Factor 50 Leo jets to Italy or Croatia
In politics, Napoleon Bonaparte once noted, stupidity is not necessarily a handicap. I can only presume the feted French Emperor from Corsica would have reinforced his opinion had he lived to meet Donald Trump.
The feted Irish minister Leo Varadkar, from Castleknock, meanwhile, is at the other end of the intellectual spectrum: the future leader of Fine Gael is both incredibly bright and cool. In my book, any politician who knows a thing or two about modern music, and can name every Blur album — as Leo can — is cool, ok?
How do I know this? Well, because I bumped into the in-touch FG politico (as opposed to touched like a lot of politicos of all parties) at Coppa Cafe on Ely Place last Tuesday lunchtime. It was here that he told me he had no holidays “booked as yet” but he will be taking a welldeserved break abroad “in either Croatia or Italy.” Leo added that he “had intended going to Body & Soul” — the music festival in Ballinlough Castle, Co. Westmeath with Santigold, Mbongwana Star and Bleeding Heart Pigeons among others — “this weekend, but got caught with work.”
There is a good chance, however, of hipster Varadkar attending The Electric Picnic in Stradbally Hall in Stradbally, Co Laois, at the start of September. “Not sure about the Picnic yet,” Leo said. “I have reserved tickets. It’s a good gig.”
He ought to know. He went last year to see George Ezra, Riptide Movement, Blur and the Mother DJs, among others. Indeed, when I met him at the festival, Leo told me that he particularly enjoyed Rave in the Woods, to say nothing of Grace Jones. I remember asking the minister what he enjoyed most about Ms Jones’s performance. “Her costume.”
Did he enjoy Grace sufficiently to dance? “Not sufficiently,” Leo told me last year in a field in Laois. “I can’t dance. I look ridiculous.”
Oh — stop it, Leo, you’re killing me.