Same old story - FG-FF, we all lose

[Spudulika]

With the little leaks being put out to prepare us, with the stress test results announced before Noonan takes the floor of the Dail, and now listening to him waffle, we're in the same situation. FG were never going to shaft their buddies and backers, Ireland drops further into debt as the banks grab more loot to return to the ECB via lenders. Sick and tired of this.

[Eminence Grise]

Eoin O’Neachtain, former press office in the Defence Forces and the ESB is still in situ as the Government Press Secretary. He was appointed by Bertie. Mark Costigan, former PD appointment as his deputy (deputy head of GIS), is now James Reilly’s press officer.

I’ve been studying/working/lecturing in PR/pol comms for nearly 15 years and can’t recall any new government retaining the previous incumbents’ most senior spin doctors. Granted EO’N is only there until another ex Defence Forces press officer takes over later this year, but it suggests to me that FG needed to maintain a consistency in messaging predating their elevation to power. Which also suggests that they are unable to carry out their own messaging, and have to toe an EU/IMF line.

EO’N’s style as a press officer has always been to get his retaliation in first, and the leaks paved the way for us to accept what was coming, and for Noonan to excoriate Lenihan this afternoon.

[Spudulika]

Thank you EG, I was really wondering what was going on. One of my best friends is a FG staffer and she told me that what was going on beggared belief (in terms of the banks). I read David McWilliams today and what he said made sense. Now this evening we have the old boys being bailed out and the EU/IMF rescuing their buddies too. I know I'll be hammered for saying this, but Labour will end up being unelectable if they continue with this tripe. We'll be welcoming back in the FF wrecking crew in 2-3 years time.

Interestingly, something very, very similiar happened in Croatia a decade ago. The utterly corrupt (and fellow EPP member with FG) HDZ were finally thrown out of office - not before securing immunity for the top echelon of their leaders and backers - and the very correct and decent SDP came in with a rainbow coalition (mainly left with some Liberals and the peasants party), however as soon as they opened the books they realised why the contemptible Tudjman and his warmongers had been so keen to go to war. The coalition ruptured, reformed (after 2 years) and lasted one tortured year more before HDZ swept back into power with the backing of.......Bertie Ahern and Angela Merkel - who gave campaign messages of support for the rotten to the core Sanader (now under arrest after running like a rat). At the time, November 2003, I wrote and called everyone I could in the Irish media and finally the Indo published the excerpt of a letter - after the election had been decided. I know it sounds mad, but Bertie's backing ad was played on the hour every hour on the 4 main stations and of course Ireland was being touted as a poster child for rapid development at the time.

What happened next was the removal of democracy and the mass sale of state assets, wholesale corruption and the near destruction of swathes of the environment due to horrible planning, pollution and outdated infrastructure. The economy went into decline and only when the government gave up trying to massage tourist figures, the true stories emerged of how the main money maker for the country was on its knees.

This FG-led cabal are looking to go the same way.

[BonnieShels]

I think that's a slight overexaggeration. They have been in charge for 3 weeks. I don't think there was much room for maneuver. I'm disgusted at what's going on but let's not forget why we are here.

Things will change. Just not as quick as we had hoped. If they don't FG are goosed. Nevermind Labour.

[total hoofball]

With the little leaks being put out to prepare us, with the stress test results announced before Noonan takes the floor of the Dail, and now listening to him waffle, we're in the same situation. FG were never going to shaft their buddies and backers, Ireland drops further into debt as the banks grab more loot to return to the ECB via lenders. Sick and tired of this.

When I'm broke, malnourished and without internet access like the majority of the population will be 2013 after the FF/GP/FG/LAB/EU led soverign default at least I'll take comfort that I saw through the lies of Fine Gael and Labour before polling day.

or maybe I'll just save myself the hassel and GTFO out of this doomed failed state in time

[total hoofball]

I don't think there was much room for maneuver.

Yes we do. We ARE crashing towards a miserable default ANYWAY so with NOTHING TO LOSE put the gun to the EU's heads and it they don't get the finger out we take them down with us. Kenny and Noonan have rolled up to let the EU stick us and Greece, Portugal in quarantine until 2013 to save the German and French banks.

31 March 2011 was as bad an act of treachery by Fine Gael and Labour than anything Fianna Fail have inflicted upon this failed state

[Spudulika]

I think that's a slight overexaggeration. They have been in charge for 3 weeks. I don't think there was much room for maneuver. I'm disgusted at what's going on but let's not forget why we are here.

Things will change. Just not as quick as we had hoped. If they don't FG are goosed. Nevermind Labour.

BonnieShels, I wish it were an overexaggeration, then I'd have had tongue in cheek. It's just more of the same from the ruling classes. Labour never should have gone into coalition (I said this before the election), it should have been FG-FF and that way the two most damned parties in the State would be wiped out. Instead Labour grabbed a chance of govenrment and will be part and parcel of the ruin. This new situation with the banks was more of the same. It was a continuation of FF policy that could have been stopped. Burden-sharing, crap, why should the taxes I pay at home go towards covering part of the debts of those who can well afford to lose?

