Are you getting a prize every time you say "keep the recovery going"?

immediately followed up by.....Are you on a bonus?

So asked Claire Byrne last night of Michael Noonan - I just thought it was hilarious. Her delivery was *************************.

It's FG's 'five point plan' of this election - won't mean much after but a sound bite for any of their candidates that get into trouble.

rob oyle said:

It's FG's 'five point plan' of this election

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking and why I enjoyed Claire's comment so much. It is an extremely clever line but severely damaged now because of its over-use. You could imagine them in FG HQ this morning frantically searching for a new jingle - this one is kind of busted!

elacsaplau said:

That's exactly what I was thinking and why I enjoyed Claire's comment so much. It is an extremely clever line but severely damaged now because of its over-use. You could imagine them in FG HQ this morning frantically searching for a new jingle - this one is kind of busted!

Click to expand...

"A lot done, more to do" maybe?

Nice one, Firefly!

I've been trying to work out why I find this so funny when objectively, it's not really that funny. Maybe it's because "the 5 point plan", "a lot done", etc. were intentional catch-phrases - whereas my sense is that "keep the recovery going" was intended to be used subtly, maybe even sparingly. As Rob oyle put it as

rob oyle said:

a sound bite for any of their candidates that get into trouble.

Click to expand...

Fine Gael were plugging this line repeatedly on Twitter last night. They conveniently forget that our recovery was in no small part due to a very weak euro and very low interest rates which this government had no influence over. The necessary austerity measures were dictated by the Troika and resulted from the bail out. In fact the first two austerity budgets in 2010 and 2011 were introduced by Fianna Fail.

I regularly hear Vinny Browne going on about how the "weak Euro" and "low interest rates" are responsible for our recovery. And now demoivre adds that the "necessary austerity measures were dictated by the Troika".
If all of that is correct, then Spain, Portugal and Greece should now be exhibiting 5% growth. But there are not?????
So, in so far as Governments do have any influence on how an economy performs, ours seems to have done a good job.

Greece had the same benefits as we had here and also the "benefit" of all the lefties in this country hailing the superior knowledge of Siriza and their prime minister Tsipras. We can get 10 year money at around 1% and Greece pay 10%. That is just 1 example plus no growth in Greece in2015 and 25% unemployment. I am far from saying that all is perfect here but I do not wish to go through another crazy cycle of boom and burst. I want work and risk rewarded. I fear for what the outcome of this election could land us with. I am just an ordinary guy who wants to contribute but there comes a time when you feel that the reward is not there and I am at a tipping point.

Conan said:

I regularly hear Vinny Browne going on about how the "weak Euro" and "low interest rates" are responsible for our recovery. And now demoivre adds that the "necessary austerity measures were dictated by the Troika".
If all of that is correct, then Spain, Portugal and Greece should now be exhibiting 5% growth. But there are not?????
So, in so far as Governments do have any influence on how an economy performs, ours seems to have done a good job.

Click to expand...

Well to be fair, neither Spain, Portugal and Greece are open economies like ours so don't benefit from external factors like we do. And FG didn't create our economy in the last four years. I certainly didn't expect unemployment to be where it is at the moment and they deserve a small bit of credit for that but again not sure how much credit they should get when it is the private sector creating the jobs. Can't really think of anything in particular that FG and Labour did that I go wow, what a good idea. Even the VAT reduction on hospitality that they bleat on about was paid for by a levy on people's pensions so they are not getting credit for that from me.

FG would have done the same as FF before the bust and FF would have performed as well as FG during the recovery.

Conan said:

I regularly hear Vinny Browne going on about how the "weak Euro" and "low interest rates" are responsible for our recovery. And now demoivre adds that the "necessary austerity measures were dictated by the Troika".
If all of that is correct, then Spain, Portugal and Greece should now be exhibiting 5% growth. But there are not?????

Click to expand...

If you look at the external trade figures for PIIGS you will see how important sterling and the dollar are to us compared to the others. Also Greece in particular had major structural problems that we did not have to face.

I watched the program last night and it was very obvious the "keep the recovery going" was the mantra alright. I found it entertaining when M Noonan was having a go at M McGrath regarding accounting rules - I'd say M Noonan is great craic on a night out!

In any case, I am so grateful for the EU limits on spending. Listening to the main parties last night, I would have zero faith that without these rules it really would be Celtic Tiger 2.0....They really are saving us from ourselves.

Also Greece in particular had major structural problems that we did not have to face.

Click to expand...

One of the major structural problems that we have not had is the "lunatics running the asylum" as in Greece. It is interesting to hear Syriza's cheerleaders in Ireland (Pearse Doherty, Paul Murphy et al) are now accusing Syriza of treachery. The prospect of Sinn Fein having control of the Finance Ministry is only surpassed by Sinn Fein having control of the Dept of Justice.

FG would have done the same as FF before the bust and FF would have performed as well as FG during the recovery

Click to expand...

That may well be the case, but either I suspect would have done a far better job than the "looney left" or the liquorice all-sorts collection of independents now putting themselves forward, many of whom could not agree on what day of the week it is.

Yes the mantra of "keep the recovery going" and "a lot done more to do" are glib and to a large extent meaningless in the context of a defined economic strategy for the next government term. However they do get across the core points that the existing Government of the time (excluding historic disastrous FF policies) were in the middle of a long term recovery process. Should we give Fine Gael the credit for the recent high exchequer returns and reduction in unemployment or point out that they merely took up where FF left off? Should we punish FG for some of their failings (Health/Housing) over the last 5 years? Do we feel that the acceleration of promised tax reductions will help buy our votes or alternatively that these funds would be put to better use in reducing our National Debt and improvements in Health/Housing?
Are FF/FG parties of the rich to the determent of those on low wages & SW? Probably yes if you are on low wages or SW. Are Sinn Fein a genuine party of the left with clear defined strategies that will assist those better off without a risk to economic recovery?
The difficulty in obtaining an answer to all of these questions is the lack of depth and truly independent analysis of the policies being proposed by all of the parties. Was the mantra "labours way or Franfurt's way" a genuine Labour proposal or merely an unthought out sound bite by Eamonn Gilmore? Are water charges really important or merely a side issue used to clobber FG? Is Irish Water on course to become a well run utility company who will given time solve our underfunded water infrastructure?
Plenty of questions and no shortage of answers. However, most of the answers are conflicting and believed by those who already have a bias against the party giving them. Will there ever come a time when we can get an unbiased professional opinion of the various policies and issues proposed by parties seeking election? Perhaps not