Jason’s Diary.

Interesting story about how the Fianna Fail government basically kept the US in Shannon. Why is everyone so surprised at this? US soldiers spend money in Shannon, and US planes need to be refueled, all creating jobs. Why are we surprised at this? If I were a TD for Limerick or Clare, I’d want to keep them too. Of course, the question no one seems to be asking was whether the Greens were told of the offer? If not, then FF were being dishonest with their coalition partners. But if the Greens did know…

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Interesting article in The Irish Times about EU integration, although I don’t agree with the European Parliament solution. If you let the EP choose a government for Europe, we’ll end up with a permanent and corrupt EPP/PES coalition that voters will never be able to actually vote out. No thanks.

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I’d say Gay Byrne’s entry into the presidential election would have caused all sorts of problems for RTE. This is Ireland, and it would have been almost impossible for RTE to find an interviewer that will not give Byrne a relatively easy interview, out of sheer personal loyalty to a friend. The problem would have been that every other candidate, including the candidates of the governing parties, would have been watching RTE like a hawk for favouritism, and RTE know it too.

By the way, is Sean Gallagher not beginning to look like the candidate of the last government here?

If Byrne had been elected, I reckon he’d actually have turned the presidency back into the old Paddy Hillary model, and we’d rarely have heard from him. Hands up who can remember what Paddy Hillary sounded like as president? We all remember him from his famous “You can have Boland…” speech, but as president he was decent but invisible.

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File this under the tab “Ah, here now!” You just have to love how crude the whole thing is.

5 thoughts on “Jason’s Diary.

  1. The EPP and PES carve up the EP presidency between them, but I’d say if the Commission was the prize, it would divide among clearer left-right lines, since it’s actual policy-making power, rather than just a trophy position of EP chairperson.

  2. But if the offer stood after the Greens entered Govt, shouldn’t FF have told them when Shannon was raised at the negotiations for Govt?

  3. Do we know whether the US offer to withdraw from Shannon happened while the Greens were in government? The article just says 2007- the Greens were in opposition in the earlier part of 2007.

    It is a bit of a silly story, because of course they are only there with the Irish government’s permission.

  4. The Shannon story isn’t new information at all — take a look at the Wikileaks on the subject.

  5. Sean O’Rourke – in my view one of the best broadcast journalists in Ireland – would have given him a good going over (remember his interview with George Lee). I reckon Bryan Dobson would have too.

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