If you’re going to change a leader, there could hardly be a better time than this. If you did well in the Westminster election, you can say you’re going to build on that success while the party is energised. That’s what the Scot Nats did after the referendum and look at them. If you did badly in the Westminster election, well, you can say “We must make radical change”.
Like waited-for buses, we now have three in a row. The Liberal Democrats are casting around for a fresh face and I’m sure they’ll get one. The Lib Dems do well in the fresh face department – Nick Clegg had as fresh a face as you’d meet in a day’s canvassing. Tony Fearon has a nice fresh face too. Unfortunately leading a party requires more than a fresh face. I somehow don’t think it’ll matter a lot who’s driving that particular bus : it’s headed for the cliff.
Then there’s Nigel Farage, who, like a well-known leader two thousand years ago, died as leader and rose again on the third day. Here I must confess an affection: I like Nigel Farage. For one thing, he doesn’t use clichés like practically all other politicians. He looks like a guy who’s enjoying himself. And he makes the Tories look flat-footed when they try to engage him in debate. He says what a lot of British people are thinking: too many immigrants, damned EU trying to tell us what to do, making our laws for us, Britons never never shall be slaves. And all that. I agree with scarcely a word out of his jokey mouth but I admire his humour and ability to discomfort other British politicians.
And then there’s Alasdair McDonnell, oops, I mean Dr McDonnell, the leader of the SDLP. And here I must confess a bias: I don’t like the good Doctor. I’m not sure why. People talk about him as a bruiser, and maybe that ‘s it. He has an overbearing manner, an ability to alienate people by just standing looking at them. Yes, he did hold his South Belfast seat but only by a hugely reduced majority. Yes, his party did retain their seats, but the SDLP percentage of the votes did a marked slide. To quote Jim Allister in another context: “You’re going down, down, down!” The SDLP are very wise to seize on this moment, with a generally successful election behind them, to get rid of the rumbling, bumbling doc, for the reasons I’ve listed and one or two others I haven’t. But I hope he doesn’t go. I hope he stays in post. You want to know why, Virginia? For the same reason that the Scot Nats are hoping that Jim Murphy stays leader of the Scottish Labour Party. With him in charge, they the Scots Nats know that Labour has kept on board a ticking time-bomb. Ditto with the SDLP. Alasdair me old mate – don’t listen to them. Pull up a chair and we’ll get one of those women to make you a nice cup of tea.
If he hasnt got the message by now he should look again at the TV footage of the woman he canvassed for support and as she strode by stated ‘Ah sure and if you fall down I’ll let ye lye there’ or words to that effect.
Mary – so wonderful to see you in print! You visited Pittsburgh 10 years ago for IAUC and I lost your email address – hope you are well. Sarah
Hi Sarah So nice to make contact with you and through our esteemed campaigner for justice and truth, Jude. Keep in touch Regards Mary
In the wake of Nigel’s version of the hokey pokey I just wanted to see the newspaper headline ‘FARAGE FARRAGO’ – but to no avail.
He said he offered his resignation but the party refused to accept it. Had he really had any principle (but then he’s a politician) he would have told them: ‘I have resigned – sin é’.
His explanation was that the overwhelming majority implored him to stay. But now he’s staying it seems like another majority is in high dudgeon that he is staying.
It can only end in tears for our wee Nige!
As far as the SDLP farrago is concerned, Fearghal McKinney is out fighting for his boss (naturally as his boss co-opted him) but I wonder how hard he actually should fight.
Is the Demon Doctor worth fighting for?
Everything was sweetness and light during the election campaign despite the fact hat McDonnell was doing an impression of the absentee landlord, but immediately after the count the knives came out.
But it is not just whisperings of malcontent we are hearing – it is strident demands for him to resign as leader. And it is from people who are the grandees of the party who have SDLP blood running through their veins.
The complainants are all giving cogent reasons for their demands, but the venom with which they speak would indicate other reasons.
You yourself mention a ticking time-bomb Jude. Could it be the reason that dare not speak its name?
PS – I wonder does Fearghal realise that the harder he fights for his boss’s survival the more likely he is to be shown the door when the Demon Doctor eventually gets the bum’s rush!
The good Doctor makes the late Gerry Fitt look good. First time I have ever agreed with Seamus Mallon about anything
Beauty is in the eye of the voter.
A Kenyan proverb states, He who refuses to obey cannot command.
It is an unedifying sight to see dirty political linen being washed in public. Prior to the recent election, a number of SDLP commentators frequently prefaced remarks with the statement, “When I was… .
Today on air, Fearghal McKinney talked about taking votes from Sinn Féin in the recent election. The comment was negative, crass and indicative of sterility of thought. A Samurai would point out that tomorrows battle is won during today’s practice. Politics is about gaining electoral support not losing it.
Alf Garnett is alive and well in the north of Ireland given the current time warp. Some politicians are living in the past. Other politicians are attempting to turn the clock back. The Tories are dragging us all back to the Victorian past . Child labour is being replaced by student and migrant labour. Employers are exploiting the growing pool of unemployment with cavalier ‘hire and fire’ employment practices. Living standards are falling for many given current levels of poverty, evidence of ill-health in the population and the lack of adequate funding for health care.
