This afternoon.

Mansion House, Dublin 2

Counting well underway for the Fine Gael Leadership ballot.

More as they tabulate them.

Earlier; Countdown

Leo X

Rollingnews

Update:

Meanwhile…

We now await the elected members’ vote…The Broadsheet Live Tracker will return after a quick cig….

UPDATE:

At the Mansion House.

Fine Gael’s Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (and Leo Varadkar supporter) Heather Humphreys spoke to Bryan Dobson on RTE News Now.

During the interview:

Dobson: “I mean Nora Owen [former Fine Gael justice minister and Simon Coveney supporter] was saying just a few moments ago that the rush of endorsements, by people like yourself, of Leo Varadkar, at an early stage in all of this, was resented by the membership. They felt that they were being denied their chance to have a say in this campaign. Would you accept that that was perhaps a mistake by the Varadkar camp in those early stages?”

Humphreys: “No, I don’t accept it was a mistake but of course this is a new process and this is the first time that Fine Gael has elected a leader in this way. But I was very clear at the early stages and I absolutely supported Leo as leader of Fine Gael and as our new Taoiseach. And I think I did the right thing because people would be wondering, well what is she, what way is she going to vote? And my members deserve to know exactly where I stood on it and I have consulted with many members before I made my final decision.”

From the Mansion House via RTE

Simon Coveney arrives just before the FG membership vote is announced.

Gerry O’Connell, chairman of the Fine Gael National Executive (above) announces the following tally for the Fine Gael membership, the first electoral college.

Simon Coveney: 7,051

Leo Varadkar: 3,772

UPDATE:

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FIGHT!

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81 thoughts on “Leoseach”

        2. Sheik Yahbouti

          Hi, there Steve, recognise you from The Journal (and any other website that accommodates FG shills). How’s it hangin’?

  3. phil

    I guess Leo misjudged his partys interest in him. I sure he thought he could win over conservatives by attacking the poor and back sliding on abortion , but I suspect there is one hurdle he couldnt overcome ….

    1. AnAccountant

      I heard only today (in a VERY brief and casual conversation, in fairness) that he was a Thatcherite in school so I wouldn’t be too sure he was attacking the poor for the sake of his political career. He might actually mean it.

      1. AnAccountant

        Although, what am I talking about? It’s not like it matters if he means it or not when a skint family loses 2 or 300 a month because they haven’t told Revenue that mammy and daddy live together.

    2. Barry the Hatchet

      Varadkar will probably still become leader. Coveney is winning with the membership, but he doesn’t have enough backers in the Parliamentary party (assuming they voted as they said they would).

      1. Frilly Keane

        Maybe
        But they’ll be very sorry parliamentary members when they need their general membership to stay on the ticket next time out

  5. Frilly Keane

    Ha!
    Boo Boo
    I love elections
    Even this crowd’s one

    I’d say there are a load of TDs hiding the Leo signs from their constituency office windows as we speak

    Poopy-pooping themselves they are

  7. Mourning Ireland

    Great. A week of First Gay Taoiseach articles in the Irish Times and Middlespread O’Callaghan RTE Radio 1 interview reruns.

  8. Peter Dempsey

    I also heard that Leo was Thatcherite in school.

    However the person telling the story was a bearded SJW leftie who is anti-business.

    1. Nigel

      I heard that Thatcherite, from his home planet of Thatcheron, is actually his greatest weakness, and when exposed to it he becomes weak and compassionate and has nice things to say about single mothers.

  9. :-Joe

    Varadker-bot bleeped and mumbled on and on about having the party faithfull more involved and letting them have more of a say in the party decisions around leadership and all the knob jockeying for positions.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c99rxlxaSw
    (I could have used the real accurate clear one but this was too funny in and of itself, revolving door etc.)

    He won the vote of his colleagues but overwhelmingly lost the vote from the members of the faithfully brain departed. So I guess that’s one major case of foot and mouth to begin with.

    You’d swear they just landed a 747 full of Fine To Fail coalition party rocket-surgeons on MARS the way they are all carring on… I don’t know who are worse, the politicians, the media or the public clapping along…

    It’s like listening to every bad sound since the begiinning of time condensed into one hour of insane noise. Like a really bad evil version of an aphex twin track.

    A fuppin school teacher has left the building and somehow he has handed over the keys of the headmasters office to the new class president without telling him he’s not actually officially in charge.

    & FFS… who cares if he is gay or mixed race… really??? Both of them are robots with the same microchips instead of brains. !!!

    Election now please you bunch of PR drunk ego maniacal self-aggrandising undemocratically and unofficially elected moronic diva’s.

    :-J

  10. Ron

    Enjoy your short time as an Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. The fact that the majority of the general public members of FG didn’t support him tells us they are not supporting him when Michael Martin decides to pull the plug on the current government and a general election is called.

    Also someone tell Leo not to get too excited tonight. His moral ground is so high I’m actually surprised he has any oxygen to breathe up there.

    He represents all that is bad about Irish politics. He is incompetent, amateurish, awkward, clumsy, floundering, helpless, inadequate, incapable, ineffectual, inefficient, inept, inexperienced, and has a very high opinion of himself. What could go wrong?

