Thursday, September 28, 2006

Bertie makes waves across the water

Gill & Macmillan



When news relating to internal Irish politics makes it into the English papers you know there's something serious going on. David McKittrick has a full page piece in the Independent
about the so-called "loans" totalling €50,000 that the Taoiseach took from a number of prominent businessmen supposedly to finance his divorce settlement. Inappropriately enough he held the office of Finance Minister at the time. So were they tax-free gifts or interest-free loans? Bertie maintains they were loans, even though not a penny has been paid back. And the donors were subsequently appointed to positions of authority on various boards.

The sharp editorial in the same paper refers to Bertie's attempts to steer Fianna Fail away from "the politics of the brown envelope". Meanwhile across the water Tony Blair is trying to steer Labour away from the politics of the Brown envelope.

Fine Gael and Labour must be rubbing their hands with glee in anticipation of the forthcoming election.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ciaran, yes i have to agree with you regarding the Ahern issue 'making waves across the water'; In fact across many waters and airwaves.
It is not the 90s now. This Ahern issue with semantic echoes of Blair's donation-versus-loan statements has been covered by both bloggers and international press: from The International Herald Tribune to the Sydney Morning Herald and even the Quatar Times last Sunday.
Via the RTE website, the world has been exposed to a whinging Taoiseach.
I hate whingers!

CW said...

It will be interesting to see how things pan out, Margaret. I wonder if Bertie will pull off a Haughey-style escape or if he gets hounded out of office before the election. Time will tell!

Anonymous said...

Things have panned out pretty well fot Bertie gointg by the opening ceremomy of tghe All Ireland Ladies Gaelic football final between Armagh and Cork. Bertie recieved a standing ovation from 35000 young excited Irish women ? not bad for a not good week.

CW said...

Apparently t-shirts bearing the slogan "Been there, seen that bought the taoiseach" are now selling like hot cakes in Dublin.