Anthony McIntyre writes about the Fine Gael deselection of Maria Bailey.

George Monbiot suggests that “the first test of politics is this: are they in it for themselves, or for us?” In respect of Maria Bailey the not for much longer Fine Gael TD, the answer has to be a resounding for herself. The owner of a genuine brass neck, having earlier stated she would not be "bowing down to keyboard warriors,", she has since taken to lashing out at objections to her crookedness, referring to “social media onslaughts”. She should go take a swing.

Fine Gael while getting shot of her is now said to be bracing itself in anticipation of its discarded and disgruntled TD taking a shot at it and must hope her aim is no more straight than her character. She is also arguing that the party needs to improve its crisis management. Her sense of entitlement blinkers her to the possibility that it managed the crisis very well. It got rid of the cause of the crisis – her greed. That is not to say Fine Gael behaved with any commitment to public propriety.

Her deselection as a candidate in the next general election followed a meeting of Dún Laoghaire Fine Gael members who passed a motion calling for the party’s election ticket in the constituency to be reviewed. While it tactfully avoided mentioning the swinger it left little room to doubt that she was about to fall from her perch, beer in hand or not. The motion read:

The Dún Laoghaire Constituency Executive calls on Fine Gael Executive Council to urgently review the ticket for the general election and to make any changes necessary in order to improve our prospects in the forthcoming general election.

Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar concurred when giving his assessment of the review that led to her heave-ho.

It involved reviewing what our best chance of holding two seats in Dún Laoghaire was. Obviously we had polling data as well that was done a few weeks ago, which confirmed the decision we made … I make this proposal because in my judgement, the best interests of the party are served by deleting Maria Bailey TD as a candidate for the next general election.

"The Tory boy Taoiseach who came to power with a campaign against imaginary welfare fraudsters" was signalling sans virtue that had the party felt confident of retaining its two seats, Bailey would still be on the ticket. Best interest of the party and not society. In the summer Varadkar faced furious accusations of having bottled it by admonishing Bailey with a mere slap on the wrist by stripping her of position as chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Housing.

Maria Bailey has been struggling to keep her head above water. Better for this society that she stays under. It will cure her. 

Straight Eye For The Crooked Gal

Anthony McIntyre writes about the Fine Gael deselection of Maria Bailey.

George Monbiot suggests that “the first test of politics is this: are they in it for themselves, or for us?” In respect of Maria Bailey the not for much longer Fine Gael TD, the answer has to be a resounding for herself. The owner of a genuine brass neck, having earlier stated she would not be "bowing down to keyboard warriors,", she has since taken to lashing out at objections to her crookedness, referring to “social media onslaughts”. She should go take a swing.

Fine Gael while getting shot of her is now said to be bracing itself in anticipation of its discarded and disgruntled TD taking a shot at it and must hope her aim is no more straight than her character. She is also arguing that the party needs to improve its crisis management. Her sense of entitlement blinkers her to the possibility that it managed the crisis very well. It got rid of the cause of the crisis – her greed. That is not to say Fine Gael behaved with any commitment to public propriety.

Her deselection as a candidate in the next general election followed a meeting of Dún Laoghaire Fine Gael members who passed a motion calling for the party’s election ticket in the constituency to be reviewed. While it tactfully avoided mentioning the swinger it left little room to doubt that she was about to fall from her perch, beer in hand or not. The motion read:

The Dún Laoghaire Constituency Executive calls on Fine Gael Executive Council to urgently review the ticket for the general election and to make any changes necessary in order to improve our prospects in the forthcoming general election.

Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar concurred when giving his assessment of the review that led to her heave-ho.

It involved reviewing what our best chance of holding two seats in Dún Laoghaire was. Obviously we had polling data as well that was done a few weeks ago, which confirmed the decision we made … I make this proposal because in my judgement, the best interests of the party are served by deleting Maria Bailey TD as a candidate for the next general election.

"The Tory boy Taoiseach who came to power with a campaign against imaginary welfare fraudsters" was signalling sans virtue that had the party felt confident of retaining its two seats, Bailey would still be on the ticket. Best interest of the party and not society. In the summer Varadkar faced furious accusations of having bottled it by admonishing Bailey with a mere slap on the wrist by stripping her of position as chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Housing.

Maria Bailey has been struggling to keep her head above water. Better for this society that she stays under. It will cure her. 

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