Just watching a political special on RTE at the moment with respect to the demand by Mr McDowell that the Taoiseach should make a full statement regarding his “finances” that have dominated the news recently. The opinions coming from various PD representatives around the country is completely disjointed and shows that the party is simply incoherent on this issue, so close to the election. It appears that the party is afraid of losing preference votes on polling day. All this really stinks as when the Manchester payments issue first opened back in September 2006, at the same time that Mr McDowell was given the Táinaiste position, he seemed to fizzle off the issue rather quickly. Now however, he drops a massive 12% in an opinion poll before the election and he starts to demand answers that the public want. And he accuses the others of playing auction politics?
All I can say is that somebody in the current government must really have annoyed somebody in the media in the last few weeks. The turnaround, against the current government parties, in the news and printed media is astounding. The current controversy is both welcome as it puts pressure on the Taoiseach to answer questions that need to be answered and unwelcome as it distracts people from the real election issues (highlighted as a valid point by Enda Kenny of Fine Gael and Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Féin).
In other political news, John Deasy’s wife called to my door yesterday, canvassing for her husband. Simple sentiment John, if you want my vote get off your backside and come yourself, the electorate ain’t paying you to ignore us! In all your days as a politician in Waterford I’ve never once seen you canvassing in person, for your popularity. If you want Enda’s job then at least let people know who you are. Nobody wants an aloof representative.