David Quinn

He has flip-flopped so much that you have to ask if his beliefs are sincere, or just shrewd

‘Harris is a gifted communicator, but I just see a facade with no depth,” was what a Fine Gael TD told the Irish Independent last week, following Leo Varadkar’s shock resignation. But Simon Harris is to be our next taoiseach all the same.

That same TD said Paschal Donohoe “is head and shoulders above” Harris, and is also more “emotionally intelligent” than him. And yet Donohue quickly announced he would not be running to succeed Varadkar.

Maybe he genuinely didn’t want the job — or maybe he saw the race was over before it had even begun, as Harris had too much momentum behind him. But if it was mainly the latter, then that is a very bad reflection on the Fine Gael party.

The comment that Donohue is more “emotionally intelligent” than Harris is particularly interesting, because — outwardly — Harris seems to be a man who emotes with the best of them. He frequently wears an expression on his face that looks either concerned or pained, like a psychotherapist listening to a patient.

Personally, I can’t stand this therapeutic style of politics. I don’t want politicians holding my hand. That’s not their job, as far as I’m concerned. I just want them to fix things.

Leo was probably the other extreme compared with Harris. He barely emoted at all, but I kind of liked him for that. In one of the Star Trek series there was a character called Deanna Troi, who had the ability to sense emotions and always looked concerned. That’s Simon Harris.

Sticking with Star Trek, Varadkar was more Spock-like — a logic-loving but unemotional Vulcan.

The pity is that as Varadkar shed one past conviction after another, I just didn’t like his politics very much in the end. I sometimes wonder