Critics within FF need to learn the cost of loose talk

HAVE the rising ranks of malcontents in Fianna Fáil never heard of the ‘Ratner effect’, polite shorthand, essentially, for a colossal screw-up and named after Gerald Ratner, the man who destroyed his jewellery empire after one ill-judged comment?

In the late 1980s every British high street had a Ratner store selling affordable bling to the working classes. Business was booming until the boss, asked at a business conference about how he could sell a sherry decanter so cheaply, responded ‘because it’s total crap’.

Ratner’s gaffe caused his company to collapse and became a cautionary tale about the perils of ever talking down your own brand. After all, if the sales reps don’t think much of the stuff they are flogging, then how on earth can they expect strangers to buy it?

The Fianna Fáilers who have torn strips off their party’s record on housing and hospitality, complained about how ‘toxic’ their party is to young people and bickered about the leadership during a pandemic are guilty of the same stupidity as Ratner.

If they think so little of their beloved party, then how can they expect people to vote for it?

Fianna Fáil’s main hope of restoring greater relevancy is a successful rollout of the vaccine and emergence from the pandemic. That is the foundation on which it might both reinvent itself after the damage caused by the Bertie Ahern era and appeal to a more diverse and digital-friendly electorate.

The attacks by Barry Cowen and Jim O’Callaghan are cover for audacious power bids. But if they continue, they might help fulfil the increasingly shrill prophesies about Fianna Fáil’s demise and the great pretenders will find they only have the scraps of a party to fight over.