed tactics in the last few days and was engagaging and involved in interviews.

But hey, this is not my thread, here is the OP:



Reply to the OP, not me which you have done twice

You made a post on this thread, that means he's perfectly entitled to to reply to it and quote you if he wants. You don't make the rules.

BlaasForRafa

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Then you've a completely different definition of "impressive" to me.

There does seem to be an increased FF presence on this forum in the last week or so.

I really don't get why anyone would have sympathy for Cowan. He screwed up as minister for finance and monumentally screwed up as Taoiseach. He and his dopey minister for Finance got spooked into the insane bank guarantee which has consigned the country to penury for the next generation.

That on its own would be enough to despise him and all this crap of "oh well he did his best" or "I'm sick of all this negativity" or "the opposition wouldn't have done any different" is pure and utter BS.

jank

Cowen is just doing what he thinks will win him some votes. The FF hard core will lap it up! But for the 80+% out there, they will just hate him more.
It might look good for an interview or two but to have 1-2 months of him shouting and bullying and basically being an ass while the IMF are checking our books and the banks get their bonus while carers get their allowances slashed leaves a bitter taste in the publics eye. History has already judged him, he is just trying to give a "brave" martyrs death.

So long Biffo, dont forget to take FF with you!

Liam Byrne

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

There does seem to be an increased FF presence on this forum in the last week or so.

There appears to be, but there's a good few of those new posters whose views can't be taken seriously (or if they should be, then I'm seriously scared!) based on their content and standpoint. There's a thread on it re "astroturfing", so that can be discussed further there.

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

I really don't get why anyone would have sympathy for Cowan. He screwed up as minister for finance and monumentally screwed up as Taoiseach. He and his dopey minister for Finance got spooked into the insane bank guarantee which has consigned the country to penury for the next generation.

That on its own would be enough to despise him and all this crap of "oh well he did his best" or "I'm sick of all this negativity" or "the opposition wouldn't have done any different" is pure and utter BS.

Precisely. If I was being paid a fortune to do a job, then I'd do it to the best of my ability; if I couldn't do it properly, I'd resign, and if other interests or agendas got in the way and made me do it badly (let alone astronomically badly, damaging the futures of a few million people and doing a reverse Robin Hood), I'd resign.

But that's just me.

Tigerbaby

Yes, there certainly seems to be a co-ordinated pro-FF muse appearing. I even read someone trotting out the old "Lehmanns" canard. This would be amusing in any other context. Suffice to say it is behoven upon any of us with brains and very long memories to "Never Forget" How FF sacrificed our Nation to their own special interests;

1. The FF Party
2. The FF Bank ( Ang*o)
3. The FF Builders.

We had the future of the Euro as the joker in our hand, and we blew the negotiations as well. Even in this last desperate battle, FF snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Any FF election posters that are put up deserve to have any extra word added to them "TRAITORS".