Horses & Irish Politics

"If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,"

Cheltenham is around again and Fianna Fail are there in numbers. Current Minister, John O’ Donoghue, mixing it up with ex Minister, Charlie McCreevy. The two, mixing with the crowds, the media filling their papers on who the politicos have backed, who they are with and their pictures to accompany them – all for free.

Where are Fine Gail and Labour? These are the parties that believe they are to be the next in Government? Perhaps, if like Prodi, they can get together a coalition of another 7 parties. The public seem to have the perception that the opposition are quiet because they are about to do something big – it never happens. The only time we hear of the opposition in the media is to denounce some new government policy that has just been released. This immature, naïve and ridiculous strategy does not work! The conservative governments of Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard are prime examples of its failure. Perhaps it worked in the 70’s?

If flat racing is the sport of kings then national hunt is where you need the common touch. At Cheltenham the punter, winning or losing, is king – even Dev would have gone to Cheltenham.

People aren’t necessarily FF voters but until there is an alternative they will be. I will be and I don’t want to be.

Enda, Pat, Trevor, etc, etc, what ever you are planning, I hope it’s good!

Tribunal Costs in Ireland

Recently, experimenting with various tools that Google provide (beta versions), I have come to the conclusion that the Irish have become one of the most superficial nations among those nations that have high internet penetration. I am assuming that the Masi and the like, even though they do not have high internet penetration have different priorities other than kitchens, Mercedes Benz’s and Manolo Blahniks – then again they do have their MBT’s! Although they don’t have to pay €200 + for the pleasure of having the feeling of walking on sand. They were clever; they figured the cheaper option was to cover their nation in sand than pay the dosh! We are just catching up to what they evolved too many years ago!

But seriously, if you look at various trends among nations and what they search for, Ireland surpass almost everyone when it comes to searching for luxury products (now known as SELUPRO) – you can quote me.

We have prioritised the search for “Weddings”, “Wedding Stationery”, “Kitchens”, “Jimmy Choo”, etc, etc far more highly than day to day goods and also more highly in comparison to the same luxury searches in many other countries. As well as this the gap between luxury goods searches and day to day goods is generally less in other countries.

Now, I wonder is it because these countries already have these goods and are looking for ultra luxury or is it because we are not seeing the cotton for the Haut Couture?

Perhaps this is the train of thought that we have when we decide to investigate some public scandal, we could go to some shop that will sell a perfectly good tribunal but we want one with a label on it and pay four times as much.

Michael McDowell - The Academic Hypocrite

No one doubts the inebriating intellectuality of McDowell. However, he is too intelligent for grass root politics. The strength of his academic prowess is more than negated by his uncommon touch.

Like Martin Mansergh (FF) his position in the PD's should be in the engine room of the party. He is an academic politician and his passion to serve the public would be better utilised in the background than officiating at the coal face. As an aside, at least Mansergh stays out of the limelight knowing that he is uncomfortable in it, however, he is still on the ticket for the GOP in the May 2007 election’s - a mistake. FF are more likely to carry two seats in South Tipperary through the ubiquitous Mattie "The Mauler" McGrath and Siobhán Ambrose than the Mansergh and Ambrose combination.

McDowell is uncomfortable among the voters, almost like a boy being given a baby to hold, nervous and dismissive. As well as his fumbling of the flesh he recently made one of his typical hit and run forays to the press, galvanising as much column inches for the labouring PD's. He had the gall to admonish the cost of the tribunals (not that he is incorrect), a consequence of the extraordinary fees that his own ilk are feeding on. Does he forget that he (WE!) recently paid, according to the latest Sunday Business Post (March 11th 2007), twice the price for the new prison site at Thornton Hall than it is worth?

Blogmania Ireland!

Irish bloggers have been given air time over the past couple of days as direct consequence of the Irish blogging awards – no one denies anyone the right to promote their hobby (and in some cases more than that). However, on a News Talk programme over the weekend, the ludicrous claim has been made by one blogger that Irish blogs will have a tangible effect on the Irish general elections in May 2007. As well as this, in various media forms we are told the importance of blogging as a medium to the masses. These are statements misted by the exuberance of a good night out rather than clarity of the real situation.

The most popular blogs in Ireland are receiving a couple of thousand visits a day, this figure includes visits from other country’s that are more than likely not eligible to vote in an Irish election. Of these daily hits it is certain that many of these are repeat visits (from the blogging clique), further narrowing the number of people you are actually possibly influencing.

The small figure that visit Irish political blogs are made even more diminutive by the latest JNRS ratings that show paper sales in Ireland are still growing and three of the biggest national daily papers, the Irish Independent, the Irish Times and the Irish Daily Star have combined daily sales of 1,272,000. There are several other dailies that increase the figure by several hundred thousand. You can assume that many of these papers themselves are read multiple times as they are dog eared from the manhandling in the coffee shops of the country. Yours truly probably reads snatches of three or four papers a day.

The only way a couple of thousand visits could influence an Irish election is if all the visits were from the same constituency which of course they are not, they are national visits.

Irish bloggers should wake up from their hangovers, yes blogging is important. It is important for the niche group that do blog, it is probably one of the largest communes in Ireland. The latest figure suggests that there are three to four thousand bloggers in Ireland, we are growing fast, soon we will multiply, our blogets feeding off the nearest breast to hand.

Blogging is a benign accessory to real media. Even the bloggers themselves must now realise this as two of the prominent Irish bloggers, Richard Waghorn and Sarah Carey are now columnists on the Irish Daily Mail and Sunday Times respectively. It is now possible their columns might influence people whether it is politically, morally, etc, etc.

And yes, their blogs will be an accessory to their work but that is all. A clasp on the strap of a Jimmy Choo!