How important is nice? No, Virginia, not Nice, nice. There’s an article in today’s Guardian which quotes the head of a powerful start-up company. She says that however attractive the proposition that a client brings, however promising and in touch with what the public needs, she rejects that client if s/he is rude to her receptionist on the way in. This is similar to the advice once given to women: never marry a man who is rude to waiters.
I think that’s a good if not universal rule, especially in politics. If you don’t care about the underdog who’s taking your details in the reception area, how can you claim to stand by the underdog in your policies? More than one observer has noted that Donald Trump is a man singularly lacking in this niceness factor. He’s more given to insulting entire nationalities (Mexicans) or individual people (Megyn Kelly of Fox News, the Islamic parents of a dead US soldier) than being polite to underlings.
What about our politicians? Ian Paisley Sr had many qualities, but niceness is not the first word that jumps into my head when his name is mentioned. Something similar applies to Ian Paisley Jr. In contrast, while there are people who detest Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, I have never seen either man being churlish or resentful. (Note, I say ‘I’. You may have had different experiences).
South of the border, the former leader of the Labour Party Eamon Gilmore is probably a man who loves his family and dog, but on TV bristles with pent-up indignation. Leo Varadkar, in contrast, always seems agreeable and speaks softly, even when being critical. Enda Kenny’s personality is a bit like Gilmore’s – there’s stuff in there that could coming blasting out at any moment. Sommething to do with that choppy way of speaking, maybe.
And what of our latest proconsul, Mr Brokenshire? He comes across as being so nice you check for your wallet. Has this bright-eyed rabbit of a politician had every aggressive cell surgically removed? In contrast – and for older readers only – Roy Mason suggested a politician who’d had every amiable cell removed around the age of ten.
Having said all that, there are those who argue that you need a twisted psyche to make any progress in politics. You must enjoy power, intrigue, deception, putting one over on opponents. If you want evidence of that, note the jostling among unionist politicians to get Mairtin O Mulleoir down so they can give him a more thorough kicking.
A final note of caution: politicians can be abrasive, rude and arrogant in their political life, but proper little pussycats in their personal relationships. My best first-hand example of that is Jim Allister. As a politician, he does little other than rain blows on “Sinn Féin/IRA”, not to mention the multitude of Lundeys who compose the DUP and UUP. In person, I found Mr Allister to be polite, pleasant and accommodating.
They say some journalists are similar : flaying alive politicians in their writing, diffident and even shy in their face-to-face dealings. I even met a man once who said Eilis O’Hanlon is kind to her cat.
“If you don’t care about the underdog…how can you claim to stand by the underdog in your policies?”
The National Asset Management Agency was established in 2009 in response to a financial crisis. It was not established to function as a nice bank. It was established to function as a bad bank, acquiring property development loans from Irish banks in return for government debt bonds. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, remains a critic of of public money being used to bail out banks.
Underdogs beware! The Irish Department of Finance has revealed a number of options to deal with ongoing financial difficulties. There are no nice options.
One option is to increase property tax sixfold, other options include proposals to increase the price of petrol and diesel by 18 cent per litre, increase excise duty on beer, increase excise duty on spirits, reintroduce the 13.5 per cent VAT rate for the tourism sector, and increase all other forms of VAT.
Marx was correct when he said:
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”
Groucho never claimed to be nice either.
Jude are you sure about Eilis and hercat!!!
While Eamon Gilmore may well have been, e.g., waspish in his heyday, Esteemed Blogmeister, you will be interested to hear he has changed, changed utterly.
Certainly when Mr. Eamon Gilmore gets to talk about Senor Eamon Gilmore as he was only the other day on the wireless in Dublin, Free Southern Stateen. Newly arrived back from Bogota, buzzing with achievement and trailing clouds of glory as the European Union Special Envoy to the Colombian Peace Process.
He had been there since only last November for the snail-paced peace talks which had been dragging on for years. And so his arrival was crucial (absolutely) for the talks to finally drag FARC out of the dark rages and over the line. The arrival of Gil Blas will thus be forever linked with the inking of the historical peace deal.
