Forget the first 100 days, Leo’s first 100 hours were mighty!

Donald “The” Trump, as president of the “Good Old US of A”, was assessed on his progress, as the newest resident of the White House, after only 100 days. Our latest and youngest ever Taoiseach, Leo “The Lion” Varadkar, has already courted so much controversy that we need only look to his first “100 hours” in office to read his mindset.

When you dig deeper into his cabinet appointments, you can see that there is really very little to shout about, for Ireland’s Oldest City and the wider region.

As with ALL cabinet reshuffles, there will be the inevitable winners and losers, prior to all the dust settling and before the unavoidable fallout starts. The best you can hope for, is that your own TDs get a gig on the back of putting at least one of their big feet into the right camp. For Waterford that foot surprisingly, belonged to our very own “Scarlet Pimpernel”, from the “Westh” of the county, John Deasy. There can be no doubt that having put his head above the parapet to support Leo, he could have expected a small token Junior Minster post, in one of the more obscure Government Departments.

 

“Surprise, Surprise!”, as Cilla Black would have said, Waterford was given no such recognition. In fact the whole of the South East was left remarkably short of any representation at Leo’s round table of cabinet lovies. As he was ignoring the “Sunny South East”, he also disregarded many a talented female TD and loaded his Ministerial roles with men from Mars.

Across the border in County Kilkenny, there was significant recognition for John Paul Phelan and a post to the very Department that looks after our local government. This was after all the very man who was so vociferous on the boundary issue, that I and many others suspected he was the very reason that Simon Coveney choose not to implement the report’s recommendations. Did John Paul have one foot in each camp during the Fine Gael leadership election campaign? He may very well have done and do you know what, it was such a pity that our own could not manoeuvre the chess pieces around the board to do the same? He supported Coveney and yet wooed Varadkar. The result was a role as a serious influencer for his constituency and lots of positive PR for himself.

Unfortunately, both the political heavyweight parties see our nearest neighbours as either 2 or 3 seat constituencies. Waterford on the other hand looks like it may well return 1,1,1,1, for the foreseeable future. Unless, I hate to say this, we somehow return 3 FF or 3 FG we will continue to see political tumbleweed blowing us through Dáil Éireann. Waterford, as a political force, has been out flanked by our surrounding counties and the net result will be the odd minuscule crumb, thrown to us every now and again.

The sad truth is that we cannot even get this Government to deliver a poultry circa €2 million project for increased Catherisation Laboratory facilities. This is chicken feed spending to an Irish Government! All around the country other TDs are delivering quietly and efficiently, services their constituent voters want and demand. All done outside of the glare of national press scrutiny and publicity. We here in Waterford, are being stitched up like the proverbial kipper!

I fear that unless the UHW situation is fixed with a long term plan, we could very well see a stand alone candidate being elected for Waterford in the next general election. The sad truth is “What good will this do us?” As he/she will be one lone voice, outside of the sphere of Government influence, wandering aimlessly around the corridors of Leinster House.

Our other crumb of comfort is that Leo’s mother hails from County Waterford. This of course means that he will see his home county as somewhere that needs special attention, ahead of all other constituencies! A Junior Minister post for a sitting FG Dungarvan TD perhaps? Oh bugger, I forgot that dice has already been cast!

So we in Waterford are once again waking up, scratching our heads, thinking “Groundhog Day?”

Sadly, YET again!

It is with heavy hearts that our attention is once again turned to London and the horrid events that surrounded the fire which engulfed Grenfell Tower last week. Our thoughts and prayers go to the families of those who were caught up in this dreadful yet avoidable tragedy.

At the time of writing this week’s article, there was news filtering through about yet another possible terrorist attack in the London Borough of Finsbury Park. This latest attack appears to have targeted the Muslim community, during the period of Ramadan. Early accounts indicate, that a lone male deliberately drove a rented white van, down a cul de sac, mowing down people who were gathering for a post-prayer evening supper. The driver of the van was, by eye witness accounts, heroically tackled by members of the public and subsequently arrested, after being detained in hospital.

