Is Bertie delusional?

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Sunny

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http://www.independent.ie/national-news/elections/ive-got-your-back-bertie-tells-brian-1750625.html

I am not trying to discredit everything that was achieved during the boom years but surely by now Bertie must realise that most of it was built on sand. Jobs that were created are now being lost. Social welfare looks like it will have be cut. Health service is still a mess despite tons of money being thrown at it. There are still massive problems in Education. There was always poverty and its climbing again. The national debt is climbing again. Tax revenues have collapsed. So we had a few good years. Big deal. When the history books look back, will they comment on the lasting legacy created by the boom years or the fact that the Country had a big party for ten years and suffered for the next twenty.
 
I think Michael O'Leary more or less summed it up (and I'm paraphrasing):

In time, history will judge Bertie Ahern as the useless wastrel and chancer that he was.
 
Berties no more deluded then the people who still say "sure if bertie was in charge now, we wouldnt be in this mess" . .
 
The problem for Bertie (and indeed Cowen) is that to get us out of this mess, the government will have to reverse of lot of it's policy decsions in recent years.
Fianna Fail have been in government for so long they can blame no one else but themselves.
 
Was it CJH who said that he thought Bertie was the canniest of them all?

The timing couldn't have been better for him to step down and start carving his place in Irish history - the boom had not yet been seen to stop, he had reached that famous retirement age as well as the 10-years-as-Taoiseach point, Tony Blair had also stepped down in high-profile style and he probably does want very much to spend more time with his growing family. It was a fantastic career move.

On the one hand, its challenging to reign in an economy in full-swing because no one wants to rain on the parade and the tax-take from all the economic activity is hard to do without.

On the other hand, it seems there have been some very notable excesses engaged in and there was little structure or long-term policy imposed on the boom in a way that would make its benefits last as long as they could.

We should never forget that the country got the government it voted for and when things were good, they could do very little wrong.

Bertie is not delusional, he is a managing his legacy in a way he hopes is very clever. It may come unstuck if the dip gets really bad and decisions that are directly attributable to him (should they exist) are suddenly highlighted as being bad ones.
 
NorthDrum said:
Berties no more deluded then the people who still say "sure if bertie was in charge now, we wouldnt be in this mess" . .
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So you're saying both Bertie and those who idolise him are delusional. I don't really see much of a contradiction there.
 
elefantfresh said:
I think Bertie is a lot smarter that some people are giving him credit for.
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Probably. It's not that I think he is stupid, but put it this way: if I met him in a pub I'd probably think "Ah sure, sound enough fella, streetwise and a bit of charmer - alright to have a few pints with but wouldn't exactly want him running the country or something"

But lo and behold...
 
Let's see, a delusion is commonly defined as a fixed false belief and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false, fanciful or derived from deception.

So I think the answer is yes.

I don't think that Bertie is delusional in the clinical way but I think he is for sure having delusions and acts upon them.
 
"Was it CJH who said that he thought Bertie was the canniest of them all?"

I think what he said was, " the most cunning and the most devious of them all"

I would go along with that and add delusional and a few other discriptions as well.:mad:
 
Bertie will deserve his fair share of credit for helping achieve relative peace in Northern Ireland.

I can't see history being as kind to him on the economy.
 
Bertie was in charge of the country for the ten years when the emphasis switched from being a moderatly succesful export focused nation into a nation in which 6 out of every 10 men were directly or indirectly employed by the construction industry and a huge % of the state tax revenue came directly and indirectly from the construction industry.

History will not look kindly on him.
 
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