Individuals seeking a mandate for ‘People before Profit’ are gaining electoral support . The SNP leadership has thrown down the gauntlet to the Tories in the fight against austerity. The SDLP needs one sword.
The late John Kelly once told me of a hilarious encounter with Allisdair on his first day at Stormont. Apparently they knew each other in the early days of the troubles and when they encountered each other again in the corridors of power,someone was even more red faced than usual and it was’nt the veteran Republican!
michael
That is not all that hilarious. I guess you had to be there!
The title of today’s posting which welcomed us into your world, Esteemed Blogmeister, struck a chord which had a familiar ring to it but which was not immediately identifiable to one’s inner ear.
But a grand chord, nonetheless, lost somewhere in one’s mental canyon well worth the search.
Great minds think alike, it is alleged, though there are exceptions to that Gold Coast rule.This anomaly arises because of the confusion between ‘great’ and ‘grate’. While the latter is also identified by the grey mater within, it is a different g. matter altogether: ashes rather than brains.
Take the micro-minded Morning Ireland, the flagship of RTE Radio I’s programming which dealt this very day with the same identical topic. Not that that was immediately obvious. For the issue for debate was introduced by The Woodman himself as ‘the UK and the proposal to tinker with Human Rights’.
The guest invited to discuss the topic was a surprise: a thinking chap’s thinker name of Alban from the (gulp) SDLP. A bit like, Perkie’s inner quality controller would have thought, inviting Bono along to discuss, say, music.
But, ever the open-minded one, prepared to listen to all sides on any given topic on any given day, one gave ear to Alban who had been beamed up by Cathal Mac Coille (mar is e a bhi ann !). The Woodman, alas, was not in his normal rent-a-whacking-hack mood or, indeed, mode, and so, no low-blow solar plexus massacre ensued. All instead was sweetness and lithe.
Indeed, Perkie had all but nodded back to sleep when his attention was suddenly arrested. The hand on the shoulder moment came as a supplementary q. at the close of the enabling interview on the Human Rights thingy. To do with the moves afoot within the stellar and serried ranks of the SDLP to ditch the Doc.
-‘Seamas Mallon, amongst others, has called for him to go !’.
Like pulling the starting cord (no h) of a chainsaw, the tone and pitch and whine of the interview went up a sudden notch or nine as the real purpose of the exercise was revealed. Ever the professional b-caster,however, the Woodman did not neglect to incorporate the d-rigeur genuflection while quoting the four green feel-good syllables of Sea-mus Mall-on.
Alas, what followed was, sadly, inconclusive. As the beamed-up bloke name of Alban evoked some hokum about there being no need for a locum.
Yet. Or, maybe even, not yet. So, no King-maker or King-breaker he. Indeed, he did manage to sound so like that song of Dwight Yoakam’s ‘Turn it on, turn it up, turn me loose’ that a prone Perkie was already in the process of turning himself loose from Morning Ireland by turning the knob of his wireless when – the hand of Fate, no less, intervened.
For who was the very next guest to appear on the centre lane of M.I.only the above-mentioned (gulp) Bono. .
The topic being: the passing of B.B. King.
An inspired and authentic choice to pay tribute: as Bono is the noted but as yet to be be-knighted cacophonist. (The leprechaun of which c-word is the sublimely abrupt: cac).
In the very recent past the world of song witnessed the passing of Ben E. King. Thus, the title of today’s Morning Ireland’s next topic might well have been: ‘The King is dead, Long Live the King’.
But that would have required M.I. to actually acknowledge the existence of the great Ben. E. At the time of Ben E’s eternal exit Perkie’s inner and over-worked self- patter on the back was heard to remark to himself (the only one who could be a. to listen):
-One wonders if it was a different King who had shuffled off the mortal embroil – BB say, rather than Ben E – would Morning Ireland have been so sniffily indifferent?
The notoriously impatient Perkie was destined not long to wait.
For, who was chauffeured to the studio in the immediate wake of BBono only (gasp) none other than the soi-disant Guru of Good Music himself: John ‘Kool-aid’ Kelly.
(One is reporting this, Esteemed Blogmeister, as an attempt to focus on the inner outworkings of the menial mental processes of RTE when it comes to politics. With the possible exception of sport there is nothing quite as political in Donnybrook, Dublin 4 as music, least of all, politics).
With the sombre solemnity for which he has been renowned from his teenage years , John Kelly, the boy from Enniskillen, remembered BB King telling him (yes, telling John Kelly) ‘how he he, BB, had never bothered with chords’.
During the course of stoking the amber-coloured embers of memory the grate mind of John Kelly did not miss a beat. As the one entrusted with the task of teaching the six-fingered rednecks of the 26 counties what music they can listen to and what music they cannot, John Kelly, the boy from Enniskillen has an enormous responsibility.
Quite rightly,therefore, he is appropriately remunerated for this sacred task.Hence, observe the son of Ulster marching towards the Erne and him to be pushing his wheelbarrow full of public dosh with his Pop Eye popping forearms. Every last brown penny of which freight well and truly earned.
