Political World
Leo content to bide his time as leader in waiting
World of Politics by Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com
People with a fascination for politics nearly always want to know the same thing – and the question is mostly framed like this: “What’s yer man really like?”
Without a doubt, the one most people want to get the inside track on is Leo Varadkar.
From the moment he arrived on the political scene – and long before he came out as gay – Varadkar has excited comment. Perhaps it’s his Indian heritage. Perhaps it’s the name. Eamon de Valera had the same slightly ‘exotic’ quality.
Not yet 40, Varadkar is perhaps the most recognised politician of his generation, and the person who has already been singled out as a future leader of the party.
A poll in the Sunday Independent last Sunday identified him as the clear favourite to succeed Enda Kenny, whenever the Mayo politician decides to step down. His nearest rival, Simon Coveney is lagging 15 points behind.
Indeed, if you are looking for a counterpart, there are remarkable similarities between himself and Michael Portillo the darling of the Conservative Party during the 1980s and early 1990s, in terms of background, profile, and ideology.
But Portillo’s brashness at the time ultimately made him into a divisive figure and he paid a high price for it. He has, incidentally, mellowed since then, as has Varadkar. The young fogey with outspoken views has become more collegiate over the years.
Six years ago, in an interview with me, he said: “My instinct is to say it as I see it, being a little bit edgy and showing leadership on policy issues. I have always stuck my neck out on policy issues.”
But he has also the capacity to occasionally be more circumspect.
During the leadership campaign in 2010, he got some needle on social media. He promptly deleted his Twitter account. The reason? “It was just to stop myself sending tweets that I would later regret.”
His outspokenness has got him into hot water on more than one occasion. In a remarkable contribution in 2010 he employed a bizarre line of argument when criticising Taoiseach Brian Cowen in the Dail.
He compared him to Fine Gael leader Garret FitzGerald, who, he said, tripled the national debt and destroyed the county. He told Cowen that he should go and start “writing boring articles in The Irish Times”, a reference to FitzGerald’s column. The outburst caused consternation within Fine Gael, and was considered by some as an act of sacrilege.
Later in 2014, he publicly praised Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe and also criticised then Garda commissioner Martin Callinan for his “disgusting” comment. That intervention put a lot of pressure on then Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and may have been partly responsible for his political demise.
Of course, when the same sex marriage referendum was passed, Varadkar became possibly the most popular politician in the country and still commands huge support among younger voters.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
Academically, politics is described as a science. But in the real world, it’s more of an art – and one of the big decisions a Government has to make is to decide when to call an election.
Will they see out the full term, or will they go early – either to mitigate the damage they will ship, or to secure a victory before things go awry, or the economy takes a dip, or some kind of controversy erupts?
Timing is everything.
And there’s a bit of art to that – not to mention a lot of luck. If you call it early and win big, you’re a genius. If you call it early and lose, you are the political version of the village fool.
Charlie Haughey was a poor judge of the public mood. Twice he called snap elections and on both occasions they backfired. Haughey succeeded Jack Lynch as Taoiseach in late 1979 and did not – technically – have his own mandate. He tried to remedy that by calling an election in 1981. But it recoiled. Ray MacSharry warned him not to hold it during the H Block hunger strikes when republican prisoners were dying each day. He did not listen to the advice and found himself out of office.
After his return to power in 1987, Haughey tired of presiding over a minority government that kept on losing votes in the Oireachtas (the opposition won nine private members motions).
So he called a snap general election and it backfired. Fianna Fáil lost seats and had to broker a coalition deal with the Progressive Democrats and his long-standing political adversary Dessie O’Malley.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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World of Politics with Harry McGee
I was cycling down Mount Street in Dublin on Tuesday. It’s a wide esplanade that links the Grand Canal with Merrion Square. The street is a mixture of fine Georgian buildings and modern office blocks.
About half-way down is the office of the International Protection Office, which deals with asylum seekers who have arrived in the country.
Needless to say, the office has been overwhelmed in the past year. Besides an estimated 80,000 refugees who have arrived from Ukraine, there have been about 20,000 people from other parts of the world who have arrived into Dublin (mostly) claiming asylum.
The numbers peaked around Christmas, but they have been falling a little. In January, more than 1,300 people arrived seeking asylum but the numbers fell back to 831 and 858, in February and March respectively.
They are still huge numbers in a historical context.
So back to my cycle on Tuesday. I knew that some asylum seekers were camping outside the International Protection Office, but I was taken aback by how many. There were six tents lined up on the pavement directly outside. Then on the ramp that led down to the basement carpark on the side of the building, there were about another 20 tents.
It looked like what it was, a refugee camp in the middle of Dublin’s business district. If you pan out from Mount Street, you will find tents here and there in nearby streets and alleys. There were a good few tents in an alleyway off Sandwith Street about 500 metres away.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
God that was a dramatic and historic weekend in England, wasn’t it? So much excitement, so much change, so much hype, so much out with the old and in with the new, and what looks like the coronation of a new leader. Yes, the local elections in Britain were something else weren’t they!
Apologies for not going on about King Charles III but the contract I signed when I became a lifelong republican forbids me to discuss the topic!
I know the British local elections sound a bit boring by comparison, but the results were stunning.
The Conservatives lost nearly 1,000 seats, the British Labour Party gained almost 500 and both the Lib Dems (with 350 gains) and the Greens (gaining over 200) also had amazing days at the polls.
It was Labour’s best day since 2002 but its victory was only partial. The Greens and the Lib Dems actually made gains at the expense of Labour in more affluent areas, and in parts of Britain where there were high numbers of graduates.
It was in the Red Wall constituencies in the North of England where the Labour recovery was strongest. These are working class constituencies with pockets of deprivation where people voted for the Labour Party forever. But all of those constituencies voted for Brexit and then voted for the Tories in the next general election. Labour is now winning back some of those votes.
Local elections are classified as second-tier elections which essentially means – from a national perspective – they are not life-or-death affairs, and not everything turns on them. Of course, it’s really important to have good local representation. But they are not an amazing weather vane for who rules the country.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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