Tonight’s Questions and Answers session in the bowels of RTÉ’s Montrose facility hosted the last public debate of the 2007 General Election in style tonight. With representatives from all the political persuasions that seemingly matter in this election were present. Simon Coveney was drafted in from Fine Gael, no doubt to keep the likes of the haggard Richard Bruton and whatever other aging clown Enda’s keeping hidden away from the public, to put a brave face on the boring party. Rabbitte represented himself, largely due to a total lack of decent talkers in the aging party. Eamonn Ryan from the Green Party reared his leafy head for some off-the-wall comments. Liz O’Donnell was fielded for the PDs in an attempt to make them look a bit sexy and Mary Lou was the Sinn Féin trump card (although the fact that Sinn Féin are even being asked to attend is eluding me now considering nobody wants to talk to them) and Fianna Fáil sent out the big dog Cowan to keep the others in check.
Cowan started off in his usual style, leaving the minority representatives say their piece and allowing Rabbitte and Coveney to peddle their wares for the audience to soak up. The drama all unfolded as the show progressed. Rabbitte brought in his no-doubt tiring anecdotes from the campaign trail about ‘on the doors’ and ‘I met a woman from Galway…’ shite that no one really cares about at this late stage in the game. Once his speil was said and done, Cowan went in for the kill. This is pure tele-visual genius. The big man from Offaly would make Mayo come out and hammer Galway last Sunday had he been given the chance to rattle them at half time. (Thankfully he didn’t and hopefully now John O’Mahoney’s dreams of being in the Dáil are dashed at last!)
Cowan is meticulous in his detail, cutting in his humor and a master of the surgical dismantling of the so-called ‘Alliance for Change’. One has to commend Rabbitte and Coveney for even showing up, because their policies seem to stand on the foot-hold of health issues, and the economy is now the voters concerns as polling day draws near. Rabbitte was left wounded on the battle field, and Coveney couldn’t muster up any argument without making a hames of it for the want of some media training. Rabbitte was so savaged that he had to resort to attacking Liz O’Donnell of the PDs in order to stave off the ravagings of the Offaly Fianna Fáil Finance Minister.
Mary Lou seemed to trod out her usual pile of complete shite about Sinn Féin being ready for government. Liz was a complete waste of effort tonight as she has pretty much no hope of ever holding a ministry unless she stops the whole ‘tut,
Overall it goes to show that experience counts. While I don’t necessarily subscribe to the notion that our health service isn’t in crisis, I don’t think Enda or Pat (or Podge and Rodge as one audience member called them) can sort it out. While I loathe the PDs, Mary Harney is the best person for the job.
It’s true what they say in the end: “It’s the economy, stupid!”
diarmy
