“Rotten apples – we’ve a barrel full of them!”

“Surprise Surprise”, as Cilla Black would once have said. Leo “The Limelight” Varadkar has with all the Wisdom of Solomon, decided to give his full backing to his embattled, beleaguered, Tánaiste, Minister Frances Fitzgerald. In many ways, he is very quickly becoming our very own version of the “Iron Lady”, Margaret Thatcher. He is very clearly “Not for turning!”

Over the last few days, right across our national media, he has repeated the same mantra, time after time, after time. He will, come hell or high water, not throw out, sack, dismiss, get rid of, abandon, or ask her to resign.

As a result, there has been nothing but incessant talk about a possible general election before Christmas. Come on Leo, we have barely had time to recover from “Trick or Treating”, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Winterval starting and the switching on of our Christmas lights. We were all beginning to feel at lot like Christmas and with one fell swoop, you have with your Scrooge “Bah humbug” attitude, put back the misery in our hearts.

If you follow through with your hard line Maggie Thatcher attitude, you will do nobody any favours. The Irish public do not want another general election and your aides, spin doctors and political advisers MUST be telling you this. Even Santa Claus, is probably writing a letter to you as we speak. You’ll be placed at the VERY TOP of his “Naughty list”, if you continue with this election threat.

I for one, don’t wish to see any politicians this side of Christmas. We want to greet carol singers knocking at our doors and not political activists, pushing regurgitated 2016 fake election promises into our face. The mood of the electorate is no election this side of Santa’s arrival. Yet once again, you seem to be ignoring the wishes of the very people who gave you the keys to the Dáil.

It now transpires, that not only did your besieged Tánaiste ignore an important email, a senior official in her department, also appears to have taken a phone call as a follow up to said email. An email, which was very conveniently forgotten by the Minister, despite the content being the hottest gossip in town.

For sure, we all make mistakes and errors of judgement, however there is a feeling that a select few are now trying to give us the run-around. Are we, the public, once again being treated like the dirt on one’s shoe?  

When this current Government and FG came to power, there were undertakings that favouritism and cronyism would be a thing of the past. That was OLD Irish politics, they said. Then Leo seized power. Grabbing the limelight and promising that there would be open transparency never seen before, in Leinster House. He very quickly rolled back on that pledge. We are now in the midst of a whirlwind of corruption, sticking two fingers up to the people of Ireland.

I am not sure there is ONE good apple in our political barrel.

Our members of the Dáil, are quite clearly prepared to do everything it takes, to greedily grab more power for their own gain. Long gone are the days, when you would throw your hat into the political arena for the betterment of your constituency. It has become more about “What’s in it for me”, rather than how can I make a real difference to the lives of the people of Ireland?

I would quite happily blacken ALL political parties with the same brush. No matter what they say in public, behind closed doors they are all the identical. All from the same malevolent gene pool. Opposition parties promise the earth, moon and stars to be elected. Yet, when and if they get in to power, their election manifesto, turns out to be a wish list, nothing more.

Will we be going to the polls before Rudolph et al, deliver Santa to your chimney, ready to sip his now customary malt whisky or even whiskey? I for one hope not.

I secretly think, that the political glitterati also wish to avoid a GE. Are they perhaps accruing a few more months on office, whilst augmenting their sizeable pensions! 

Ifs, buts and maybes!

As a passionate Scot, I could not let this week go by without writing about the Auld Country and of course the Brexit Referendum.

With the mountains of dust beginning to settle, on what was an astonishing decision for both the remain and leave faction, I get the very distinct impression that politicians on both sides of this troublesome fence have been, at best, stretching the truth and at worst, telling big fat porky pies!

From across the Irish Sea, where we are slightly removed from the real political bandwagon - that Big Red Bus with its dubious £350 million statement - we were only getting snippets of news, reports and sentiment, as reported through RTE.

However, if you are interested in politics, as I am, you would have been tuning into the BBC, Channel Four etc to get the real meat of the argument. More importantly you got to look into the proverbial eyes of politicians when tackled by a Dimbleby, a Neil or a Marr.

Over the weeks and days leading up to the historic vote, it became very clear that each side was spinning the truth. The collateral damage after the event has shown this to be the case.

The two main battle ground issues of the £350 million a week going to the EU, which would now be diverted to the NHS, was a lie! The Immigration Crisis was clearly not the problem Nigel and Boris made it out to be!

I suspect that there was far more going on in this campaign, as there always is with politics, than the issues that grabbed the headlines.

Clearly, Boris and his Machiavellian cohorts, have been plotting in the background to orchestrate a leadership change in the Tory Party. However, history will tell you that the assassin does not always become King and if he does his reign is often short lived.

Deep down, I would not be surprised if Boris actually appreciated Europe more than most on the leave side and what he actually tried to manipulate, was a referendum result where the “Leave Team” lost by 4%, Cameron resigned, and he took over the Tory Party leadership, without the need to leave the European Union!

“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, Gang aft agley” (Robert Burns 1785, “Tae a Moose”).

Unfortunately, for Boris, this was not the final result, as Farage was the stick in the bicycle wheel spokes, tossing the rider from his seat. The Farage far right rhetoric, bordering on racist scaremongering, made sure that Boris and his schemers lost this vote.

Unlike other elections, this vote cannot be reversed after a political term in office, where we can vote out the usurpers. Decision made – you’re stuck with it!

So what did we learn from this referendum? Boris is being lined up for short-term gain but long-term disaster and Corbyn is driving with the handbrake on.

Politicians are NOT in touch with the people who vote them in and this is endemic right through the political process. Unless you are paying attention to the political system, taking a keen interest, then at every election, National or Local, you will be hoodwinked by the “lies, damned lies and statistics” that our representatives blabber when your vote IS most needed.

There appears to be no turning back, but like all these convoluted processes, there may well be light at the end of this very dark tunnel.

I suspect that once Boris or A.N. Other sacrificial lamb, negotiates Brexit we will see all manner of compromise, on both sides of the European Border, and a pseudo exit will be negotiated.

Will we learn from this historic decision? Of course we won’t because we will always vote for a monkey and not an organ grinder.

The good news is we can now bring back “Spitting Image”, as the Boris and Trump combo, will be the Thatcher and Reagan of this 21^st Century.