It's all very well suggesting Cowen does all the above, but one thing he isn't is a fool.Lone Shark wrote: I'm as much a fan of Biffo as the next man, but you're fairly buying into the spin yourself if you think that a guy who has just spent the last four years as Minister for Finance could come out and say that forces outside our control caused all this.
I'm quite underwhelmed myself. He came in with an overwhelming mandate within the parliamentary party at least, and as the holder of the largest vote in Ireland, one could argue he had a massive personal mandate as well - yet he has not taken the chance to do any of the little things that would send out the signal to the populace that we're all in this together, rather than the usual Fianna Fáil thing of "ye'll have to tighten ye're belts, but I'll be loosening mine because this builder mate of mine has just bought me a steak."
He could have got rid of half the junior ministers - he didn't.
He could have got rid of token regional ministers who have proven their incompetence - guys like Cullen and O'Cuiv - he didn't.
He could have categorically come out and said that the recent recommended pay rises for politicians and senior civil services will not be implemented - he didn't, even though they won't be paid and eventually it will look like the opposition and public opinion forced the turnaround.
He could have got the Dáil to stay in session to bring in an emergency budget to sort all this out and nip it in the bud - he didn't, the lads are all nipping off for the summer as per usual. It's not like there's a recession starting or anything.
He could have drawn a line between Fianna Fáil of the past and the present, or at least attempted to do by booting the "Class Act" out on her oversized classless arse - but he didn't, he let her back into the party whereby she's straight away talking about the exchequer bailing out the Galway Race tent massive by buying up all the poor developers unsold stock.
I really want to believe in our Brian, I really do. For whatever reason I've taken a lot of this kind of stuff to heart in recent years and some of the antics of Bertie and his boys have left me on the brink of wanting to have a revolution and hang the hoors from the highest crane in the middle of the large swathes of under-serviced commuter belt that they have created, but I held off because something about Brian made me believe he was different.
Nothing he has done is remotely different so far and I can feel the urge to sharpen the guillotine coming back to be honest.
He would be slitting his own throat by implementing some of those suggestions.
Most of the measures would make little difference anyway. Removing Junior ministers would be of little benefit apart from perhaps appeasing people who demand gesture politics. Is it worth upsetting significant groups in the political party over, just to save a couple of hundred grand and temporarily please a few people (who probably will never vote for you anyway)?
Running a government is all about trade-offs. In theory you would like to plough ahead and implement whatever policies you feel like on a given day, however it is never that simple. You have to delicately balance different forces that are pulling in several directions.
Look at the Green Party for example. In opposition the talked a great game altogether. The whole holier than thou, cleaning up the system talk (much like the PDs before them).
Funny enough now that they are in government, they same to have their shoulder behind the wheel the same as Fianna Fail.
Maybe behind all the muesli eating moralising, they are realists.
You don't get your policies implemented by kicking down doors and stepping on toes.
The government ministers should take salary cuts though. Just for the look of it. Politics is all about the optics after all. While Mr Cowen is not known for being big on spin and style, he should probably make a few token gestures to get the public onside. A few Mickey Mouse headline grabbing cuts on ministers and government members that might make little difference, but won't upset anybody.
In the longer term, I think the economy badly needs more prudent spending. In order to make cutbacks on the ordinary public the government definitely needs to be seen to cutting back on their own expenses too. One thing the people hate when times are tough are the possibilty that politicans are living fat cat lifestyles.