In December 1945, ‘Time’ magazine published a now famous special edition about the public reaction to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“Listening to the people talk,” went the editorial, “the pollsters found awe, fear, cynicism, confusion and hope – but mostly confused fear and hopeful confusion.”
We may not be living under the shadow of the bomb at the moment, but as Boris Johnson girds his loins ahead of pressing the nuclear option on October 31, plenty of citizens will understand the “confused fear” felt by so many Americans in 1945 – although there is far more of that than the “hopeful confusion” mentioned by ‘Time’.
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Yes, hope may be in short supply but we are currently running a massive national surplus of confusion and fear. In fact, you could easily add another five or six emotions to capture the national mood right now, but a toxic combination of those old reliables – fear and confusion – reign supreme.
That sense of inertia and the realisation that we are currently on the precipice of a calamity which becomes more appalling with each new revelation, can be attributed to many things, some of them out of our hands but not all of them.
Most pertinently, at a time when senior politicians have been open about the fact we are now facing into a genuine national emergency, the likes of which none of us has ever experienced, we desperately needed to hear more from the Taoiseach on Government planning.
A man renowned for his love of the handy soundbite has been conspicuous by his absence in recent times; times when we need the Taoiseach of the day to be informing us of what is going on.
There are plenty of reasons posited for Leo Varadkar’s uncharacteristic silence but most of them boil down to Fine Gael spin that he is working on top secret plans and unveiling them to the public might show the Tories the Irish tactics.
An argument that made a certain sense a few months ago is now utterly redundant as events spiral ever more desperately out of control in the halls of Westminster.
Observers were always concerned about our small country, and fragile economy, being caught in the splatter of a bad Brexit. But that splatter has now turned into a deluge as it emerges that things are now even worse than the most dire predictions of two years ago.
Frankly, we should all be sick of the sight of Varadkar by this stage.
He should have been front and centre, on radio and television, for the last few weeks. We should be complaining about all the junk mail in the form of Government flyers and information sheets.
We should be rolling our eyes at yet another ‘fireside chat’ from the Taoiseach. That would, at least, remind the people that he’s on the case.
He should have been keeping us – and, more importantly, those businesses which face ruination on the back of a no-deal Brexit – in the loop to some extent.
Obviously, in this game of high-stakes poker, all the players at the table are keeping their cards close to their chests. But that still doesn’t account for the truly mysterious approach by Varadkar. Even from the perspective of his own political future, if not that of the country, the silence has been inexplicable and, frankly, just not good enough.
The Taoiseach is due to meet US Veep Mike Pence in Dublin today and hopefully that will encourage him to shed some light on the current situation.
Pence was originally due to touch down later this week, but with the now customary confusion over Donald Trump’s travel plans, he has been forced to bring his trip forward and so today sees Varadkar, President Michael D Higgins and US Ambassador to Ireland Edward Crawford sitting down with the controversial American second-in-command.
It says a lot for the febrile political mood of the moment that a meeting such as this, which would normally be greeted with a diplomatic shrug and be seen as a distraction from more pressing issues at hand, will actually provide a welcome respite from the increasingly vociferous criticism of the Taoiseach’s performance to date.
Even the Opposition parties, who had reluctantly propped up the Government during this time of uncertainty, are now speaking through increasingly gritted teeth when it comes to Varadkar. Patience, it seems, is wearing thin.
Speaking on Sunday, Micheál Martin denounced the Taoiseach’s baffling lack of engagement, insisting: “The people need to know things which are as simple as will there be bread in the shops?”
From ‘confidence and supply’ to confidence being in short supply, Leo Varadkar desperately needs to up his game and his public profile if he is to stand any chance of not following David Cameron and Theresa May into the political graveyard with Brexit emblazoned on their tombstone.
Will he dazzle us with a super cunning plan today?
At this stage there seems no indication of any desire to enlighten the demos.
There’s almost no point in trying to read the tea leaves when it comes to the shape of the current political landscape in the UK. Just in case Tory infighting wasn’t already vicious enough, Boris Johnson’s decision to hire Dominic Cummings to ruthlessly control the cabinet was a sign there will be blood on the Downing Street carpet.
Cummings, a man who seems to model himself on ruthless Tory enforcer Cal Richards from ‘The Thick Of It’ (fans of that show will, of course, know he went by a rather rude nickname) is purging his own party.
We would be well served to remember the hardliners at the helm don’t even care about the north of England, so we don’t feature heavily in their thoughts as anything other than yet another example of The Troublesome Mick being an inconvenience.
Whether he likes it or not – in fact, whether we like it or not – Leo Varadkar found himself holding the poisoned chalice of Brexit on his watch. Now we need to know what his plans, if he even has any, actually are.
The Border. Air travel. Farming. Tourism. The impact on small and medium businesses. The entire economy. These issues are all up in the air at the moment.
The Taoiseach should have recalled the Dáil and the fact he hasn’t done so is mind-boggling.
Today sees the beginning of the last gasp attempts by Johnson’s opponents to head him off at the no-deal pass. Short of the kind of legal and constitutional gymnastics never seen before in the UK, that appears to be a forlorn hope.
Nobody can blame this Government for having to cope with Brexit. But that’s no excuse for the deafening silence of late, and the complete absence of any coherent, practical Government plan.
Come out and start talking to us, Taoiseach – or we’ll just find someone else who can.