London and her people have suffered tremendously in the last few weeks and I hope that there are many lessons to be learned. I do fear that in relation to the Grenfell Tower, the shutters will be raised and wagons circled by the Council of Kensington and Chelsea. Officialdoms’ lips will be sealed, as people and members of the public start to ask what horrid set of circumstances could have lead to the unnecessary, high loss of so many innocent lives? The death toll is bound to rise in the coming days, as emergency services sift through the charred remains of flats.

The devastation and ferocity of the fire must mean that many of the remaining victims of this inferno will only be identified by dental records or DNA profiling. Once the painstaking process of accessing and examining each individual flat is complete, there are reports that over 100 people could have died last week, in Grenfell Tower.

 

Here in Waterford and in general across the majority of Ireland we, thankfully, do not have such density of high rise accommodation blocks. Those that do exist, will I imagine, be immediately examined by local councils and checked for appropriate fire safety, correct fire wall protection, early warning smoke alarms, sprinkler systems etc. Failure to act as a result of what has happened in London would be criminal, in any sense of the word.

However, such is the “Protection” around local council ivory towers, that many will feel that they do not need to do any more. Because as far as they are concerned, they are already doing just enough and they will not spend another penny unless they absolutely have to.

I wrote about “Golden Circles” and “BIG tubes” last week. In closed offices and behind tightly locked doors there will be a natural tendency, for out of touch officialdom, to start spinning the “Not on our doorstep” mentality. We will see people in the coming days and weeks ahead, being quite firm in their assessment. This tragedy would not happen in their area of authority. Yet how can we be sure that this is the case?

After all, so many of our officials are simply out of touch with their electorate and ultimately their paymasters.

For example. Last weekend in Waterford, the Sunny South East finally lived up to its name. The hottest weekend of the year – hurrah I hear you cry! It was so hot, that on Sunday the “Bargain basement” tarmac on our roads was melting.

Summer in the City was in full swing, keeping many a family and visitor alike in John Robert’s Square. The Churchyard Sessions are proving to be a huge success as well, tucked in behind The Reg. The Waterford Triathlon Club’s annual “Hook or by Crook” race, attracted hundreds of competitors and visitors to Dunmore East (a big well done to Team 247 as well, on the unexpected relay win, with an extra hard pedalling Biscuit!). Lismore held the annual Immrama Festival of Writing, with the likes of Colm Toibin and Terry Waite attending. There really was a hell of a lot going on.

 

Yet, against this backdrop of sun, frolicking, sea and sand, I heard reports of out of touch Councillors, complaining about spending “Our” money on supporting these events! Events that bring joy to so many.

Get out from behind your closed doors and engage! 

“Golden Circles” and "BIG Tubes" everywhere!

Was it any real surprise the UK voters gave Theresa May’s Tory Government a bloody nose and, if truth be told, a damn good kicking last week in the UK’s surprise general election? An election that was supposed to increase the Tory majority to such a size that May could, quite literally, steamroll her policies through the Westminster Parliament with gay abandon. 

May’s so called “Dementia Tax”, ensured that thousands of traditional bedrock Tory voters would jump ship, for fear of losing their homes, farms or property. This, along with many other “Stupid” manifesto promises, well and truly put several nails in her coffin.

In the meantime, that wily old fox that is Jeremy Corbyn, promised young and old voters, the earth, moon and the stars. In terms of what he would deliver, for FREE, if he and his Labour party were given the mandate to govern the UK. Let us not forget that it is always easier in opposition at election time, to guarantee voting nirvana, when you don’t actually have to make the books of Government balance. The same, back of a fag packet economics, goes on at the moment with FF, SF and the so called Independent Alliance. Their economic policies as individual stand alone plans, probably do stand up to individual scrutiny. But, as a combined fiscal strategy, these are as watertight as a sieve.

