how to win friends and influence people

[waider]

The stereotype of the arrogant Frenchman may or may not have legs, but Sarkozy certainly displayed if not arrogance, at least a lack of tact in apparently remarking that Ireland would have to vote again on the Lisbon treaty. Now, this being reporting, it's entirely possible that he said it was one of the options, or that he was referring to a modified treaty, or what have you. In today's BBC story on the issue, he's quoted as having said, "the Irish will have to vote again", which is technically correct - if we're to have any significant alteration of the current EU treaties, which we must have, sooner or later, then the Irish Constitution requires that the Irish will indeed have to vote again, and I think other countries should get the chance, too.

Anyway, the various political parties were quick to jump on it from both sides, with the incumbents attempting to do a discreet "shut up, you fool!" approach and the opposition doing their best to find a way to blame his comments on the incumbents. Ah, politics.

Comments

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

We had a fine example of party politics in the UK today. The opposition have been yammering away at the Government to postpone an increase in fuel duty, in light of the current price of oil and its distilled fractions. The gummint actually postponed the increase, so now the opposition are attacking them for trying to buy votes in an upcoming by-election. I'm not a supporter of either party, but sometimes it seems like the opposition do a nice line in double standards.

[waider.livejournal.com]

From my casual observations, David Cameron strikes me as being not unlike Enda Kenny (our main opposition leader) but I really don't have enough datapoints to make a proper comparison. I do believe, though, that the Torys are following the same line as the Irish opposition parties: their duty is to oppose, not to make sense.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

I do believe, though, that the Torys are following the same line as the Irish opposition parties: their duty is to oppose, not to make sense.

That seems to be the way of it these days. There was a period of a couple of years when the criticism seemed to be a bit more measured and thought through. I'm not sure exactly when the more aggressive approach came back, but I suspect that the fallings out over the Iraq war had a part to play. I also get the impression that the Tories have been a lot more strident since they took a lead in the opinion polls: a definite case of kicking the government while they are down. Like a lot of drunken weekend kickings, though, the aggression seems poorly focused: they could probably do more damage if a bit more intelligence was applied to the process.