Ireland: New Conservative party formed:

NEW IRISH CONSERVATIVE
PARTY FORMED:

LUCINDA LOUDMOUTH, Ex-Fine Gaelers
and collection of Tom Cobbleys form
new Party:

 

As if Ireland hadn’t enough conservative parties in the Dáil, another one was announced last Thursday with a pre-launch launch in a Dublin hotel. The Party is led by former Fine Gael TD, Lucinda Creighton, (Aka Lucinda Loudmouth for her penchant for verbal diarrhoea of meaningless claptrap which characterised her previous career as Minister of State for European Affairs).

At the pre-launch launch (what a waste of time and money!) they failed to announce the name of the party which was left until the following day at the Launch Launch. That led to widespread media confusion as to what name was chosen and then what it actually meant. Was it Hatnuah – no that’s Tzipi Livni’s party in Israel (Some parallel there as Livni was sacked from Cabinet recently by Netanyahu as Luczilla was sacked by Enda for voting against the Government’s abortion reform bill); was it Rathnua – no, that sounds like a town in County Wicklow where Deputy Leader, Billy Timmins, comes from. Eventually, we found out that it was “Renua” – a weird amalgam of the English word “Renew” and the Irish words Ré Nua (New Era). The press had a field day with that one.

To add to the Launch shambles the Party’s Facebook page was hijacked and turned into a mockery of Luczilla and her cronies leaving them without a contact website to much embarrassment, and the high amusement of the assembled press corps.

After the launch, Luczilla and Party President, Eddie Hobbs – a PR guru and broadcaster, turned up on RTÉ’s (Irish National Television) “Late, Late, Show”, the station’s weekly highlight show, to be interviewed by presenter Ryan Tubridy (who has family links with the founders of Fianna Fáil, the former government party once led by Éamonn deValera) but, not considered a political heavyweight of any kind. However, Tubridy, seemingly possessed by the spirit of infamous BBC Rottweiler, Jeremy Paxman, surprised his audience and the nation looking in, by savaging Luczilla and her cohort, Hobbs, and exposing the shallowness and crappiness of their so-called renewal party and the sheer waffle and no policies offered to the public. “NotNua” being a much more appropriate name for the collection of political nobodies and middle class dilettantes spouting crap which turned out to the now infamous Launch Launch. 

In a statement over the weekend, Luczilla complained about RTÉ “hostile broadcasters” but failed to acknowledge the sheer crapiness of her own empty rhetoric:

She described the interview questions as "predictable" and said she wasn't given adequate time by Ryan Tubridy to answer or discuss Renua's policies.

"That's how these political interviews are conducted these days and to be honest I don't think it does any service to the public as you don't get a chance to answer the questions,"  Creighton told the "Evening Herald".

"I think it would have been very difficult for the public to get a grasp of what we're about [on the Late Late Show].

"I'm not singling out Ryan Tubridy - most of the interviews these days are conducted in the same way unfortunately - it's almost like it's ticking boxes rather than being interested in what you have to say.

"I think the feeling on a lot of those chat shows is that you treat political guests differently ... that you behave in a hostile kind of fashion. 

Miaow!

A further disaster occurred when TD Terence Flanagan went on radio to explain the new party and had a “meltdown” during the interview when he was struck dumb and couldn’t answer the presenter’s questions;

However, some of his political opponents, such as Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins and People Before Profit councillor John Lyons, criticised Mr Flanagan.

A clearly nervous Mr Flanagan began with general comments but was unable to answer more specific questions asked by presenter Mary Wilson. When asked about why policies had not been revealed in key areas such as health and education, Mr Flanagan responded by saying there were a lot of areas that had been included in party policy, and referred to compassion and solidarity before his answer tapered off.

When asked about if the party pitching tax policies to the self-employed was telling of something, he replied: “”It’s a party that’s going to ensure promises,” but was unable to complete the sentence.  After a short silence, Ms Wilson said “we will stay with taxation” and asked him about what the party offered PAYE workers. “Emm for the the PAYE workers?…..” said Mr Flanagan before seizing up again. As sounds of rustling papers could be heard, Ms Wilson finished the interview : “Terence I think we’ll leave it there for today.” Mr Flanagan is said to have known he had done a terrible interview. Party sources said he had had a brain freeze and had not recovered.  A Dáil Deputy since 2007, Mr Flanagan is known to be a poor performer on live radio and is somewhat bashful when involved in public speaking. The wrong man at the wrong time. Not an auspicious start for a party wanting to “reboot Ireland”. No doubt, more fun yet to come.

The party has formally lodged registration papers and its constitution with the clerk of the Dáil and is likely to be officially confirmed as a political party in the coming weeks. It can then set up a central bank account and start fundraising. They have three TDs including Creighton, fellow ex-Fine Gaelers Terence Flanagan and Billy Timmins, who is Deputy Leader, as well as senators Paul Bradford and Mary-Ann O’Brien, an independent who was appointed to the Seanad by the Taoiseach in 2011. Mortgage adviser Karl Deeter is the party’s "ethics" officer, in charge of a code of conduct for all party members, although he is not a member.