Leo Varadkar for Taoiseach

Baggy Trousers · 23-01-2015 11:10AM

My days of voting for FG have ended but I do believe he is the best politician in FG and probably the Dáil.

_Jumper_ · 23-01-2015 11:17AM

Baggy Trousers wrote: »

My days of voting for FG have ended but I do believe he is the best politician in FG and probably the Dáil.

Why

Baggy Trousers · 23-01-2015 11:18AM

_Jumper_ wrote: »

Why

Why what?

efb · 23-01-2015 11:19AM

I'd Probably prefer Covney, more centre that Leo.

Dayum · 23-01-2015 11:21AM

He's the only person that says it how it is and doesn't BS?!

FFS.

"Not one red cent"....gtfo with Leo Varadkar....the man is a cretin and a symbol of everything that's wrong with this country.

Baggy Trousers · 23-01-2015 11:22AM

Dayum wrote: »

He's the only person that says it how it is and doesn't BS?!

FFS.

"Not one red cent"....gtfo with Leo Varadkar....the man is a cretin.

Stupid move for sure but I guess he might have believed FG were going to play hard ball when they got power. He didn't know Enda wanted to lead FF-Lite.

golfball37 · 23-01-2015 11:23AM

efb wrote: »

I'd Probably prefer Covney, more centre that Leo.

Coveney is too nice to leadership material imo. He's not a good debater either.

He's a fantastic minister however and I can see why he's been touted.

Dayum · 23-01-2015 11:24AM

Baggy Trousers wrote: »

Stupid move for sure but I guess he might have believed FG were going to play hard ball when they got power. He didn't know Enda wanted to lead FF-Lite.

Then he should of stepped down or left Fine Gael.

He was thinking of himself and his wallet - like all of them have done since the beginning of this state.

brevity · 23-01-2015 11:24AM

God only knows why anyone would want to get into politics these days. Money? Power? Hardly seems worth it when everyone is out for ya no matter what you try to do.

Dayum · 23-01-2015 11:26AM

brevity wrote: »

God only knows why anyone would want to get into politics these days. Money? Power? Hardly seems worth it when everyone is out for ya no matter what you try to do.

These people are of a certain breed - thick skinned happy in the knowledge of their gold plated public pensions.

Leeches on hard working men and women everywhere.

efb · 23-01-2015 11:26AM

golfball37 wrote: »

Coveney is too nice to leadership material imo. He's not a good debater either.

He's a fantastic minister however and I can see why he's been touted.

Convey would be a good face, he's a v good negotiator

freedominacup · 23-01-2015 11:28AM

golfball37 wrote: »

I don't think the old guard root and branch members of FG will accept him as their leader because of his sexuality.

My oul boy is a fg activist since he was a teenager, he's heading for 70 now and he didn't bat an eyelid at Leo coming out. The only thing he said was something about it was only sf and ff who hadn't any front bench member who was openly lgbt. He seemed to think it would give fg a good bounce in the polls tbh.

Baggy Trousers · 23-01-2015 11:29AM

efb wrote: »

Convey would be a good face, he's a v good negotiator

"Earlier today, Mr Coveney said he would not be tied down by "civil wars baggage" and he had no "ideological issues" with both parties forming a government."

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/fitzgerald-rebukes-coveney-over-suggestion-of-fg-ff-coalition-1.2074436

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has rebuked Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney for his suggestion that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil could share power after the next election.

efb · 23-01-2015 11:29AM

Baggy Trousers wrote: »

"Earlier today, Mr Coveney said he would not be tied down by "civil wars baggage" and he had no "ideological issues" with both parties forming a government."

Id love a FG/FF coalition

Baggy Trousers · 23-01-2015 11:31AM

efb wrote: »

Id love a FG/FF coalition

I think we need SF in there next time somehow - just to expose them and show the Irish people that all the political parties are a joke and our political system and permanent government are not fit for purpose.

jobbridge4life · 23-01-2015 11:32AM

Varadkar is given credit as a straight shooter. I don;t agree. With that observation. You are not a straight shooter if you wait until it is absolutely clear that the public have completely rejected the rest of the Government's spin to say what was obvious from day one just so you can make maximum political gain. Less straight more shrewd.

sh1tstirrer · 23-01-2015 11:36AM

Himself and coveney have ear grating false accents it would be some torture listening to either of them if they became the leader of fg.

BoJack Horseman · 23-01-2015 11:39AM

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

Himself and coveney have ear grating false accents it would be some torture listening to either of them if they became the leader of fg.

Both have pretty middle of the road accents.
What is tortuous about either?

In the pantheon of accents, both speak better than your healy-Raes/ Mattie Magraths of this world.

foggy_lad · 23-01-2015 11:44AM

He is like so many of the new breed of politician these days, all frill and no knickers!

DeJa VooDoo · 23-01-2015 11:45AM

More promises and pledges rehashed to keep the plebs believing.....

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/government-reveals-25-health-priorities-659291.html

Just get on and do the work and stop clogging the airways with this regurgitated horsesh1t FFS.

Timberrrrrrrr · 23-01-2015 11:50AM

BoJack Horseman wrote: »

Both have pretty middle of the road accents.
What is tortuous about either?