Consider, in you will, the skillful way in which he incorporated this slight but frightfully significant elocution lesson into his BB tribute this morning. By inserting the sacred name of Louis Armstrong into his five minutes of allotted time.. Not once, but thrice.
And on each occasion the S in Louis was anything but silent. Rather than uncouthly mispronouncing Loujs ( like know-nothing backwoodsmen might) so as to rhyme with screwy, phooey,gooey or even chop suey itself, the Guru of Good Music made sure to pronounce the final S with all the inescapable presence of the S-bend in a kitchen sink pipe.
Yes, LouiS Armstrong of New Awleans, that Louis.
For, John Kelly, the supreme arbiter of good taste in authentic popular music is not one not to avoid, erm, plumbing the depths of authenticity.
All that remains in RTE’s fully fulsome tribute to BB King to be complete is for the late blues singer’s namesake to pay his authentic tribute on his own radio show, The South Wind Blowhard. One speaks of the hoarse horse-whisperer himself form the pocket of Kerry colonised by Cork,boy, one of RTE’s royalty, Philip King.
Note the recurrence of the a-word here: authenticity. This is crucial and is as recognisable as it is crucial; for it is colour-coded. For authentic, read the blues (ceol na nGormach in the leprechaun) and for bogus, read redneck practitioners of honkey music which tonks..
This is the fully approved and unspoken racialism in reverse of the Free Southern Stateen Establishment which resulted,as a random example, in the debacle of the five cancelled G. Brooks concerts in Croke Park last year. Does one imagine for one nano-second that the faceless Decision Wallah in Dublin City Council would have taken the PC political option he did he did if BB rather than GB was the performer in q.?
Thus, the chances of the ecelectic John Kelly making any ballroom on his PC progrmme for the songs and voice of the celestial baritone who sang the title of Today’s Blog are as remote as the same Guru of Good Music pronouncing Enniskillen in the authentic IniS Ceithleann.
And celestial baritone he is. For Gentleman Jim Reeves (for it is he !) has received the ultimate accolade in popular music, surpassing all the Grammies combined: he has won the abiding and heartfelt loathing of another apostle of authenticity: none other than Dec ‘The Neck’ Lynch of the Sunday Dependent.
Gentleman Jim is in good company, joining the GAA and Leprechaun as being the supreme bugbears of DL:, whose motto is: ‘Let the Bogus Beware, like’.
The irony here, of course,for footy fanatic ,DL is that Jim Reeves is to popular music what Lionel Messi is to soccer: the tops. As any one with a eye or an ear in their head can easily tell.
And who have more than just their mesmerising talents in common: that other c. factor is a town in rural South America, of which Messi is a native and which Reeves immortalised in song:
‘My heart is in Rosario, under the Argentine skies
There with a beautiful lady with her dark and sparkling eyes…
Her parents were rich estancieros and I was just one of the hands
Who herded their ten thousand cattle on ten thousand acres of land’
Regalos de Dios/ Gifts from God,both..
Of that there can be no doubt, considering the cases of LM and JR, respectively.
But of much more immediate importance:is there, perchance, a Doctor in the House. Even in the House of Commons ????
Although it is still only mid-afternoon, Perkie’s chronic complaint, erm, nocturnal incontinence is already at him.
An bhfuil Dochtuir sa Teach ?!
Cui bono.
The Sound of Silence about bombs in Dublin and Monaghan 41 years ago.
Well spotted, eagle-eyed Iolar.
Togha fir / ein !
Back then, it was UK-imported bombs which smoothed the front-passage of legislation through the ever peace-loving Dail.
These days, going forward, it is USA-imported bums which are smoothing the back-passage of legislation through the ever piece-loving Gays and Dails.
Bimis ag faire go gear.
Oops ! That oughter have read ‘codpiece-loving Gays and Dails’.
Just another Oops-d’etat.
Wasn`t it Alisdair who wore the mayoral or deputy mayoral chain of office before the stoops agreed to accept them? I remember some controversy about that, it is surprising he has risen to party leader, I watched Mark Durkin in tv the other night and I was expecting the usual waffle but Durkin fairly put the boot in. Now Seamus Mallon has joined the chorus of voices calling for him to step down. Or stoop down.
Jude.I note that Marin Mc Guinness on Twitter has said that what is going on in the S D L P ” is primarily a matter for them”.But I suppose from your point of view as the saying goes “You can resist everything except temptation “!!
The trough is deep with this one.
Jude
When I saw the headline I thought you had finally seen the light about the sainted Gerry.
A grey haired old gent (older than Alasdair) who is daily becoming more of an embarrassment to his party.
Sadly not it seems.
I’ve never met a Shinner (or heard of one) who thought Gerry an embarrassment as leader…
That`s because there are none. Gerry is probably the most popular of all the local party leaders, but hey, as the saying goes, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Or there are none who will openly admit it!
The SDLP executive today (Saturday) gave it’s full backing to Alisdair.This is going to be great craic altogether! Looking forward to months of stoop infighting!