It is also worth pointing out, that there was a huge amount of arrogance within the May campaign. That could clearly be seen on her battle bus’s shrink wrapped blue colour scheme and campaign slogan, “Theresa May for Britain” – no mention of the Tory party! There was very little acknowledgement of the actual Conservative Party, but lots of references to what Theresa May would do for the voter.

In the end May lost the trust of the voters and Corbyn gained the trust, albeit temporarily, of many others. Nobody really expected Labour to win, but many were prepared to give May a handicap to impede her run towards another “Solid” term in office. Her majority Government is no more and a rather uncomfortable alliance is now being sought, with that “Most stable” of parties the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)! I just wonder if Arlene Foster will ask for too much and that the Tories will be back to the people in a few months time?

It would seem now, that both UK and our own Irish politicians are much more remote from us, their paymasters. I put this down to the “Golden Circles” that they inevitably surround themselves with. After all, if your Cabinet, committees and work teams are all made up of “Lovies” and people who are prepared to “Lick arse”, then you are going to always get a consensus of opinion. There will be absolutely no buffer against someone standing up and saying “A hum, excuse me, but maybe, just maybe this is not what our voters want?”

To put it another way and to use a cycling analogy. Supposing you are unfortunate enough to get a puncture on your bike, whilst out on our Greenway and replace the inner tube with the wrong sized tube, i.e. you put on a bigger tube, then you are in real trouble. Whilst all may look well on the outside, whilst you cycle the bike, the ride will be extremely unstable and well, downright dangerous. The fact is that Governments are, in far too many instances, putting on “Big tubes”, instead of finding the right and correct size in the first place. They are guaranteeing themselves a bumpy ride by being downright lazy in not doing the right thing in the first place.

“Golden Circles” are here to stay. I fear that they are now becoming accepted, as part of our everyday lives in terms of politics. You can be sure that during the FG leadership election campaign, groups of the chosen few, from each camp, would have been sitting in darkened rooms paying tribute to their own efforts to get their man elected.

Unfortunately, we in Waterford don’t even have access to the “Bronze Circle”. For the foreseeable future, we will be outside of that circle, unless we find a real political heavyweight. 

For the love of (insert your Deity here)!!!

I spent nine wonderful years working in London during the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. During that time I earned and lost heaps of money. Bought property and got weighed down with massive negative equity debt. Had some great jobs and was lucky enough to work with some great bosses. I worked with and for Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, Protestants, Catholics, Jehovah’s, born again Christians, Rastafarians, Islamists, to name but a very few.

I lived in areas predominantly populated by Jews, Indians, Pakistanis, North Londoners and Cockneys. Whilst living in these areas I deliberately mixed, went out of my way to become part of the community and “That cheeky Scotsman”, “Sweaty Sock”, “Jock”.

I was even in the City of London, with two friends, celebrating something to do with Japan, in a Japanese multi-national’s karaoke basement bar, in July 1990. We were quite literally around the corner from the London Stock Exchange, when the IRA set off a massive bomb. Destroying many a building and luckily injuring nobody. We knew absolutely nothing about this blast, until we exited the building, bleary eyed from one too many warm Sakis. It was like walking onto the scene of an H-bomb apocalyptic movie set, where we were apparently the only survivors. The City was empty – no taxi cabs, no buses, no cars, tube station shutters closed....!! We hadn’t a clue what had happened, until approached by a member of the City of London Police. Boy did we sober up very quickly after that, as we had to somehow make our way home!

When I worked in Wembley Stadium, in the borough of Brent, only 30 odd years ago, we were the “Ethnic minority”. I was one of the first people to secure a “Bollywood” type concert for Wembley Stadium, on that most hallowed of turf. I dealt with ALL manner of promoters regardless of race, creed or colour. Everyone was treated as an equal and much more importantly, treated the very way I would wish to be treated as a customer.

