Europe Decides

The first few day of the campaign have not gone well for Fianna Fail. The Taosieach and the Fianna Fail Campaign have been plagued by questions in the media about payments made to him while he was Minister for Finance. It is hard to know if the public care that much about the allagations. Bertie Aherne lives a modest lifestyle and there is a real sense out there that the public do not believe he is or has been currupt. However there is only so much space on a page and if the hacks are writing about payments it is less space for Fianna Fail to get there message across. Fianna Fail are due to launch their proposals on stamp duty today. Stamp Duty is a tax paid on the purchase of a house is a major issue in property obsessed Ireland. Fianna Fail will be hoping that they can finaly go on the offensive.

Fine Gael (the main opposition party) have had a few dream days. Their leader Enda Kenny is looking like a man whose time has come while the party campaign has been looking smooth professional and competent. It used to be said that Fianna Fail liked to campaign while Fine Gael does it becuase it has to. In this campaign it looks like the positions have been reversed.

One of the funnier aspects of the campaign so far has been allegations that Angela Merkel is backing Enda Kenny becuase Fine Gael got one sixth of its posters printed in Germany. A Fianna Fail spokeperson even opinoned that Fine Gael were about to drop Irish Neutrality. Irish Neutrality is one of the great sacred cows of Irish politics, and one of the most difficult to explain to anyone who is not Irish. In essence it meas that we are not members of a military alliance. Fine Gael has always been a little bit sceptical of Irish Neutrality (Fine Gaelers tend to be rather logical) but the policy is hugely popular as it keeps Ireland out of any military activity bar UN peacekeeping missions and allows the Irish intelligentisia to adopt a position of moral superiority on international relations. As for the German posters, in a previous existence I received a letter from a German printer soliciting work for the election campaign and given the prices he was charging for posters Fine Gael would have idiots not book a batch with him.