Miriam O’Callaghan interviewing former Greek finance Minister Yanis Varafoukis at the Kilkenomics festival on RTÉ One’s Prime Time this evening
As an Irish citizen, I apoligise to @yanisvaroufakis for the childish, patronising, amateur, deaf-eared “interview” by @MiriamOCal of #rtept
— Éibhear (@SaorAgusGaelach) November 5, 2015
@RTE_PrimeTime @MiriamOCal @yanisvaroufakis I’m surprised she let RTE air this interview. It was embarrassing.
— Neevie (@HoorayForNiamh) November 5, 2015
@yanisvaroufakis Welcome to Ireland, Yanis. It’s an honour to have you here. I hope you get a more fitting interview on air before you leave
— The Raven (@TheRavenxx) November 5, 2015
Oh.
Ireland no paradigm of successful austerity – Varoufakis (Edel Kennedy, Irish Times)
(RTÉ)
Should be spelled ‘Kilkenomics’.
I can’t bring myself to watch it.
Neither can I Sido
RTE types literally so do not exist in my world
that is literally so the worst sentence I have ever read.
That’s no way to talk about the ex-Finance Minister.
Boom Boom!
State employed Mouthpiece out of her depth with an intelligent politician
A what? He added an extra 3 billion to Greek, admitted to hacking people’s personal details and alienated Greece from international community. All p**s and wind.
Yanis has the gift of the gab, appears clever but yet only managed to do his degree at Essex “University”. Why?
Some of the greatest minds in human history had no university degree.
He then went on to have a stellar career in the private sector before attaining the position of Greek finance minister. Great argument Paul.
Third rate is too generous
Amazed at some of the comments being raised about this interview. How stupid are people?., do they not realize that this guy failed and failed completely and that he had to back down on almost everything he said he was going to d?o. He did so many u turns that he must be dizzy
Screw your logic professor he means something symbolically!
“Now, watch this bunny hop”
*revs motorbike*
Its better to have tried and failed. than not to have tried at all.
He did exactly what he was elected to, went against the wishes of the troika argued for a better deal, and they punished Greece sorely for it. The deck was always stacked against him. Pithy comments like yours are utterly facile.
Flaky narcissist meets taxpayer funded sincerity machine. Yawn……..
Been a good couple of days for RTE. Not even pretending anymore that it’s anything other than government spin regurgitator.
Complain when RTE does fluff pieces, complain when RTE doesn’t do fluff pieces.
I don’t complain when RTE does fluff. I love a bit of fluff.
Even the Greeks hate this guy now. He’s been swanning around the globe picking up $60k for speeches since he was booted out of office, doing interviews for anybody that will take him. The far left swoon for him remains idiotic.
+323bn
I don’t think Davey McWilliams paid him anything to go to Kilkenny….
he does some free, and some paid. He released a list of them all this week. Essentially he’s trying for a very very well paid altruistic speaking tour. Nothing against this, but it does provide some context as to his own personal situation. I don’t believe he’s paying Greek tax on this either, btw.
as the link Sham Bob provided below shows, you’re talking b*llocks. Out of 25 talks so far given, he’s charged for only 5 of them, paying the appropriate tax as required.
Did you see the part where I said some were free and some were paid? Or did you just decide to ignore that? Can you point out which part of what I said was “bollocks”, other than the one fee he paid Greek tax on?
“he does some free, and some paid” is not an accurate description of charging for only 5 out of 25 speeches and for 3 of those 5 speeches he earned 1000, 500, and 1700 euros respectively. Compare that with the likes of Bertie Ahern who earns in excess of 60K a speech according to Irish media.. But yet you’re asserting “Essentially he’s trying for a very very well paid altruistic speaking tour.”
Projecting just a little?
i was talking bollocks a second ago, now i’m merely projecting…
I’m simply pointing out how deeply unpopular the guy now is in Greece and why his personal decision making has been routinely found to be problematic and flawed and very much at odds with his “I’m a Marxist soldier” persona.
There’s many forms of “talking bollocks”. “Projecting” would be one of them! Can you please provide some links to back up your claim that he’s universally hated by the Greek public? Because as far as I can see, all you’re basing that on is from the now discredited smear piece on him in the Sunday Times which referenced bogus reports about his earnings by some pro-troika Greek media outlets prompting Varoufakis to put an end to the speculation.
Wouldn’t a more balanced, educated guess from the outside looking in be that public opinion of him is probably divided?
Owen you should watch the interview and then ask why Miriam O’Callaghan picks up a 6 figure salary for this crap.
RTE presenters are vastly overpaid, no question.
In his own words: http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2015/10/28/transparency-everywhere-my-fees-and-thre-troikas-latest-vilification-drive/
It starts with :
“Since my resignation from the finance ministry, in protest at our government’s capitulation to the troika, ”
When you start with such a breathtaking piece of spin, nothing else can really be taken seriously.
it reads better than “I was fired because my ego and decision making had become a major part of the problem”.