During those nine years in London I never felt unsafe. Never felt that there was a risk to my health, whilst being out and about late at night. Never felt in danger of a terrorist attack. Never felt threatened by speaking to, or being in the company of someone who was different.

Maybe these were completely different times? Or perhaps I look back on those youthful days with extra strength rose tinted glasses? Either way, I don’t think I would recognise the London that has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this week.

It now appears that gone are the days when you would be able to walk in the footsteps of Dick Whittington, feeling safe and cosseted. As the horrific attacks of recent weeks hit home, showing just how vulnerable we now are.

People immediately started blaming Blair, May and even Thatcher, on social media. Take this blame game to a logical conclusion and we should start holding historical people like Victoria, King Billy, Attila the Hun, Hannibal, Nero, the Egyptians, Adam, Eve and even that damn serpent culpable!

No one individual from history, past or present, can possibly be responsible for these current heinous acts. Where one human being painstakingly plans to kill, murder or mutilate another. All in the context of a misguided religious belief.  

Our “PC world” has gone bonkers mad. Why are we allowing such known individuals to undertake such cowardly acts? It is because of our Western World’s freedoms, that these people use this liberty to plot, scheme and kill with targeted precision.

Surely, the time is now right to balance the scales, if we are to live our lives without fear of a terrorist attack?

We live in a predominantly Christian country. We unconditionally give freedom of speech and freedom of movement. We have laws and rules that we ALL abide by, or accept the consequences for breaking these. The primary language spoken is that of English. We live in a democratic society. Freedom to vote is a constitutional right for all citizens.......

If you do not like these rules, regulations and more besides, you have the freedom to leave!

It is official – “Summer’s here!!!!”

The June Bank Holiday weekend is once again just around the corner. Boy does this come around quicker each year, or am I just getting older?

This of course means that we can forget for a few days at least, our woes, the political bickering of the FG leadership campaign, the effects of Brexit, the shenanigans surrounding the funding of our SDZ, our missing catheterization laboratory, our representatives’ empty promises and so on. As the City Centre will be buzzing with all manner of musical delights and a not insignificant hint of colour, over this June Bank Holiday weekend.

Returning to our streets will be the annual “City in Bloom”. A collaborative project between Waterford Council and Waterford Business Group (WBG), which has made a noteworthy contribution to additional Tidy Town points for the City. This, cross city project, has grown literally from few very small seeds, i.e. a handful of window boxes, to over 300 floral displays! In truth, there is no limit to this projects growth potential.

Start looking up at buildings and business shop fronts in the city centre, O’Connell Street, Ferrybank and Ballinakill Shopping Centre. Soon you will start to see the hint of the riotous colour which will soon engulf Waterford’s main footfall areas. City in Bloom will deliver once again for Waterford. In 2018, there could well be an exciting application to “Tidy Towns”, for Waterford City. Plans are afoot, to launch a bid as part of a “Bigger and better Tidy Towns”, supported by WBG. There is even consideration being given to the introduction of specific “Pollen bee friendly flowers!”, to make the application unique. The seeds have well and truly been sown (pardon the terrible pun)!

To launch the 2017 City in Bloom festival of flowers, there is an excellent competition for businesses to take part. WBG have teamed up with one of their members, Morris’s DIY on the Cork Road, to offer a €1000 voucher to the “Best 2017 improved shop/business front”. Some say that the best competitions are the simplest. All businesses have to do is post a before and after picture on www.facebook.com/WaterfordCityCentre/ Pictures must be posted before the August Bank Holiday and the winners will be announced in mid September. Businesses are allowed to post pictures retrospectively, provided the facelift/improvements took place from January 2017.

In conjunction with the launch of City in Bloom, Summer in the City makes a very welcome return to our city centre. On the main stage in John Robert’s Square we will see live acts performing across the opening weekend and right through, the hopefully long balmy summer weekends, to late August. The programme promises to deliver some age old favourite tribute acts, a smorgasbord of local singing talent and then there’s ArtBeat. This will once again showcase some of Waterford’s best emerging young talent. Bailey’s New Street will host ArtBeat every Saturday afternoon.

