SMOKES & DAGGERS

Inside the corridors of power...

MING Flanagan doesn’t have the sense of humour you’d expect for a pro-cannabis campaigner. The Roscommon TD – and euro candidate – solemnly told the Dáil that he believed he and a Garda whistleblower had been followed by an unmarked Garda car. Enda Kenny couldn’t help having a dig at Ming’s expense. ‘He is a sharp man to know that an unmarked car was actually shadowing him. Maybe it was not him they had under surveillance. Maybe they thought there was somebody dealing.’ Cue outrage from Ming, who proceeded to shout and complain. If only he could find some way of chilling out a little. BRIAN Hayes and Leo Varadkar ditched the suits and bared their legs as part of a 5k run in Marlay Park, south Dublin, yesterday. The body-confident duo were joined by former world champion athlete Eamonn Coghlan. Hayes, is of course, ‘running’ for an MEP’s seat in Dublin and the group all donned ‘Hayes #1’ T-shirts. At least the bright yellow tops didn’t feature the unfeasibly dazzling smile that lights up Brian’s posters. IT’S certainly a novel campaign platform. Fianna Fáil’s Ireland South Euro election candidate Kieran Hartley suggests that anyone who doesn’t pay his TV licence fee should be forced to watch the Eurovision. ‘Last year, 411 people were jailed – for refusing to pay a total of €6,576 in licence fees – which was significantly less than the cost of detecting, prosecuting and sending them to jail for a few hours or a couple of days. It would be better to make the punishment fit the crime. Perhaps, being forced to watch the Eurovision would surely fit the bill.’ ANOTHER unusual proposal is being mulled over by Labour. The party’s draft campaign manifesto for the local elections in Dublin is rumoured to include a proposal to DNA-test dog poo in order to nab repeat offenders. Strangely enough, none of the party’s candidates would talk when Smokes attempted to get into the nitty gritty of the proposal yesterday. Opposition candidates were quick to poo-poo the plans however. THOMAS Byrne appeared at Punchestown Races yesterday but much like some of the horses, he could still be left running after the favourites are home and hosed. A Red C poll last night made the young Fianna Fáil hopeful a rank outsider for a seat in the Midlands North West constituency, well behind frontrunners Máiréad McGuinness, Marian Harkin, Matt Carthy of Sinn Féin, Ming Flanagan and Fine Gael’s Jim Higgins. Time for the whip, Senator! HE’S not your average candidate so it’s no surprise that Jason O’Callaghan’s council campaign is a little unconventional. The former Sindo gossip columnist turned crooner turned mental health campaigner has been running a voter registration drive in his Crumlin-Kimmage ward, issuing literature in Arabic, Urdu and Polish. ‘I held an event outside the mosque on the South Circular Road and was very encouraged,’ he said.