Top o' the morning to you! We'll step off the curb and start the parade this year with a look at the world as seen from the other side of the pond. As you can see, many of the issues are universal, but the view of them is not what we've come to expect here. For starters, the MSM are, er, a little less inhibited when it comes to saying how they feel. Take, for example, The Irish Examiner which is less than enthused with the performance of the Taoiseach, Enda Kelly, during his recent trip to D.C.
For those who missed the cringing moment, Mr Kenny told a Washington DC audience: “If you’ve got a problem, or you have an issue, or an anxiety, or a concern or a proposition, or a proposal, I want to hear it. My number is a public number, you can call me anytime. Citizens in other countries find it difficult to figure out how anybody can ring the PM, or the Taoiseach in my case, and say ‘I want to talk to you’. Sometimes I don’t get a chance to answer all the calls....”:So, pitching himself as a sort of national call-centre manager, we can imagine the response if we took him up on the offer, but sadly missed the jackpot moment when Mr Kenny answers his own phone: “Press ‘one’ if you are a rich Irish-American, or well-connected Fine Gael lobbyist, for instant access to the Taoiseach.
“Press ‘two’ if you are a general moany-hole bleating on about having medical cards for your sick child snatched away, hospital A-and-Es shutting down, or not being able to afford to feed your families, so you can be made to listen to several hours of that really irritating bit from Riverdance being played over and over again on a loop, until you finally hang-up in despair.
“And don’t even bother pressing ‘three’. Just hang-up immediately if you are a whistle-blower, because we are not interested in what you disgusting troublemakers are up to.”
Does Mr Kenny actually read the embarrassing scripts his flunkies draft for him, before spouting them, or did he just think we would not get to hear that crap back home?