In the pantheon of accents, both speak better than your healy-Raes/ Mattie Magraths of this world.

Or god forbid Boyd Barret and Clare Daly both trying to hide their posh accents and sounding ridiculous.

Timberrrrrrrr · 23-01-2015 11:52AM

DeJa VooDoo wrote: »

More promises and pledges rehashed to keep the plebs believing.....

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/government-reveals-25-health-priorities-659291.html

Just get on and do the work and stop clogging the airways with this regurgitated horsesh1t FFS.

So when the media ask him questions he should just ignore them and get on with his job? And then the likes of you would be on here whinging about how he refuses to give interviews and he must be hiding something and how it's a government ministers job to talk to the media to keep the populace informed. As i hvae said several times, there's jut no pleasing some people.

freedominacup · 23-01-2015 11:53AM

BoJack Horseman wrote: »

In the pantheon of accents, both speak better than your healy-Raes/ Mattie Magraths of this world.

That's just not a fair comparison. I have a one year old niece who is more intelligible than either of those two examples. She's probably more skilled at making a cogent argument than them as well. We truly deserve the government we get when we allow a system that enables candidates like this to get elected to perpetuate.

floggg · 23-01-2015 11:54AM

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Sure why not.. it's the FG party line - whenever you're put on the spot blame the last lot (or SF). 4 years later and they're still pulling the same stunt.

It's why FG are actually WORSE than FF (and that's saying something!) IMO as they came in without the baggage promising change and reform but instead obediently implemented EU/FF policy and shafted the ordinary public.
They've equally shown themselves to be just as able for the cronyism, corruption and incompetence of their predecessors.. the only reason we don't see more of it is because they are hardly ever in government.

As for Enda himself, he has to be a contender for the worst "leader" this country has ever had - and I know lots of people will say "uh uh, Cowen was worse" and while he was certainly unfit for the job, he was also thrown under the bus to save Bertie remember.
Enda however is not just weak, he's cowardly - refusing to debate or explain himself to the people he supposedly represents, being the EU's whipping/poster boy for Austerity, and he goes into hiding whenever something happens - resulting in a parade of conflicting statements from his ministers.. which shows he can't even lead his own government never mind the country.

FG's only role in Irish politics seems to be to screw things up so badly that they make FF viable again :rolleyes:

I don't like FG myself, but in fairness if (and that's assuning the comparison is accurate) the trolley crisis was as bad in 2004 when the country was in the midst of a boom as it is today when we are coming out of a bust, then it does put the scale of the problem into context.

At least in 2004 throwing money at the problem was a viable solution.

efb · 23-01-2015 11:54AM

Clear diction ftw

floggg · 23-01-2015 12:06PM

He is young, high profile, articulate and well regarded. He is a potential contender for FG leadership in the future but at the minute that's where it begins and ends.

He likely needs a few more years and accomplishments to earn the leadership spot, and will have to earn the nod over his other rivals.

If and when he does that, he would also need to convince the country his Larry deserve to be returned as the majority party.

He certainly has the potential to do all those things, but potential and ability are entirely different things.

Let's give him a few more years and see how he goes before we start handing him the job.

floggg · 23-01-2015 12:13PM

DeJa VooDoo wrote: »

More promises and pledges rehashed to keep the plebs believing.....

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/government-reveals-25-health-priorities-659291.html

Just get on and do the work and stop clogging the airways with this regurgitated horsesh1t FFS.

Seriously? Your grumbling about that?

He has just set out concrete targets on various matters and timelines for achieving them. Which means he is setting clear standards against which he can be judged and held accountable.

At the very worst, it gives you and other critics like you a clear yardstick to measure his failures by.

Honestly, i think sometimes there is absolutelty nothing politicans can say or do without people finding some way to criticise them for it.

jobbridge4life · 23-01-2015 12:15PM

floggg wrote: »

Honestly, i think sometimes there is absolutelty nothing politicans can say or do without people finding some way to criticise them for it.

There isn't.

floggg · 23-01-2015 12:20PM

Baggy Trousers wrote: »

I think we need SF in there next time somehow - just to expose them and show the Irish people that all the political parties are a joke and our political system and permanent government are not fit for purpose.

The funny thing is people somehow think irish politicians are somehow a unique political animal.

Show me any country (bar the Scandinavians, because they are all perfect) who are happy with their politicians or don't consider them self interested and untrustworthy political creatures.

DeJa VooDoo · 23-01-2015 12:37PM

floggg wrote: »

Seriously? Your grumbling about that?

He has just set out concrete targets on various matters and timelines for achieving them. Which means he is setting clear standards against which he can be judged and held accountable.

At the very worst, it gives you and other critics like you a clear yardstick to measure his failures by.

Honestly, i think sometimes there is absolutelty nothing politicans can say or do without people finding some way to criticise them for it.

When these lads keep setting out the same stuff as if it's somehow new it becomes repetitive and looks like more spin.

Maybe Leo will come back in say, 3 months, 6 months and 9 months, and show us how many of the 25 bullet points here have been implemented.

We can judge his performance then. Agreed?

Leo Varadkar for Taoiseach

Comments