Source: Read Full Article
Home » Analysis & Comment » Ian O'Doherty: 'Where is Varadkar when we need him in this Brexit crisis? Either he speaks up or we find someone else'
Ian O'Doherty: 'Where is Varadkar when we need him in this Brexit crisis? Either he speaks up or we find someone else'
In December 1945, ‘Time’ magazine published a now famous special edition about the public reaction to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“Listening to the people talk,” went the editorial, “the pollsters found awe, fear, cynicism, confusion and hope – but mostly confused fear and hopeful confusion.”
We may not be living under the shadow of the bomb at the moment, but as Boris Johnson girds his loins ahead of pressing the nuclear option on October 31, plenty of citizens will understand the “confused fear” felt by so many Americans in 1945 – although there is far more of that than the “hopeful confusion” mentioned by ‘Time’.
Please log in or register with Independent.ie for free access to this article.
Log In
New to Independent.ie? Create an account
Yes, hope may be in short supply but we are currently running a massive national surplus of confusion and fear. In fact, you could easily add another five or six emotions to capture the national mood right now, but a toxic combination of those old reliables – fear and confusion – reign supreme.
That sense of inertia and the realisation that we are currently on the precipice of a calamity which becomes more appalling with each new revelation, can be attributed to many things, some of them out of our hands but not all of them.
Most pertinently, at a time when senior politicians have been open about the fact we are now facing into a genuine national emergency, the likes of which none of us has ever experienced, we desperately needed to hear more from the Taoiseach on Government planning.
A man renowned for his love of the handy soundbite has been conspicuous by his absence in recent times; times when we need the Taoiseach of the day to be informing us of what is going on.
There are plenty of reasons posited for Leo Varadkar’s uncharacteristic silence but most of them boil down to Fine Gael spin that he is working on top secret plans and unveiling them to the public might show the Tories the Irish tactics.
An argument that made a certain sense a few months ago is now utterly redundant as events spiral ever more desperately out of control in the halls of Westminster.
Observers were always concerned about our small country, and fragile economy, being caught in the splatter of a bad Brexit. But that splatter has now turned into a deluge as it emerges that things are now even worse than the most dire predictions of two years ago.
Frankly, we should all be sick of the sight of Varadkar by this stage.
He should have been front and centre, on radio and television, for the last few weeks. We should be complaining about all the junk mail in the form of Government flyers and information sheets.
We should be rolling our eyes at yet another ‘fireside chat’ from the Taoiseach. That would, at least, remind the people that he’s on the case.
He should have been keeping us – and, more importantly, those businesses which face ruination on the back of a no-deal Brexit – in the loop to some extent.
Obviously, in this game of high-stakes poker, all the players at the table are keeping their cards close to their chests. But that still doesn’t account for the truly mysterious approach by Varadkar. Even from the perspective of his own political future, if not that of the country, the silence has been inexplicable and, frankly, just not good enough.
The Taoiseach is due to meet US Veep Mike Pence in Dublin today and hopefully that will encourage him to shed some light on the current situation.
Pence was originally due to touch down later this week, but with the now customary confusion over Donald Trump’s travel plans, he has been forced to bring his trip forward and so today sees Varadkar, President Michael D Higgins and US Ambassador to Ireland Edward Crawford sitting down with the controversial American second-in-command.
It says a lot for the febrile political mood of the moment that a meeting such as this, which would normally be greeted with a diplomatic shrug and be seen as a distraction from more pressing issues at hand, will actually provide a welcome respite from the increasingly vociferous criticism of the Taoiseach’s performance to date.
Even the Opposition parties, who had reluctantly propped up the Government during this time of uncertainty, are now speaking through increasingly gritted teeth when it comes to Varadkar. Patience, it seems, is wearing thin.
Speaking on Sunday, Micheál Martin denounced the Taoiseach’s baffling lack of engagement, insisting: “The people need to know things which are as simple as will there be bread in the shops?”
From ‘confidence and supply’ to confidence being in short supply, Leo Varadkar desperately needs to up his game and his public profile if he is to stand any chance of not following David Cameron and Theresa May into the political graveyard with Brexit emblazoned on their tombstone.
Will he dazzle us with a super cunning plan today?
At this stage there seems no indication of any desire to enlighten the demos.
There’s almost no point in trying to read the tea leaves when it comes to the shape of the current political landscape in the UK. Just in case Tory infighting wasn’t already vicious enough, Boris Johnson’s decision to hire Dominic Cummings to ruthlessly control the cabinet was a sign there will be blood on the Downing Street carpet.
Cummings, a man who seems to model himself on ruthless Tory enforcer Cal Richards from ‘The Thick Of It’ (fans of that show will, of course, know he went by a rather rude nickname) is purging his own party.
We would be well served to remember the hardliners at the helm don’t even care about the north of England, so we don’t feature heavily in their thoughts as anything other than yet another example of The Troublesome Mick being an inconvenience.
Whether he likes it or not – in fact, whether we like it or not – Leo Varadkar found himself holding the poisoned chalice of Brexit on his watch. Now we need to know what his plans, if he even has any, actually are.
The Border. Air travel. Farming. Tourism. The impact on small and medium businesses. The entire economy. These issues are all up in the air at the moment.
The Taoiseach should have recalled the Dáil and the fact he hasn’t done so is mind-boggling.
Today sees the beginning of the last gasp attempts by Johnson’s opponents to head him off at the no-deal pass. Short of the kind of legal and constitutional gymnastics never seen before in the UK, that appears to be a forlorn hope.
Nobody can blame this Government for having to cope with Brexit. But that’s no excuse for the deafening silence of late, and the complete absence of any coherent, practical Government plan.
Come out and start talking to us, Taoiseach – or we’ll just find someone else who can.
Source: Read Full Article