Will Brian Cowen be toast by tuesday

Well, nobody is going to be eager to replace Brian Cowen and become the fall guy for the thumping FF get next time out so Id reckon Cowen will live on long past tuesday. He is a dead man walking though. In the very unlikely event he jumps before hes pushed (if he is anyway human, he must want to say "**** it - Im off to join Bertie on the speaking circuit"), I suppose someone will have to get landed with the job.

That said, I am eternally puzzled why an incompetent fool like Brian Lenihan is suggested as being some sort of acceptable alternative to Cowen. Lenihan has some admirable attributes. Being in any way competent in his portfolio as Minister for Finance is not one of them. The man had the chance to defend the state when the bankers threatened him on Sept 2008 with doom and brimstone...and he blinked. Since then, hes been dictated to by the bankers at every stage. To the point where he didnt even bother reading the reports on the decisions he was making.

The man is a fool. He might be a better presented fool than the typical FF backbencher, but he is a fool nonetheless.

In terms of leadership, what people are looking for is someone to actually take the lead - to say: yes, there will be hardship, but we will be taking hardship too. People feel theyre being asked to take pain now, whilst guys like Ivor Calley ride on the gravy train right to the very end of the line. Leadership is a broadbased thing, but a leader would be able to impose measures to demonstrate that when they imposed cutbacks, they werent asking people to do any more than the leadership were willing to do themselves.

Look at SMEs - most small bussiness owners will ensure their staff are paid before they pay themselves. Thats leadership. We dont have it right now, and people know it.

unit 1 wrote: »

Pretty much the same (eerily) as my thread about Enda Kenny.

Why do people, and media, think that a good finance minister (alleged) like Brian Lenihan (Richard Bruton) will automatically be a good replacement for a perceived shaky leader like Brian Cowen (Enda Kenny) because of a few dodgy interviews?

Surely the key should be to have the best minister of finance first, then so called Taoiseach second.

By the way the so called lack of leadership thing is a red herring imo, as most people now know without being told on a daily basis that government policy is to suck it and see, and let high unemployment force down wages and make us more competitive and lead us back to growth, a policy no politician would readily admit to.

He should be made toast by tomorrow, however the government have their own set of rules for themselves. He is a disgrace, and made international headlines last week with his conduct on the radio. He is incompetant at his job, and radio/television interviews are a part of his job. If another irish person turned up to work the way he was on the radio last week, they would be fired straight away, but like I say issues like this are different when it comes to TD/government conduct.