Irish politics uncovered...
You can see the planning meeting for the upcoming by-elections.
What would have previously been a boisterous, smoky room is now smoke-free and divided. Half the team out having a cigerette while the others sit around talking idly.
"I tell ya what," says one.
"What?" says the other.
"We should have one of those new fangled blogs for the campaign," he/she replies
"Smashing idea."
And so the candidates have blogs. Well not really.
As with so much in Irish political life the idea was good but the execution was sloppy and half-arsed.
The Freedom Institute has found "blogs" from four candidates in the upcoming Kildare North and Meath bye-elections:
- Aine Brady, Fianna Fail "Wednesday involved another early start. Meeting commuters at Confey Train Station on their way to work brought it home to me how much we rely on public transport. One of my key aims is to make things easier for those commuting to Dublin every day. That is why I made the decision to start my mornings this week with the commuters of North Kildare as they made their way to work."
- Shane Cassells, Fianna Fail"I had great craic tonight at the weekly Bingo session at the Navan O’Mahonys club. The club honoured me asking me to call out the numbers and I soon got the hang of shouting out ‘legs eleven!’ and ‘all the nines, ninety-nine’. I’d say I’ll be calling out numbers in my sleep tonight. However, when it comes to checking the votes on March 12th I hope the tally people will be counting out plenty of ‘Number Ones’ for me."
- Sirena Campbell, Progressive Democrats"As a young woman standing for election I usually get asked three questions, why bother, why the Progressive Democrats, and if elected what are you going to do. The reason I am standing is simple, I live in Meath and have experienced at first hand the challenges people are facing- poor planning, inadequate infrastructure, lack of crèches, schools, playgrounds and community centres, as the county goes thru a growth spurt unprecedented in the history of the state."
- Seanan O'Coistin, Independent"Listen to the "What it says in the papers" section of Morning Ireland, Tuesday 1/6/2004. There is a reference to me. You can hear it at 1 hour and 12 mins."
Now first of all, I don't want to be too harsh. The Fianna Fail blogs are reguarly updated and although they don't exactly set the world alight with great thinking or debate at least there's something being posted.
But none of these are blogs. There's no ability to add comments, no links, no debate. It's a start but that's all.
It's a pity because any of these candidates had a great opportunity to drive the agenda with these blogs. It would have been newsworthy and interesting but instead the "command and control" monster took over.
If you're going to blog then do it. Don't pretend.
I wonder what our resident Fine Gael blogger thinks? Where's their blog?
posted by Tom Murphy @ 9:59 AM
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