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Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Paying the price for putting style over substance
By James Laffey
WE ARE our own worst enemies when it comes to selecting politicians for high office.
That’s the conclusion this writer came to on hearing the gales of laughter that greeted Mary O’Rourke’s attack on ‘dull’ Enda Kenny during a recent Late Late Show appearance.
Presenter Ryan Tubridy had asked the Fianna Fáil warhorse what she thought of the Fine Gael leader and, predictably, she put the boot in by attacking Kenny’s ‘dull’ personality.
Ironically, most people in Co Mayo who have had any personal contact with Kenny would argue that he is anything but ‘dull’, and infuriated Fine Gael members have been quick to make that point since the Late Late Show farce. But the Fine Gael people who defend Kenny are as deluded as the Fianna Fáil people who seem to believe that accusing a political opponent of being ‘dull’ is a good way to win votes.
Personally I don’t care if the next Taoiseach is the dullest man in Ireland as long as he gets people back to work and tackles the appalling injustices that are now a common feature of Irish society. The next Taoiseach can – to use the old cliché – be as dull as ditchwater and I’ll excuse him for it, as long as he does the job he is elected to do.
Part of the problem in Irish politics is that we – the voters – have a terrible weakness for rewarding style over substance. Bertie Ahern was elected Taoiseach on three separate occasions on the grounds that he was especially good at kissing babies and hugging grandmothers. No one ever thought to ask about Ahern’s political philosophy and consequently we ended up with a Taoiseach whose lack of vision caused Ireland’s economy to careen towards a cliff from which we are now hanging by our fingernails.
We can blame politicians all we want for their inability to perform their duties but as long as we applaud people like Mary O’Rourke we are on the road to nowhere. I have a lot of admiration for Mary O’Rourke, whose straight-talking is refreshing and entertaining, but it is also worth pointing out that she was part of a Government that effectively destroyed the country’s prospects of long-term prosperity.
She is also so embedded in Fianna Fáil politics that she cannot see the failure of her own party leader to communicate an effective economic strategy with the people he is supposed to be governing.
One of the comments that was made in the wake of the Late Late Show was that both Enda Kenny and Brian Cowen are entertaining company and great men to share a pint with. Is there any other country on earth where a prospective prime minister would be judged on whether or not he is good company in a bar? It’s pure, unadulterated madness, and if we don’t adopt a smarter and more discerning method of selecting our future leaders we will continue to stumble from one crisis to the next.
We live in a superficial age where style often matters more than substance but one would like to think that the crises of the past two years has led to a reassessment of the criteria for electing people to public office. Firstly, we need to get beyond the outdated Civil War politics of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and, secondly, we need to accept that an all-singing, all-kissing, all-hugging Taoiseach might not necessarily be the solution to our problems.
If being ‘dull’ disqualifies a person from becoming Taoiseach, we might as well get Louis Walsh to run a television show, and select the next Taoiseach by a text poll. If that’s the case, my vote goes to Jedward who are anything but ‘dull’ and who are almost as good as Bertie Ahern at the kissing and hugging routine.
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