RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

If there's a whiff of a Kennedy in the air or a distant relative of a Kennedy, you'll find Captain Schmooze there to meet and greet and namedrop some late society hostess not related to him.

It's a sad sorry sight.

I think that's highly unlikely. He wouldn't be able to cope with another potential rejection from the public. Anyway the RTE scandal is already impacting the government negatively so FF will not want that baggage.

Well done, well done.

It's an interesting idea. As a 'celebrity' TD though he mightn't think he would have to do much, could ghost into a ministry and have lackeys do the research and make decisions? Imagine if he ended up in Catherine Martin's Dept!!! An expert in media etc blah blah.. It'd be a spectacular reversal of fortune for our hero.

Mind you, the election could get very dirty if he tried his hand.

RTE have no imput into the cost of the licence.

Thanks, Brenner, good advice.

Where they get the genesis of the story from is from the betting companies. That article you linked to specifically mentions Boyle Sports. It's a well known tactic they have - create a list of "candidates" for a particular position or event, include some serious ones, some outsiders and some complete off-the wall-ones, then give one of the off-the-wall ones that's in the news half decent odds (knowing that they'll never have to pay out on them), let the media know, and sit back and soak in the publicity.

Here's Paddy Power's current list:

https://www.paddypower.com/politics/next-president-after-michael-d-higgins

Tony Holohan, Bono, Anne Doyle, Roy Keane. Do you honestly think their publicists are planting them on the list?

I just wouldn't ascribe to a conspiracy what can be easily explained by more mundane means. The big bookies are absolute masters of marketing, and would put any publicist - including Noel Kelly - to shame. They're certainly not waiting around for someone to suggest to them that Tubridy be added to the list.

Donnelly was already a TD when he defected to FF. He was one of the three "leaders" of the SocDems at the time. Martin/FF is facing a lot of criticism within FF and FFers seem less than happy at the prospect of him leading FF into the next GE as he was responsible for FF's poor showing in 2020 where it only won the same number of seats as SF. Tubridy is genetically FF but there are too many FFers who don't have RTE's forelock tuigging respect for the FF gombeen gentry.

Just on the George Lee/FG thing. He had a background in Economics and business and had worked in the field before RTE. However, the FG gombeens had reserved the Finance portfolio for one of their own gombeen schoolteacher/TDs, Noonan. The difference is that Tubridy hasn't any competence outside of broadcasting. FF is in an almost existential struggle against SF as many of the younger people who might have voted FF are now voting SF.

Tubridy as a presidential candidate would seem to be trying to recapture a Sean Gallagher vibe (he was FF and was a proxy FF candidate until RTE's Frontline show (most of those involved did not have their contracts renewed and the show was cancelled) ran that unverified tweet which changed the outcome of the election). The problem for Tubridy, and FF, is that the electorate has changed since 2011 with more younger people becoming eligible to vote. The old certainties of FF running an inanimate carbon rod, or hurley, and it getting elected are over. Those FFers who put in their time for a chance at getting their snouts in the trough would not be pleased with an imposed candidate like Tubridy. Tubridy has been historically active in FF and there is an upside to having at least one competent media performer (Martin still does his rat-like clawing motions with his hands when he's under pressure.) in FF but the last thing that Martin wants is to cause more problems within FF.

Regards...jmcc

I would love to see tubridy try running in Dun Laoighre, Rich Boy Barrett would have him for breakfast. Even the shinners, who are usually nowhere in DL would be licking their lips at being able to point score off him, he'd be easy pickings

Maybe there is one - I certainly didn't read the book. But any of the images from it I've seen from it depict him as a ubiquitous journalist that is present at JFK's every move, rather than the President himself.

There is that publicity photograph of Tubridy posing in the same way as JFK is on the cover of the book (with a poster of the cover behind him). I won't post it, as I know it could invoke nightmares, but I would read it as a cringey - but fairly standard - book-launch publicity shot, rather than an indication of Presidential ambition.

thank fuuherke for that, gringo😯

he'd be mad ( aka bonkers) to go into politics. every doorstep / debate he'd be torn apart by ..well anyone.

One for a whiteboard session with Noelser..who's completely deliciously bonkers....

But surely he wouldn't earn the epithet that the wonderful, sharp and acerbic wit Marina Hyde gave to Boris two or three years ago, when she wrote, "Boris Johnson’s big contribution to reducing plastic consumption is not wearing condoms. Or as Gavin Williamson put it this morning: “Boris Johnson has done more for the environment than any other politician.” Quite. We don’t need a joined-up strategy to prevent climate catastrophe with the largest and most successful trading bloc the world has ever seen, because Johnson’s going to spaff our way to the higher ground, while we serve as galley slaves on his privatised sex ark.