    1. Ron

      When Michael Martin is confident that the opinion poll bounce leo and FG are going to get is sufficiently eroded. There will be a drip feed of scandal after scandal after scandal after scandal until Leo is shown for what he is: incompetent… And when enough of the public hate him, then Michael Martin will call a General Election. But only then. If Coveney had of been elected, Michael would have pulled the plug immediately because there was no way Martin was going to let another Cork man become Taoiseach before him

      1. martco

        “And when enough of the public hate him, then Michael Martin will call a General Election. But only then.”

        so what you’re saying is possibly as soon as next week?

        excellent!

      2. Yep

        + 1

        Martin set out the stall early at Six. For all the dramatics FF are still very much in the drivers seat.

        Totally agree. The best thing about Leo winning will when he is shown to be what he is. Useless.

      3. :-Joe

        Yes, it’s going to be like Mr Burns fighting Smithers.

        Burns will get someone or something or somehow just eat him alive….

        Maybe Mr.Burns will come out as a pre-op transexual to get that extra bounce in the public opinion novelty multimedia ding-dong.

        Or maybe he’ll send in conehead to just take him out cold to prove he is one of the bhoys and worthy of the position of lieutenant commander in this already awkward looking, campy, facist reality show.

        :-J

  14. bisted

    …it’s a bit like the Trump/crooked Hillary thing all over again…Leo wins but the other side get to splutter and feel righteous…

  15. I'm "alright" Jack. Mad Jack is on annual leave.

    Honestly this has little or no interest to me
    Next time out Mick Martin and Mary Lou will be in

  16. Kenny U-Vox Plank

    Ireland breaks with tradition by electing the first openly doctor Taoiseach. Only 2 years ago it would have been a teacher.

    Did I get this right?

    2. Shayna

      I’d have my money next time on a vet, Noel Fitzpatrick has been described as a “Super-Vet”, he’s described himself openly as a Veterinarian Surgeon.

      1. mildred st. meadowlark

        That man has some neck, I tell you. A vet! Well, I never! What does his mother have to say about it?

        1. Shayna

          I assisted a vet deliver a cow’s calf, it wasn’t an altogether pleasant experience. However, I’m not Taoiseach. (Also, Tyrone winning captain, in 2005 – Brian Dooher is a vet). I’m not really sure what this has to do with anything, but, clearly I thought it was worth a mention?

          1. mildred st. meadowlark

            I do enjoy a bit of trivia, and you’re a great woman for it.

            Also vets are, generally, nice folk. And you get bonus points for not losing your stomach during the birth of a calf. I would not handle that well AT ALL.

    1. bertie "The Inexplicable Pleasure" blenkinsop

      I’m sure he’s been on plenty of man dates

    2. Jocky

      He was elected, how else would it be possible for him to be a TD or Taoiseach? I’m sure he has a mandate for his constituency although the concept of a mandate is a bit vague.

      Take two minutes to research how national assembly political systems work.

  20. :-Joe

    Wait a minute,

    If you get elected as party leader why would you go straight to the premiere of the latest Tom Cruise blockbuster car crash?

    :-J

  22. Peter Dempsey

    Isn’t it great that we have Jane Ruffino to tell us how we should be feeling?

    “Hey, international friends, please do not get all excited about Leo Varadkar! He’s regressive and was not chosen because Ireland has become progressive. He was chosen because he hates poor people, migrants, and women as much as the rest of the party, but his identity markers provide a progressive sheen for the international press to lap up.

    Please do not celebrate this victory. He has never helped the LGBT movement, has supported harmful policies for migrants, and doesn’t believe in a woman’s right to autonomy. Celebrating this as a victory enables the Irish government to continue to push and pass policies that do harm to the people such a victory could be taken to represent.

    His most recent passion project was a welfare cheat hotline, where you were encouraged to rat out your neighbor if they got a new tv you didn’t think they deserved.

    Thank you in advance for the zero links you will post to my wall about this “great news.”

    2. Yep

      You took a BIG swing at that right-hook…..

      So, if you can’t post a link on her “wall” about this great news do it here.

      Please …share.

  24. Eoin

    Leo is here to represent only some of the citizens of the country. Only the ones HE considers worthwhile. That’s not what the job’s about Leo. Hold on. Who is this guy? How has he ended up running this JOKE of a country with that as a mandate? Is this the new norm? My God. I think I’m officially done with this country. I’m 45 and once again looking abroad for my future.

    1. Frilly Keane

      boll1x
      Leoseach is there to represent himself

      Christ he’d lick himself he loves himself so much

      btw he’ll not last
      Even Noonan’s Term will be longer that his

      1. I'm "alright" Jack. Mad Jack is on annual leave.

        Agree. He’s gonna get precisely 5 minutes before being thrown under the bus.

  26. Hog

    It’s about as interesting as an election for class rep in uni. Oh wow, the spiteful gay guy won, how surprising … zzzz.

  27. gerry

    The privately educated son of a doctor is about to become Taoiseach. Clearly there is no prejudice in Ireland.

    This narrative that’s being pushed about him being the son of an Indian immigrant and gay is bizarre. When has that ever been an issue in his political career? Is he going to end direct provision?

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