Well two winners actually. Firstly it’s been a while - I’ve been lazy - so sue me :p

Common sense - and the law - won out in the case mentioned below. The High Court not only granted that Miss D had a right to travel without asking permission they castigated the HSE for their actions. Good to see that some sense prevails in our justice system.

And the second winner is …. Fianna Fail … again! Bertie’s back in it seems with the support of the Green Party. I emailed the Greens weeks before the election. I’ve been a Green voter all my voting life yet I wasn’t voting for them this year. Why? Because they said that they would consider coalition with Fianna Fail. That’s a bridge too far for me. I got an email back from Trevor Sargeant himself saying:

If you are seriously interested in change to benefit Ireland as the Green Party is, then ruling out Fianna Fail weakens the leverage the Green Party will have in forming an effective government with Fine Gael and Labour. I share your view that Fianna Fail needs to be put out of office and I believe that most people in the Green Party would see this as a preferable option. The Green Party has decided, however, to be independent of any pre-election arrangement and this is ensure that the voters have a clear choice between green policies and non-green policies, given that the policies of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, in that both depend on corporate sponsorship, are not hugely different if examined closely.

Is he right? Not in my opinion. I’d rather see FF returned with out them truth be told. Trevor menions corporate sponsorship - that’s one of the bugbears they let FF keep in the cage. Banning corporate sponsorship is off the table. What else have the Green’s been adamant on? M3 through Tara … they’ve conceded that. Private hospitals on public land … they’ve conceded that. US troops using Shannon … they’ve conceded that. These were the main policies of this party. And a dog on the street could have told you that there was no way Bertie would concede on them.

And what did we get in return? A climate change commission. A taxation commission. An electoral reform commission. New building standards. Accelerate growth in renewable energy. A carbon tax. Let’s look at these. Carbon tax is an EU directive - it’s happening anyway with or without the Greens. Renewable energy growth? The ESB are at it already - it cheap and they can charge at least the same price for it - why wouldn’t they? And the rest - there’s a lot of commisions there - whoop-dee-doo. More tax money spent on hot air (and that hot air isn’t even captured to power houses).

And for some reason the PD’s still have a pull with Bertie. Harney was offered Foreign Affairs instead of Health. This was one of the conditions of the Greens. She turned it down outright and she’s won. What the hell? My maths is pretty good. 78 (FF) + 6 (GP) = 84 which is a majority. Add the mercenaries … sorry Independants … like Lowry, Healy-Rae, Flynn, McGrath - and the 2 remaining Progressive Dictators aren’t even needed - but Harney is still getting Health? For fricks sake guys - the HSE hate her, the nurses went on strike under her, the consultants won’t talk to her, and she’s giving public land to corporate health care! Plus the fact that her party lost 75% of it’s seats - including the party leader! There’s a message there somewhere. Nobody wants them Bertie! If she said no to Foreign Affairs then show her where the stagecoach is and get her out of town. She has no pull - you don’t need her. Or do you? Does she know something? Something that hasn’t hit a tribunal yet? I can’t think of another reason why a decimated party can hold such sway over a Teflon Taoiseach.