Who said Kenny has to be Taoiseach ?

[The Field Marshal]

Arent you lucky to be able to go on holidays?

Having survived the Belsen type conditions and potential strip searching at Dublin airport,and having waited two hours for the priviledge, I had to face an Alcatraz type flight with stony faced stewardess,s ripping me off for food.

I holidayed on the EU mainland and had to encounter many dour continental anally retentive types who breed in their millions there.

Dont get me wrong I enjoyed my holiday overall.
One great advantage was how much cheaper everything is.

What was truly noticeable also was on average how much thinner everbody is.
The Irish are seriously overweight.

Its Bray or Ballybunion nxt year.

Now if this Kenny person ,whom I recall was a thin man, can get prices down and prevent the Irish from stuffing their faces all the time with food
it would go a long way to solving the nations problems.

[RahenyFG]

@RahenyFG - Enda has poor communication skills. A leader needs to be able to communicate with the electorate and Kenny is woeful at it. He's also had his time as leader of the opposition and he's singularly failed to make any dent in FF. He's failed to differentiate FG from FF and he's failed in offering the electorate a real and substantial alternative to FF. It's telling that the best thing you can say about FG under Enda is that they're not FF.

As an independent I feel that if I voted FG then I'd be rewarding Kenny's mediocrity in opposition.

Here's another person falling for personality politics. Okay his communication skills may not be top notch but who says his ability to do a top job isn't as a result. If we had personality politics back when Winston Churchill or Roosevelt held top positions, maybe we wouldn't like their personalities but their workrate and skill in top positions was what mattered. Enda has done a great job as Leader of the Opposition. In 2004, he pressured then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern into admitting the murderers of Gerry McCabe were being released. At the Budget debates, he has stood up for those who have been hit most by Budget cuts.

And why does he have to differentiate FG from FF? FG is a completely different entity to FF. And what does it matter anyway? As Enda said himself during the Leadership contest in 2002, irish people are non ideological.

[Baron von Biffo]

Here's another person falling for personality politics. Okay his communication skills may not be top notch but who says his ability to do a top job isn't as a result. If we had personality politics back when Winston Churchill or Roosevelt held top positions, maybe we wouldn't like their personalities but their workrate and skill in top positions was what mattered. Enda has done a great job as Leader of the Opposition. In 2004, he pressured then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern into admitting the murderers of Gerry McCabe were being released. At the Budget debates, he has stood up for those who have been hit most by Budget cuts.

And why does he have to differentiate FG from FF? FG is a completely different entity to FF. And what does it matter anyway? As Enda said himself during the Leadership contest in 2002, irish people are non ideological.

Kenny isn't leader of the opposition, he's leader of FG. It's a bit of a stretch saying he's doing well in that job when his own front bench said they had no confidence in him.

[willoughby]

Kenny isn't leader of the opposition, he's leader of FG. It's a bit of a stretch saying he's doing well in that job when his own front bench said they had no confidence in him.

His own front bench have confidence in him, his previous frontbench may not have.

[Baron von Biffo]

His own front bench have confidence in him, his previous frontbench may not have.

Which is why I used the past tense.

[goatstoe]

His own front bench have confidence in him, his previous frontbench may not have.

Doesn't that mean a good chunk of his present backbench have no confidence in him?

[hiding behind a poster]

The leader of FG on GE polling day will be FG's nominee for Taoiseach on Taoiseach election day - weeks later, after much negotiation.

Yeah, that's the normal way of things.

Would FG not offer Kenny's abdication in favour of say Bruton in exchange for Labour support- among the other stuff of course...

No, they wouldn't. Why should they?

[hiding behind a poster]

I know Baron. But its the most likely.

My question is : In exchange for Dáil support of an FG led Government, subject to the usual policy compromises, is it not possible for Gilmore to ask for Kenny's head ?

But WHY should Gilmore do that? If Kenny is as awful a leader as people here keep claiming, surely it'd be in Gilmore's interest to have Kenny as Taoiseach rather than someone else in FG, as then he'd be a more powerful Tanaiste than he would be otherwise.

That's the annoying thing about this thread. People have been going on about why Labour should see it as a right to interfere in the workings of FG, without giving any reason why it'd be in Labour's interest to do so.

[hiding behind a poster]

Very presumptuous comment, it's not a given that FG will be the largest party after the next GE.

No, its not a very presumptuous comment. FG weren't the largest party in 1997, 2002 or 2007, but their leader was still the party's nominee for Taoiseach.

I don't know what point you're trying to make.

[hiding behind a poster]

Finally somebody understands me !

That's exactly what I'm asking.

And again, why is it in Labour's interest to do that?