Miriam Lord’s Week from The Irish Times….

Fine Gael and the party of Bertie lite

The prolific Kevin Rafter has been busy rewriting his book on Fine Gael, a task he began in March following the launch of his book on Democratic Left. The revised edition is at the printers now and should be in the shops in a few weeks. He has details on the Fine Gael election plan that was prepared for Enda Kenny last autumn by Mark Mortell, Frank Flannery and Big Phil Hogan. It should make interesting reading for Eamon Gilmore and his Labour colleagues.

One section of Enda’s plan advises on how the party should “define Labour” in the forthcoming election campaign, furnishing Fine Gaelers with a selection of rather catty descriptions of their future political bedfellows for public consumption:

* The soundbite party.

* The hard-left party.

* The party of high taxes.

* The party of Bertie lite.

“Bertie lite” appears to have been a reference to Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, who is now Enda’s Tánaiste and VBF.

Rafter’s first FG opus was published in 2009 and featured a front cover photograph of a very happy Enda Kenny squiring an equally beaming deputy George Lee into Leinster House on his first day. The latest edition takes up the story from Lee’s “I’m out of politics” announcement in February of the following year. It includes Richard Bruton’s failed heave and the impact of the IMF bailout on the fortunes of the main parties. Enda appears on the front cover again – on his own.

According to the publishers, The Road to Power: How Fine Gael Made History “charts the most dramatic upheaval ever in Irish politics and tells the remarkable story of how power has shifted in modern Ireland”.

My Marketing magazine article on proposal to further ‘top slice’ the television licence fee in Ireland.

Published in March 2011 by Irish Academic Press.

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