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Madam Gets Mad
Read more about: Bertiegate, Corruption, Fianna Fail, Media, Polls
Geraldine Kennedy (aka Madam, for those not up on the parlance of Irish journalism), writing in her Editorial in The Irish Times (subs required) today lets her exasperance get the better of her.
Obviously annoyed with the electorate for not punishing An Taoiseach in the polls following Bertiegate, Madam went on a rant about how the voters will deserve the Government they get.
What sort of people are we? We know now. The findings of the latest Irish Times/TNSmrbi opinion poll show that two out of every three voters believe that Bertie Ahern was wrong to accept €50,000 from his friends while he was Minister for Finance in 1993. He was also wrong to accept £8,000 sterling from the Manchester function in 1994.
And yet, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has increased his satisfaction rating by one percentage point to 53%, the highest of all party leaders. More dramatically, Fianna Fáil support has received a huge boost. It is up eight percentage points since the last Irish Times poll in May. Support for Fianna Fáil has reached its highest level—39 per cent—since the last general election.
What a paradox!
Madam is obviously annoyed that public opinion has failed to follow the editorial line of the Old Lady of D’Olier Street. Despite all her efforts, and those of her colleagues, the Taoiseach’s approval ratings are effectively static following the controversy over his loans and payments, and Fianna Fáil’s ratings have actually significantly increased (even over January’s poll, if one considers the May poll, taken during the Mr A/Staturory Rape Law hullabaloo, to be an anomoly itself).
Madam then goes on to excoriate the public for permitting the continuing culture of what she perceives as corruption in Fianna Fáil:
The culture of nods and winks and looking the other way is alive and well in Irish democracy. Among a significant sector, however, it reinforces the case that the public interest requires vigilance, investigation and continuing scrutiny.
If the rest of us “look the other way”, it won’t be long before the culture of corruption engendered by Mr Haughey will resurface. But, regrettably, this poll would indicate that this does not seem to matter.
Madam doesn’t leave the public on their own in the “bold corner”. She also has a quick kick in the direction of the Alternative Government:
The poll findings will be devastating for the proposed Fine Gael/Labour Party alternative coalition. Faced with the most opportune circumstances in recent years, both parties experience a drop in support. Fine Gael support has dropped two percentage points while Labour has dropped dramatically by four points…
However, they are let off pretty lightly compared to what could be said about their failure to capitalise on the situation, although whether this failure was of their own making or due to the public’s dislike of “heads on platters”, to quote An Tánaiste, will probably never be known.
Even the media will probably now admit that Bertiegate is over. Unless something completely new and very significant pops up, Mr Ahern and Mr McDowell will lead a Government into an election in May/June. At the current rate, they may even lead a Government out of it too.
Last week, when I asked a class of 45 third level students to cite an example of a “crisis in government” no one pointed to Bertiegate. The most common answer was “e-voting machines.”
Some think the third level population of Ireland is the untapped 15% of the populace that will swing the next election. In their minds, there’s no problem at the moment.
The old saying “its the economy stupid” comes to mind here. We are now living in a society that is more concerned with its economic well being than any wrongdoings of our Taoiseach or in having high standards in high places.
Madam Kennedy would be far better off reporting news, rather than commissioning opinion polls. If we take today’s paper, this opinion poll was the front page splash. Can anyone credibly explain how this is a more pressing news story than say, the Nally acquital?
Because it was unexpected John. Hence why it is front page news.
It would have been front page news even if none of the percentages had changed. They always splash this stuff over the front page.
Well, the Nally thing was that he has been sent for retrial based on a technicality in his conviction. He’s not been found innocent or anything. Anyone who had seen the arguments put during the appeal would have known that he was going to get a retrial.
A detail maybe, but a newspaper edtorial is normally written by an editorial writer and not by the paper’s editor.
Even if it had reported no movement, it would have been front page news. Newspapers spend a fair whack on opinion polls, so they like to get the most value out of them. Unfortunately, they aren’t news in any meanigful sense, and the addiction of the media and political classes to them, speak of a distinct poverty in both.