Alex White, he of the dodgy suit, white shirt and pink tie,
and sporting a red carnation, and who looks more like Max Clifford than a man trying
to be leader of the labour party, tells us he likes Eamon Gilmore even though
he tried to shove the plastic knife in his back before Eamon did it to himself.
White then tells us Eamon was a great leader so why bother to get rid of a good
thing at all. Well, only if you want the perks and privileges of leader because
Alex is not into contributing to ‘Save The Children Fund’ anytime soon. He is
in it relevant to what he can get out of it for life as a failed legal eagle
was never going to be as good as this. The reality is that changing faces
in the labour party is not going to save it.
There are no strong personalities in the party, apart from Ruairi Quinn, no
character, none with any conviction, and are as far adrift from the core
principles of their foundation as they have ever been. If Alex White is to be
their new leader it has to be considered he was the main driving force for removing the medical card for
seriously sick children even though he blatantly denied this which throws out
the window any chance of an apology. The other reality is Labour wants to hold on to power at
any cost.
There was White, on the platform where he announced to the media of
his takeover bid of the Labour party and with him was Derek Nolan, and the only difference
in their attire was Nolan had been wearing a blue tie and a suit of lighter grey. There is a clue there
somewhere for as sure as Nolan took to being interviewed on the radio last
Friday, I could only compare him to the nodding dog toy normally perched in the
back window of a car. Nolan was unable to show who he was only that White
seemed all he wanted to be with no warts acknowledged. But any fawning Nolan
with his permanently nonplussed face will prove to be good too with the knife
when the time is right as he waits for leftover crumbs. But who cares for this party just needs to go.
The nodding dog analogy is in essence what the Labour party
is to Fine Gael and both deserve each other and irks that neither is capable of
admitting wrong. Yes, they inherited the mantle of the most corrupt party in
the history of the State and have little wriggle room with the wasteland of
illegal toxic debt of that inheritance. In fact we as citizens have still not
seen any accountability for it and that is beyond irksome, it is maddening.
Even though the Troika left on a plane does not mean they will not come back in
a tank if more cuts are not met to balance their books. But it is how those
cuts have been levied thus far that has shown how un- connected this Government
is. On the month of their election they voted to almost double their incomes
while cutting everyone else’s and gave lip service to more quangos and dodgy charities
than even holy Bertie, ‘man of the people,’ Ahern.
We are told by Government and media that the election of
Sinn Fein is second to the disaster of the rise of the Independents, and is
anything worse than Fianna Fail? In
fact it is Sinn Fein and Independents that show more the missing backbone at
grass root and parish pump level who want to change the old boy network, it’s
unaccountability, along with it's brown envelope culture; and at the very least
political science and the apparatus that supports it needs to be tested to see
what really works for what is there now is not working at all.
Barry Clifford
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