Exactly
He quit.
She’s far from a third rate hack. They all work for the journal and tv 3. Oh and, she’s actually right. He achieved nothing. He even admits it. His fiscal notions were like something from a Marxist Disneyland.
worked for the journal and tv3.Whats your point?
If you seriously think either of these employments indicate that she is not just a hack you have to explain yourself.Please,can you do that?
My point was, all the 3rd rate hacks ( not even bona fidelity hacks!) work for tv3 and the journal. O’Callaghan dies not.
O’Callaghan lives! She lives!
You prefer the troika’s divide and conquer modus operandi better?
My fingers are refusing to get outraged by this yawn fest
Good grief there’s some seriously nasty people on here.
Amazingly it would seem they suffer from Stockholm syndrome also.
Stupid celebrity type questions about personality clashes when he was getting stamped on by the EU and media partners.
The referenced recovery here is based on already wealthy people selling houses and land to each other, and a devalued Euro against the dollar/sterling helping exports, and cheap credit, again…
The devalued Euro should help Greece as well, no?
Makes UTV Ireland loook almost better…
Ah, now that’s a bit harsh.
Wait till Miriam starts her election run for Aras. This is a warm up.
Am I the only one who thinks he looks a bit like Voldemort?
him and dr.Paul O’Connell ( PhD for running into people )
lol @ the pretend Marxist socialist commentariat from the iphone wielding middle classes as they take a break from designing their next spam app. Go on holiday in Greece to spend your moneis, god knows they need it.
Bond or Bond villain? Am undecided.
Hillarious the bashing that miriam is taking for actually being right.
Yer man has a neck like a jockeys bollix and thats the type of phrase thats normally reserved for rte people.
Tough questions, tough answers. Yanis is a big boy what’s the big deal? I’m no Miriam fan but those twitter apologists are embarrassing.
I view the current Greek administration and the Greek people as victims. Victims that tried to resist Eurozone oppression and corruption and got hit even harder by their (and our) Euro masters. They actually got punished for daring to challenge the status quo? Is this what we signed up for in the Eurozone? Germanys way or the highway? Germany asset stripping nations because of a few nationals running up astronomical debts? This interview is akin to pointing a finger at an assault victim and saying ‘Ha! you asked for that didn’t you?’. No, I suppose the Greeks should have been good lap dogs to the Euro elites, handed over all their money with no questions much like we have here. Aren’t we great?
At least the Greeks had the guts to stand up against BLATANT oppression. Their future generations can at least look back with some pride about that.
They can also look back and wonder if paying their taxes might have helped them a little bit.
Now that really is hilarious. Are you out for the weekend?
They stood up, they lost. What’s so hilarious about that?
Do you and all your family roll over, play dead, and beg when told?
Or is it you subscribe to the Homer Simpson philosophy of “If you don’t do anything, you cannot make mistakes”….. sounds like you do.
Twitter Bio : Saoránach – a free spirit. Heroes empathise with fellow everyman … I am the NOBODY in nobody loses buying property from #NAMA … I am the it in #austerity …
Just realised something he said towards the end, in answer to Miriam’s question as to whether Ireland’s approach was succesful vs Greece’s failure. Here’s the quote from V-Fak:
“…primarily due to the fact that we took the brunt before you…the degree of austerity that was imposed on Ireland was a tiny proportion of that which we had to suffer….Irish were spared a much greater disaster because the Greeks took the brunt of the austerity”.
This is demonstrably bollocks of the highest order. The most severe year for Irish austerity was 2009 2 x budgets, well before Greece was even in a financial assistance program and well before any actual austerity arrived in Athens. This is a ridiculous attempt to rewrite history. Ireland was granted a less severe adjustment program because we had already chosen to do most of the heavy lifting ourselves in 2008-10, while the Greeks continued to deny reality (literally in the case of some of their phony statistics).
The “tiny” remark is also clearly false, with Ireland undergoing a fiscal consolidation of around 13% of GDP between 2008-2013, while Greece signed up to a 16% change between 2010-2013. Yes, their’s was tougher and more intense, but ours was not “tiny” in comparison. What happened in Greece was that, on top of the large fiscal adjustment, there was zero faith in the ability of the economy to adjust or the government to manage the economy back onto a stable footing, given the repeated lack of follow through on economic reforms and the scorched earth policy which Syriza started off with when they came into power.
What else other then bollocks juggling would expect from this clown.
Amazing interview. The fact that she didn’t genuinely engage with anything he actually said to her is remarkable, demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of the overall situation and a complete unwillingness to try to understand another viewpoint. Having said that she does have nice eyes doesn’t she.