05.15.07
Richard Downes interviews Herr Flick
on Morning Ireland…
good and bad.. I only came in half way through. He scored one point well regarding the mobile phones etc in Portlaoise. McD was banging on about personal responsibility ie blaming the prison officers. Downes asked him why the personal responsibility didn’t apply to him and reminded him of what’d say were he in opposition. So a few points there.
They moved onto economics and McD did a Pat Rabitte as Minister for Finance nightmare scenario of higher taxes. He said, in outraged tones! that Rabitte had ACTUALLY said ON THE RECORD that he “would afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted”. My response to that is, em, what’s wrong with that? Downes was neutral enough here.
However Downes clearly didn’t know his stuff on the next point. He tackled him quite strongly on how competitiveness had decreased during the last 5 years because employer costs had risen 30% and whatever factory they were broadcasting from would close if costs continued to rise. McD went on a side track about the need for competition and stressed energy competition and how the PDs would ensure competition which would see costs decrease. He KEPT talking about energy. Downes clearly didn’t know that the energy regulator has INCREASED prices to make it worthwhile for new entrants into the energy market. Competition has directly resulted in higher prices, not lower. Pity.
Leon said,
May 15, 2007 at 10:57 am
So Downes is incompetent. Either he should be fired or his researcher shoul be fired.
Sarah said,
May 15, 2007 at 11:06 am
oh dear..well I suppose you can’t know everything…
Niall said,
May 15, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I’m down with comforting the afflicted, but I don’t want to afflict the comfortable. I think most people reading this blog are reasonably comfortable. Most of the country is reasonably comfortable.
Mark Waters said,
May 15, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Alot of the comfortable could do with a bit of affliction…
Mark G said,
May 21, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Ah brilliant, cheers Sarah. I’ve been harping on for years about the economic curiosity of increased competition in an Irish market generally leads to higher prices. People have told me I’m mad, but I’m glad I’m not the only one to notice and comment.