Promises versus Convictions

That is to be the battle between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, the Taoiseach’s speech was absolutely saturated with promises to the electorate. Detailed promises on tax and spend, with the Taoiseach, the message went, its more, more, more. Enda Kenny took a completely different approach.

The promises were there, only less and the majority were vaguer. Fine Gael are opting for a small few detailed promises (so it seems to me) in the hope of hammering them home and playing up the ‘conviction quality’ of their leader.

The speech, as I mentioned earlier, forswore promises of the deliverable kind focussing on a contract for politics built around the “word and bond” of Kenny. The Taoiseach cut PRSI, tax, increased beds, guards, schools, screening, the whole deal.

Kenny is not trying to outpromise the Taoiseach so the people will not quite pick between two identical parties. They will either opt for the all-in kitchen-sink manifesto style of Bertie Ahern or they will opt for the rhetorical ‘honesty’, ‘accountability’, ‘word’, ‘belief’ etc. of Enda Kenny. The question is, was his performance on the night enough to seal it.

It ebbed and flowed, I felt by and large though, he didnt hit his stride until very late. They didnt get the promises going soon enough to settle him down. His attack on government was solid, the promises were glarlingly vague-a huge amount of detail wasn’t required but I (and the non-politicos watching it with me) felt there still was not a great deal of meat there.

So the contract is as much an ethical one as a delivery one. It is a contract about the mode of politics, about the honest man delivering it. It was not a brilliant speech, it was good in parts, bad in parts. Completely removed in content from what preceded last week and deliberately so, one feels.

If I was unsure of him before, I am not sure where I would stand now. Perhaps that leaves him with more to do (though I will admit to not being his target audience or the easiest to persuade).