Hardly surprising. As everyone knows: “we all partied.”

Brian O’D TV3

(Ta DD)

Pedigree, chum.

If one purchases a tin of economy dog food and replaces the label with one for Caviar then what do you end up with?  A tin of dog food with a caviar label of course. If one replaces the leader of a political party that has destroyed a nation then what do you get?  Well you end up with the same thing.  A party that has destroyed a nation.  Yet in the past when Fianna Fail have changed their ‘label’ to one that gave a veneer of something more tasty then their supporters have tucked in with great enthusiasm.  Will they do the same this time?

The latest in a blizzard of opinion polls suggests otherwise with FF only getting a bounce of 1% despite the fact that their leader’s satisfaction rating is now higher than any of their opponents.  Similarly on the door step I have not met anyone who has been particularly enthused about the label being changed.  Thank Christ for that.

So who will these former fianna failers vote for or will they just stay at home.  From what I have been hearing on the doorsteps the largest proportion of them who vote will go for independents.  Not necessarily because they like them but they would sooner die than vote FG, Labour or Sinn Fein.

As one Fianna Fail die hard put it “I regrettably have to vote for you”.  I’ll take that thank you very much.

(Luke is standing in Roscommon/Leitrim)

Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan

(Mike McCormack)

That’s paint, right?

Spotted in Cabra. Cyprian Brady (out of picture)

Pic via Pearse Coyle

Tiarnan Sparks (far left) at a UCD Young Fine Gael pre-election conference.

And Tiarnan as he appears in today’s Irish Independent accepting a leaflet from FG candidate Eoghan Murphy at Dublin’s Great South Wall:

“Fancy meeting you here. What are the chances?”

(Collins)

UCD YFG

Maybe it’s because panda and Enda sound similar.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nejE6doGSDA&feature=autoplay&list=ULxwpfWEgidlg&index=2&playnext=1

Oh, absolutely loads we should imagine. Too many to count. Happily you won’t have to. Politicalreform.ie have assembled a team of academics to rate the parties’ manifestos (see above) and will – in the months following the election – see if our new leaders have come good on their pledges.

They’re also looking for techies to help bring the reform card to life on the interweb. It’s not exactly burning cars on Kildare Street. But at least you won’t get coshed by a nightstick. For more details click here