If we can now ask the weather gods to shine down upon us this summer, we are sure that all the programmes being launched this weekend, will help to get our city rocking, over the months of June, July and August.

There is much to look forward to around the wider county as well. You will find that there is a festival taking place somewhere, to undoubtedly suit any interest, hobby, or pastime. In terms of the bigger national and international picture, Redwater is flying the PR flag for our pretty, attractive coastal villages. We have already heard stories of people coming to the locations, where this drama has been filmed. Long may this continue and we hope to exponentially see more and more coming as the programme develops its fan base.

Our city should bloom during the Summer of 2017. As we get ready to sow some very strong roots for future growth and better news, in terms of our economic recovery.

There is much to look forward to on our horizon. In the meantime please do take time to look up at our wonderful quirky, higgledy piggledy buildings, sporting the colours of summer. Enjoy the free entertainment being provided across the city centre.

Above all “Live local, love local, shop local”.

Who’s battling for Waterford, now that the leadership contest is heating up????

“In the blue corner” we have Simon “The Cork” Coveney. “In the other blue corner” we have Leo “The Lion” Varadkar. Two Fine Gael political heavyweights about to slug it out in a leadership contest. After the long and protracted retirement of Enda Kenny, we can now say for certain that this is a two horse race for the leadership of FG. Perhaps a new Taoiseach of this wee green isle as well.

With two contenders having been announced, each protagonist’s fight team, will start to prepare their “Big fight plan” on just how to defeat an equally youthful opponent. The two combatants are only 38 (Varadkar) and 44 (Coveney). They are literally “Babies”, in terms of a political career. It will certainly be an interesting few weeks ahead, seeing just who matures enough, in the eyes of the FG party cohorts, to take the majority of votes and therefore Kenny’s still warmish leader’s seat.

Mind you, age seems to be no longer a barrier to political immortality. You only have to look east, to France and Emmanuel Macron, who is 39 years old and now the President of France. Sacré bleu!!!

Coveney and Varadkar have held various senior cabinet positions, in the last and current Government. In fact, in equal measure, they have tried to tackle some of the toughest ministerial portfolios. The FG faithful will have marked these times in office as roaring successes. Yet for many, perhaps the majority, there will be a very different definition to success.

Just how do we measure the success of their ministerial office?

Varadkar has held the keys to the offices of; Transport, Tourism and Sport from 2011 to 2014, Health from 2014 to 2016 and currently Social Protection.

In the other corner Coveney has been letting himself in and out of the offices of; Agriculture, Food and the Marine from 2011 to 2014, Defence from 2014 to 2016 and currently Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government.

Interestingly, both sets of localised FG party supporters, will ultimately claim that each candidate has some form of affinity and love for all things Waterford. Coffey is now battling for Coveney’s corner and Deasy, miraculously reappearing from the depths of the “Wild wesht”, has declared for the Varadkar corner. It will also be captivating to see just which way our FG councillors vote? Perhaps we should be party to who they might place their “Paddy Power” wager on?

What of Waterford when all the dust has settled?

In order to answer this question, you need first of all reacquaint yourself with each fighter’s past portfolio.

Has our regional airport not been crying out for money for a runway extension for donkeys’ years? It’s University Hospital Waterford’s plight, to be at the heart of a south east hospital grouping, without the much needed catheterization laboratory or the implementation of the conveniently forgotten Higgins Report, very well documented by now. These game changers for Waterford, with the stroke of a pen, could have been signed off many moons ago. The one consistent factor with these not being delivered seems to have been the Minister in charge at the time, in these Government departments, namely Leo “The Lion” Varadkar!

 

As for Simon “The Cork” Coveney. He cannot be absolved from blame for stymieing Waterford’s progress either. Our coastal fishing industry remains unprotected and many believe devastated. Regional defence bases in the region closed. The “Gifting” of the LE Aoife to the City, as a centre piece to a maritime museum, rejected. Expansion of the City boundary, to the north of the River Suir, dismissed. Despite the recommendations of an impartial independent review committee.