We know Senor Eamon Gilmore was there as the European Union Special Envoy to the Colombian Peace Process because he reminded the interviewer anywhere between nought and a dozen times. A-mazingly, this number coincides with the lines of latitude between which Colombia lies.
El auto clap on his own back was never far away from Senor El Envoy. It would appear that the former Worker’s Party / Democratic Left card carrier has fallen on his feet and taken to the, erm, sticky ambiance of the Colombian jungles with all the aplomb of an average anaconda.
He almost slipped in as many mentions (laudatory) on the role (crucial) which the UN will play in maintaining the peace.
Hmmmm.
Senor Gilmore’s calls, even his call, for the intervention of the UN in the Dirty Thirty Years War in Nornverland don’t spring immediately to mind. It would seem that Bogota is a long, long way from the Bog-oak Monolith. Ditto, Barrenquilla from Barrnacoille.
And as the EU Special Envoy for the Colombian Peace Process waxed eloquent about his own role-io in the imbroglio he came across as a veritable Nicely Nicely Johnson, the character in Dolls and Guys. Eamon was the guy, of course, who was replaced by a doll as the leader of the Labour Party in West Brittania.
His theme song, in the Kaye of Stubby, during the Norneverland Knucklefest , on behalf of his various parties of the Laughed (to scorn) south of the Black Sow’s Dyke, was, ar ndoigh:
-Sit Down, you’re rocking the boat.
Out the door he was then – zoom ! -and back to Colombia to foot the turf wars in Bogotoa. Talikng Nicely Nicely but wielding a gjinormous EU-shaped shillelagh. A perfect storm of heart-warming peacekeeping.
And when the cloud of dust had settled on the island of West Britannia, a trio of contenders suddenly began to look nervously over their shoulders. Had they been joined in that most exclusive of Irish queues?:
-Contenders for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Spare a thought, therefore, for Sir Bob, St. Suds and Blessed Bono.
Speak of them, nicely: the clever dinero is now on Gil Blas.
You’ve just reminded me of Roy Mason who has been referred to as a “bullying dwarf”.When as a Labour (Yes… he wasn’t even aTory!!)Minister for Northern Ireland,, he both denied and excused torture in the same breath.In his world , bursting eardrums and breaking bones was all grist to the mill as long as the job got done ….because……well….. because , lives were at stake weren’t they?Mason was one of the main reasons that labour finally lost to the Tories when the likes of Gerry Fitt refused to support them because of his methods and couldn’t countenance the idea of any more of his noxious input .
James Brokenshire – as my mother would have said: ‘Too sweet to be wholesome’!
Your opinion of Jim Allister – Jekyll and Hyde.
Roy Mason and his mate Don Concannon were the champions of the Delorean project – I’m still waiting for the full SP on their participation, but it may have been more fruitful than the project was!
Being nice always has its rewards. As a politician, your more likely to get elected if your nice and kind rather than being rude and rough. Jim Allister is a good example of rude and rough. Jim may be a good speaker but he only appeals to the most bitter of the Unionist electorate. When he created TUV, he thought he would quickly become a rival to the DUP. Just before this years Assembly Election, Jim said if TUV didn’t get a 2nd MLA then it would be a “disaster”. They didn’t get a 2nd MLA. I remember Jeffrey Donaldson (oh, I forgot, SIR Jeffrey Donaldson….) gleefully reminding Jim of his comment on TV and it was one of the few times I seen Jim unable to retort.
People like Jim set themselves up to fail, really. If we lived in a normal, sectarian free society people like Jim Allister, Gregory Campbell, Nelson McCausland, etc wouldn’t see the light of day as elected politicians. What normal, sane person would vote for a small, squat, balding, red faced man who rants 24/7 about “SF/IRA”? Or vote for someone like Paisley Snr? a man who loved impersonating Adolf Hitler in his speeches, only he ranted about Catholics and how everyone was going to burn in Hell except for him and his jolly followers.
Compare this to someone like Mairtin O Mulleoir. Fresh faced, very likable, energetic and passionate about all people. Or Michelle Gildernew. Very likable, always smiling and laughing, even popular amongst many Fermanagh Unionists, mostly women.
I know who I would vote for….