Brian was
never a name that, in all honesty, struck fear into any man (sorry Brians of
this world)! To me, this name will be forever associated with the BBC
children’s, stop animation TV series, “The Magic Roundabout”.
Those of a
certain vintage, will recall that the snail in the Trilby hat, was called
Brian. He never did anything exciting, or frightening for that matter. Episode
after episode, he would do nothing more than wander ever so slowly and
aimlessly, around the set and that roundabout. He attempted to dish out the odd
piece of advice, but never an angry or cross word was uttered, by “Brian the
snail”.
If these
weather themed names were to be maintained, then I think that the next few
storms should have been called; Coral, Dougal or Dylan and not forgetting
Ermintrude, the pink coo! None of these names would strike terror into any
human being.
Caroline is
the next designated storm for Ireland and the UK. Followed, coincidently enough
by a Dylan. I assume not identified with the dozy, lethargic rabbit, from “The
Magic Roundabout”? Apparently named, after the real Bob Dylan! There is even an
Iona, a Hector, a Larry and a Winifred!!! I doubt there’s a scary forename,
amongst this year’s chosen 21.
Is it me or
has anyone else noticed, that the storms bearing female specific gender, are more
wrathful and angrier than the male counterparts? I know I may have just opened up
an astronomic can of worms with this statement, but it does seem so!
In the
midst of saying goodbye to one storm and welcoming another, the Government’s
post-budget road trip was cancelled last week. On safety advice both Leo and
Paschal, quite rightly, chose to park the company jet, save on a wee bit of
fuel and leave visiting Waterford City and County until a future date.
There was
much excitement in many a local Fine Gael Councillor’s household, with this imminent
visit of the two most powerful men in Irish politics. We even heard on thegrapevine,
that they were coming to announce securing the circa €61,000,000 for our North Quay
development. Alas, we will have to wait just a wee bit longer for this project to
get over the line. In the meantime we continue to anticipate and be intrigued
by the many other reported developments apparently in the pipeline, supporting
this SDZ.
I just hope
that these two TDs actually manage to find their way to Waterford. To date,
this Government’s record has not been overly encouraging. Let’s face it, we are
a priority to neither of these Dublin-Centric power brokers.
No good
news on the money front!
But fear
not, as we read about Waterford taking the lead in building a tranche of brand
new council houses. The work of one Councillor doing another solo run,
apparently! Yet our Minister is also claiming credit for this miracle delivery,
of 31 new housing units in Waterford City. Read the small print! You’ll see
that these have been scheduled, planned, designed and talked about for some significant
time. They should have been provided long before even Ex Ophelia appeared.
Red tape
and bureaucratic shenanigans, by senior civil servants, conspire to hold this
project up. Sounds familiar? Not for the first time we have had to wait for
someone else to line up his or her ducks.
Building
council houses on Local Authority owned land has to be a simple, quick process,
doesn’t it? By all accounts it’s not. There are many, many hoops to jump
through. Why does everything have to be sooooo complicated? Can we not just
make the right decisions and deliver on the “Programme for Government”?
Ex Ophelia
and Brian have walked right on by Waterford, en route to another destination.
They came promising so much and gave us a very small insight into the dormant
power of nature. I am sure that they’ve both left plenty in the tank.
Will we get
as excited when Leo and Paschal next storm into our City? I leave that for you
to consider, dear readers.
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