There are no good grounds for a significant reshuffle at this time. All idea of it should be abandoned.

It arises in the context of one arguably necessary change: the replacement of Willie O'Dea in Defence -- a portfolio of no great social or economic significance, without reform on its agenda. The necessity for the appointment is arguable. There is precedence for it being held by the Taoiseach, obviating any need to make the appointment at all. Read More...

Politics cannot be divorced from principle and principle has to be shaped and guided by certain moral precepts, the first and most important of which is the distinction between right and wrong. Politics only works on the basis of those in power doing what is right, saying what is right, making laws to ensure that this and other principles are followed. The opposition is there to ensure that such standards are kept.
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IT is difficult not to form the opinion that George Lee has made a complete ass of himself. He joined the wrong political party, brought to it limited economic ideas, and failed to explain them adequately and get them accepted. All this was exalted aspiration on his part. He had exaggerated views of his own importance, and when all of this fell apart he left in a huff. Read More...

The two main opposition parties are 'the government-in-waiting'. Opinion polls would suggest, numerically, that in the event of an election in the near future they would be able to offer the country an alternative to Fianna Fail and the Greens and that the electorate would vote for that outcome. It was fear of this that caused Brian Cowen to do the much-condemned and recent subsidiary deal with the Greens, turning on their head previous commitments on the economy. The poll reinforced public respect for Fine Gael and Labour, giving Eamon Gilmore in particular a boost in his popularity. Read More...

The speed with which the European Union has moved forward, after the final passage of the Lisbon Treaty into law on December 1, 2009, has the lash of vengeance in its tail against those in this country who said 'No' to it, twice, and those who wanted to elsewhere. It has the rank smell and dexterity detected by Hamlet, as he surveyed his uncle's replacement of his father in the "incestuous sheets", which he knew from his father's ghost to have been founded on a criminal act. "That it should come to this, but two months dead!" was how he put it.
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