Remember Enda’s drunk tank promise?

Enda: A man of his word.

Enda: A man of his word.

” For me a drunk tank is the proper place for anyone arriving drunk at accident and emergency units…Fine Gael will not tolerate the habitual, rampant drunkeness that has taken hold of communities all over Ireland. Arrive at an A&E drunk and you will be shown to your proper place- a drunk tank”

Enda Kenny addressing the 2006 Ard Fheis. The Taoiseach is a man of his word and integrity. Can anyone from FG tell me when this policy is being implemented? Or perhaps someone in Fianna Fail could put down a parliamentary question?

For my British readers: AV is the voting system for non-fanatics.

On the 5th May the British people vote to decide on whether they keep the First Past The Post (FPTP) voting system, or switch to the Alternative Vote (AV) system. As both a political junkie and an Irishman, I’ve a interest in this debate, primarily because of how absolutely surreal the debate has become. I thought I’d write today about a few casual observations of the debate.

One thing that has struck me has been that one’s attitude to AV is shaped by one’s attitude to politics, and I don’t mean left wing or right wing. Take this piece in The Daily Telegraph by Robert Colville, where he complains that AV would force the Conservative party to be more centrist, presumably because that’s where the voters are. He seems to be outraged that a party would have to actually follow the voters, and not the other way around. Continue reading