Time to ring the final bell on this cowardly politics
MICHEAL the Magnificent socks Tory Boy with a facebuster and he responds with a brainbuster sending him to the blue-carpeted floor.
Like any pro wrestling bout there’s no blood because it’s not a real contest – the “fight” is fixed.
This is essentially what we get most days when the Dail sits as Irish politics has been reduced to a form of theatrics where all the action is staged so no one gets hurt… except the public paying their wages.
As with politics, there was a time when wrestling was for real and the aim was to take out your opponent, unlike now when it’s a form of performing art and entertainment. A bit like the bogus spats between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.
This week Simon “Hapless” Harris was on the ropes over the massive children’s hospital overspend and being generally useless and Fianna Fail appeared to be moving in for the kill.
Their pre-match thrash talk was impressive, verbally filleting Hapless, but when it came to the crunch they called it a draw instead of drawing blood.
It’s hard to gauge what former Fianna Fail leaders would make of Micheal Martin’s strategy of being in opposition and government at the same time. On the other hand, while it hasn’t been great for politics, the Fianna Fail leader’s tactics certainly elevated hypocrisy to a high art. The attempt by Sinn Fein to oust the Health Minister from office, which was defeated by 58 votes to 53, is a case in point.
Pearse Doherty urged Fianna Fail to end the confidence and supply con job and stop protecting Fine Gael ministers who are clearly not up to the job.
He rightly pointed out Fianna Fail are failing to protect the public from a Fine Gael Government which is not only incompetent, but also has extreme right-wing Thatcherite policies, especially on housing and health.
Apart from the scandals surrounding the children’s hospital and Cervicalcheck, Fine Gael’s abject failure to address the housing and homelessness crisis should have been enough to warrant Fianna Fail pulling the plug.
Another example of this political puppetry was seen yesterday when the
Micheal the Magnificent and Tory Boy grapple in the wrestling ring Fianna Fail leader said he had been “taken aback” by an attack by the Health Minister on staff in the Cervicalcheck screening service.
He added: “Many people in the medical world are dismayed at the cavalier dismissal of people who have worked in the field for a considerable time.”
Dismissal? How about dismissing the buffoon who uttered them?
Those were fighting words from Magnificent Micheal, but he then goes into the Dail and forces his TDS to keep Hapless the Health Minister in his job when there was a chance to rid the country of this political waste of space.
Allowing a man clearly out of his depth to continue in charge of the country’s health service by abstaining in a vote is not just hypocritical, it is political cowardice of the worst kind. While Fine Gael may be the Irish Tories, in a way Fianna Fail has become a mirror image of the British Labour Party with Micheal Martin as flakey and indecisive as Jeremy Corbyn.
Magnificent Micheal claims all that’s preventing him from pressing the nuke button is Brexit, which is ridiculous as this farce has been going on nearly three years.
There are many Fianna Fail TDS who are tired of tickling Fine Gael’s belly when they should be kicking their butt and none more so than Carlow/ Kilkenny TD John Mcguinness.
While he also abstained, Deputy Mcguinness told Fine Gael: “I actually don’t know any more why we support you. I don’t know why we sit on our hands.”
I can answer that one John, it’s because Micheal the Magnificent is afraid to fight in case he loses, so he keeps pretending there’s a contest when it’s really a fix.
We live in uncertain times but one thing we can be sure of is Micheal Martin will never be Taoiseach and Fianna Fail will not be in government again for a long time if they continue to keep Fine Gael in power.
If Fianna Fail keep abstaining when it comes to confidence votes in useless ministers I can see a lot people abstaining from voting for Micheal Martin’s party at the next election.
Then again that could change if John Mcguinness replaced Micheal Martin. I’m not sure if he has leadership qualities but at least he has a backbone and would be up for a real fight.