Preside over numerous serious scandals? You're grand. Abusive language? You're fired.

hatrickpatrick

Leo Varadkar in recent days called on Barry Walsh to resign, which he has now done. This is in response to Walsh sending numerous abusive tweets to and about members of the public with conflicting political ideas to his own.

I'm not here to discuss the specifics of the Walsh case - we have another thread for that. But does anyone else find it infuriating that THIS, an incident which essentially boils down to interpersonal exchanges, is considered the moment when the Taoiseach should step in and say "you should resign" - BUT, when a Minister for Justice presides over numerous extremely serious scandals within the space of six months (Alan Shatter, late 2013 / early 2014), it's his own decision whether or not to resign and the Taoiseach of the day makes no comment on whether he should resign?

The culture of impunity in Ireland has never been highlighted more starkly in my view, where a series of abusive tweets causes the Taoiseach to ask a member of his party to resign, but a series of scandals which shook the justice system of this state to its very foundation and called into question the integrity of the state itself results in an "I have full confidence in the Minister" moment.

I'm not saying that Walsh shouldn't have been asked to resign - on the contrary, I'm saying that it infuriates me that this doesn't happen more often, to more politicians, and politicians at that who have been embroiled in far, far more serious matters than being assholes on Twitter.

Thoughts on this? How can one reconcile a person being almost immediately asked to resign after being an asshole on Twitter, versus a person being backed up and defended over the course of several months, when the entire justice system of our state collapses under the weight of scandals which that person is directly implicated in?

James Brown

It's a case of an individual verses the party. The party must be protected while morals and integrity take a back seat. In this case it allows the pretense that they've standards. Other instances are not so clear cut and might damage the party. The whole O'Sullivan/McCabe/Noonan issues good examples.
This chap was seemingly at it a good while but the complaint was recent and by one of their own.

blanch152

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Leo Varadkar in recent days called on Barry Walsh to resign, which he has now done. This is in response to Walsh sending numerous abusive tweets to and about members of the public with conflicting political ideas to his own.

I'm not here to discuss the specifics of the Walsh case - we have another thread for that. But does anyone else find it infuriating that THIS, an incident which essentially boils down to interpersonal exchanges, is considered the moment when the Taoiseach should step in and say "you should resign" - BUT, when a Minister for Justice presides over numerous extremely serious scandals within the space of six months (Alan Shatter, late 2013 / early 2014), it's his own decision whether or not to resign and the Taoiseach of the day makes no comment on whether he should resign?

The culture of impunity in Ireland has never been highlighted more starkly in my view, where a series of abusive tweets causes the Taoiseach to ask a member of his party to resign, but a series of scandals which shook the justice system of this state to its very foundation and called into question the integrity of the state itself results in an "I have full confidence in the Minister" moment.

I'm not saying that Walsh shouldn't have been asked to resign - on the contrary, I'm saying that it infuriates me that this doesn't happen more often, to more politicians, and politicians at that who have been embroiled in far, far more serious matters than being assholes on Twitter.

Thoughts on this? How can one reconcile a person being almost immediately asked to resign after being an asshole on Twitter, versus a person being backed up and defended over the course of several months, when the entire justice system of our state collapses under the weight of scandals which that person is directly implicated in?

Alan Shatter is a pretty poor example.

Firstly, Varadkar wasn't Taoiseach.

Secondly, and more importantly, Shatter has been winning a series of legal cases that back up his side of the story. The press have been fairly quiet about it because it shows them in a bad light.