Re.Rose Tinted Glasses
My oh my, aren't we all looking back through rose-tinted (or possibly FF green tinted) glasses when remembering McCreevy's career
My oh my, aren't you looking through red tinted glasses. Most people would share the credit for the Celtic tiger between successive governments since the late 80's when Fianna Fail implemented most of the economic policies that Fine Gael tried to bring in (stopped by tricky Dickey if I remember correctly, though I was only a nipper at the time), but you would give absolutely no credit to Charley McCreevey. That sounds like sower grapes and typifies what I don't like about the Labour party; you insist on portraying a black and white view of politics in this country. I have read and agreed with many of your posts on AAM and you are doing yourself a disservice by not using the discerning intellect which you clearly have to give a balanced view of the man.
If you don't like the "best of a bad lot" fatalism shown above why not put forward the case as to why a Labour and whoever government would be better economically for this country, not why Charlie Mc is a scumbag and so even a former communist would be better.
I think that McCreevy, despite some stupid mistakes, some nods to the mates and some breath taking arrogance, has done a very good job. He does what he thinks is right on macro issues, not what he thinks is popular; the opposite of Bertie.
Bertie was perhaps the worst (and most left wing) finance minister we have had in 20 years and he still did quite well! Ruari Quinn could hardly be considered a real socialist or at least if he is he is the ultimate smoked salmon one, his family are stinking rich; his brother owns 4 or 5 Ferrari's!
it was Richard Bruton/Ruari Quinn/Pat Rabitte who brought in the 12.5% corporation tax rate that spurred on so much economic development in the latter half of the 90's & beyond. Chazza inherited a booming economy - he didn't create it.
It was Quinn and Bruton, not Rabbitte and it was a continuation of earlier policies by other governments.
He did continue to grow the economy, indeed he grew it at an increased rate!
The man who took the high moral ground in the Haughey ere has demonstrated the morality of a slug in his later decisions. Clearly his major problem with Haughey what simply that Haughey was in power and McCreevy wasn't.
That's a very small minded thing to say, does no one who you don't like have any ethics or morals? Why can't you just not like their views but give them credit for the good things they do or has the country functioned in a moral vacuum for the last six years?
To paraphrase a current self-help book, 'feel the fear & vote for someone except FF anyway' - you actually might look back with pride in a few years time.
The problem is that many people did just that for Dick Spring (the spring tide) and the perception is that he let people down. I think he did what he had to do in the real world but he just set the bar to high for himself.
IMHO many on the left forget that government in a democracy is the art of compromise and that includes your principals. The only question is how much you are willing to give to get things done.
To paraphrase Phoenix, the only real problem with sending Chazza to Europe is the language problem, but hopefully it's not too late for him to develop a good grasp of English soon.
Again, that comment is beneath you. It's the sort of thing trotted out by people without the intellect to do better, you can do much better.