Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are so alike....

Dear Sir,

I note that the letter published recently, attributed to FG Cllr Tully, did not begin with a banner identifying the article as an “Advertorial”.

Knowing you to be an honest man, it is safe to assume that no payment or gratuity was received for the decision you made to permit publication of Cllr Tully’s outrageous FG propaganda spoof.

At first glance the “Letter to the Editor” appears a simple and crude abuse of the forum, as the intended audience was most definitely not the one to whom the letter was addressed. That however, I must concede, is a common fault.

However any pretence that the intent of the letter was anything other than yet another blatant attempt at self-promotion & propaganda by FG, is an insult to the readership by the councillor.

The FG 2040 publicity campaign has already been reported to the State’s ethics watchdog, the Standards in Public office. The accusation being that the Spin Doctor Propaganda Wing of FG or the “Strategic communications unit”, funded by the citizens of this state, to the tune of €5 million annually, breached rules that bar civil servants from carrying out party political work. There has also been a complaint made to the advertising Standards Authority, claiming the government breached the principles of the advertising code, which calls for all advertisements to be ‘ legal, decent honest and truthful”.

I could list the failures, incompetencies, lies, scandals and abuses of democracy that have since at least 2011 become the norm for the FG party, and therefore why any belief that they will deliver anything different between now and 2040, is simply not to be trusted, but why would I bother.

Instead let me remind the readers of two points, separated by 12 months.

During Dáil replies to the accusation of the using the country’s money for their own party political gain, the FG Taoiseach’s defence has been very simple; FF did the same! They were only copying what FF have done previously.

Last year, following the death of WT Cosgrave, I listened to a rare recording of a one on one radio interview with the deceased ex-Taoiseach. To complete the interview, Mr Cosgrave was asked to state definitively the difference between FG & FF. After a brief pause, he said that while FF would always put Party before Country, FG would always put Country before Party.

Leo finally proved that there is no difference between FF and FG, and the only spinning must have been by WT, in his grave.

Cllr Tully ended his letter, remembering the local slant... “What’s good for Louth…”.

Let me remind Cllr Tully that what’s good for the Country is good for all.

Name with Editor.