John’s blog: Fine Gael troubles
The new year got off to a difficult start for Fine Gael. The comments of John Deasy and Damien English regarding the leadership of Enda Kenny may have been misinterpreted initially, but both of them, it has to be said, broke the golden rule of politics: never answer a hypothetical question. What on earth could their motivation have been? Perhaps, they believe that FG won’t be back in government and they’re positioning themselves for the aftermath.
I must admit I have a great deal of sympathy for Enda Kenny. Enda’s a good guy. When he was a backbencher he used to sit behind Trevor and myself, and there was always plenty of banter and jokes. You don’t often see that aspect of his personality nowadays, although given what has happened he probably needs his sense of humour more than ever.
It’s a pity too that Trevor’s comments in relation to Enda’s Irish Times interview were perceived as a total rebuff. I know Trevor likes and respects Enda. Trevor was simply reiterating the party position of campaigning as an independent party.
It’s actually a healthy development that FG would prefer the Greens to the PDs.
The next few weeks will be busy ones for the party. We have a number of policy launches planned and after that the party convention. Things are going well and the response from the public is positive and encouraging.