We know why we are in the mess we're in, because those who have ruled us since before Independence continue to tell us what is right. Of course the common Joe overspent - all fake tan for 7 year olds, crystal carriages etc - as opposed to what? Buying up swathes of foreign cities and then flogging them back to eejits at home? Then when it all goes bang the eejits at home still have to pay for the mistakes made by those who rule. It's nonsense and it will never change. It's never going to change so long as we continue in the wake of the mother country, and it's not just financial, a look at our thoughtful media confirms it.

BonnieShels, sorry is this is ott, I just cannot fathom out why it is happening. Noonan I know is not the nicest of people, his past performance in the Blood scandal should preclude him from public life alone - though since he makes nice soundbites and is a cute hoor he's some type of hero. But when you see the same characters doing the same thing over and over, and with support from the public, it beggars belief.

[Macy]

31 March 2011 was as bad an act of treachery by Fine Gael and Labour than anything Fianna Fail have inflicted upon this failed state
Whatever about the decisions announced (personally I'm still deciding what I think), this statement is pure bóllox. It may or may not be the wrong decision, they may have had other options, but their options are/ were severely limited by what they took over. The blanket guarantee got us in this mess, and even if FG did vote for it by bizarrely trusting Lenihan, the blame still lies with FF for 14 years of mismanagement - how you can blame FG/Labour after 3 feckin weeks!?!

My initial reaction, apart from the wider playing hardball argument, is what a waste of 2 1/2 years trying to avoid nationalising the banking system! Whether it would've been sustainable would still be open to question, but the drip drip of wrong figures and announcements that the banking system is "fixed" by Lenihan and FF is a huge part of the problem as much as the actual figures. If we'd let Anglo go, and nationalised the rest then, we could've been well on the way to recovery by now.

How can Brian "cheapest bailout in the world, ever" Lenihan still be FF finance spokesman? Bizarre that they'd retain him, but excellent for the continued demise of the party that got us here.

On press secretaries - would've thought they'd be retained in the interim while the new Government replaces them. It's actually good if they're focussed on more important things. Hardly a shock that PD people are close to FG - several former PD's got elected for FG ffs.

[mypost]

I think that's a slight overexaggeration. They have been in charge for 3 weeks. I don't think there was much room for maneuver. I'm disgusted at what's going on but let's not forget why we are here.

Things will change. Just not as quick as we had hoped. If they don't FG are goosed. Nevermind Labour.

It's not a slight overexaggeration, it's hysterical.

The government have no choice but to continue to prop up the banks. As much as we hate it, that's the situation the FF government put us in. I'm more frustrated that after all the questions, all the shows, all the advice since the banks went bust, we're still dealing with this problem. We're still dealing with it because FF got their figures and forecasts wrong throughout the last term.

In general, I think the government has got off to a good start, and think it will continue to improve, despite the economic conditions and restrictions there currently are.

[geysir]

Which also suggests that they are unable to carry out their own messaging, and have to toe an EU/IMF line.
In case there is some misunderstanding here, the IMF have little to do with this scam. This is a scam born in the Euro zone.
The IMF are lumped in with the ECB as if they are joint partners as architects of this policy of transferring private debt to sovereign debt and somehow dictating the policy to the Irish government. The reality is that the IMF are participating in a predetermined ECB/Euro zone process
The IMF have no policy to save bondholders in an insolvent bank. The IMF provide reasonable interest loans to sovereign states who have no other place to turn.

Transferring private debt to sovereign debt is an ECB/Euro zone policy. This does not apply to EU countries outside the Euro zone. If Denmark had applied to the IMF for a bridging loan to help it though the insolvency process of a few banks, the IMF couldn't care less about the bondholders in an insolvent Danish bank - they may well care that the process was done legally. The IMF don't dictate/persuade the process.

[peadar1987]

It's always the way, people vote for the party of low personal taxation so they can afford to get Jedward to perform at little Destiny-Jane's first holy communion, instead of a party that might actually invest the wealth in the future of the country.

[Eminence Grise]

On press secretaries - would've thought they'd be retained in the interim while the new Government replaces them.

No, it is highly unusual. I don't think it has ever happened since the GPO became a politial appointment back in the 1970s (I think that happened around Ted Nealon's time). The Government Information Service has a permanent staff of around 4-6 civil servants. Those civil servants have enough expertise to advise a new government until it appoints its own Government Press Officer and Head of GIS, which is a very short period of time anyway, since the pol corrs need a “go to” person immediately. The outgoing office holders are unwanted and unneeded.

It’s partly bloodymindedness in kicking out everybody associated with the old regime. It’s also a plum job for the party press officer, or a high-profile journalist with sympathies towards the party. Considering that EO’N was appointed by FF, if you were in FG, would you leave him there, knowing he had a direct line to your most bitter rival, and was responsible for all the criticisms and mud FF flung at FG? You wouldn’t, unless you had no other option but to keep him around.