 

So there we have it. The two contenders do NOT have any real meaningful track record of supporting this blue and white city and county. Both could have made a significant difference to where our economy finds itself today. Right here, right now!

Unfortunately, if the last six years are anything to go by, Waterford appears to be on the ropes once again, with both these contenders.

I for one won’t be throwing in the towel.

Was it just “Pete Tong” - cue the reviews!

On Sunday night the much anticipated “Redwater”, started on our national broadcaster RTE. It will be screened at a later date, on the BBC, in “Old Blighty”.

Stimulating much Facebook chatter, airwave media interest and lots of other social media attention. You could not avoid the fact that you just had to be in front of the goggle box, settled with a cup of tea, just after Jean delivered her Sunday night weather forecast. The families of Waterford sat around their “Custard and jelly”, like the good old days, and eagerly tuned in to see who they might recognise as an extra on the drama and what scenery they could identify, being a place they might have visited, walked or have swum.

The village of Dunmore East would broadcast the show “Live”, on the biggish screen outside the Strand Inn’s very own “Rub-A-Dub”. From one of the exact spots, where we would be introduced to the very characters who will fill our Sunday nights for the foreseeable future. Namely, Kat and Alfie, aka Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie. These two “Eastenders’ Royalty” would be bringing, in no doubt equal measure, their Cockney charm, “Porky pies” and lots of “Catherine Zeta Jones” to the Sunny South East. Would you “Adam and Eve” it anyone?

Remember folks that this drama is an offshoot of that BBC institution, screened mercilessly, many times a week on the national broadcaster of the UK. Did we expect to see a different format or were we going to be delivered the very same old, just with an Irish twang? There were rumours that the whole series could have been filmed in any number of other European destinations, Portugal or even “Bubble and Squeak”, they were all in with a shout.

By “Friar Tuck” the location team chose the area around the Suir Estuary. Namely, Dunmore East, Passage, Crooke and so on. In fact we recognised all these areas in the first episode. The opening village fun run, linking all the streets of these villages and that “Bottle of Sauce” running seamlessly from beach to beach, what a talented beast!

Right from the starting title sequence, we could see that this was not going to be a run of the mill “Eastenders’” spin off. There was “Barney Rubble” from the opening scenes, which would set a rather dark sinister feel to the programme. There was an early edge, that I am sure will be carried throughout the whole drama. Who knows what “Tony Blair’s” will unfold over the next few Sunday nights?

With our national broadcaster’s Nationwide programme, featuring Waterford very heavily in recent weeks, we have not seen such levels of interest in all things Waterford for some time now. It will be vital that the millions of people who will ultimately tune into “Redwater”, to realise that like “Walford”, “Redwater” is a fictional place. Admittedly, a “Tutti Frutti” of a place and the weather gods appear to have done their bit as well, “Shabba Ranks”.

The location is a beautiful place on the coast of our Waterford County and as such there will be a huge effort needed to absorb this message and deliver additional tourism Euros across the whole county. If we are to hear the tills ringing, “Cab Ranks” being filled on the back of this drama, that will reach millions of people both in Ireland and the UK, then we must develop a strategy and a “Jackie Chan” that works for us.

All the stakeholders involved in these projects, must now work together to capitalise on this unprecedented free publicity we are securing on prime time viewing slots. Coupled with the new Waterford Greenway’s impetus, we have a unique tourism message that will surely draw many more “Billy Bunters” to our “Roger Moore”.

I suppose that the secret would be the many, many independent operators, should push towards developing their own marketing and awareness campaigns? To this extent they need to be encouraged to do so.

With a bit of luck we can all get “Sheffield United” at just what “Redwater” might bring to us. Who knows we might even see more “Bees and Honey” coming to Waterford?