Europe Decides

The week has seen two major televised debates on Wednesday, the leaders of the smaller parties Pat Rabbitte of Labour, Micheal McDowell of the Progressive Democrats, Trevor Sargent of the Greens and Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein all battled it out in a debate that for sheer entertainment value outclassed an episode of Friends. Michael McDowell has not had a good campaign so far and the political consensus is that my old employers the Progressive Democrats are in severe trouble. Faced with a situation where he was the object of attack from all the other participants, he reacted with a vintage McDowell performance, all guns blazing. He told the nation that he was surrounded by the Left (Rabitte) the hard left (Sinn Fein) and the left behinds ( the Greens). When Gerry Adams commented that his house was owned by the bank, McDowell swung back with “is that the Northern Bank” a reference to the largest bank robbery in Irish history and one blamed by many on the IRA. (Rumour has it that the robbery was the IRA’s pension plan). McDowell did not have all the best lines Pat Rabbitte referred to McDowell as behaving like a “menopausal Paris Hilton” a bizarre if colourful image.

Last night saw a much more serious debate between the two contenders for Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Enda Kenny. Both men were very nervous, understandably so since the stakes are so high. The consensuses is that Bertie Ahern won on points but failed to deliver a knock out blow. The Taoiseach showed a commanding grasp of the issues and hit Enda Kenny on number of issues including crime, health and taxation, but he failed to annihilate Kenny. For Kenny survival is as good as victory, expectations amongst his own supporters were never high and the belief amongst the pol cors was that he was vulnerable. Surviving means he is still a contender.