It being Friday, it’s time to launch a new piece that will be appearing here at the end of every week: Just some idle thoughts on events that happened in Ireland and the world this week, that I either didn’t get to write about, or wouldn’t usually be stories we’d cover.
- Lisa Murphy died this week. She was probably best known as the long-term partner of celebrity solicitor Gerald Kean, and as a model and reality TV star in her own right. You remember in life the people who show you great kindness and, without going into detail, she was incredibly kind to me on at least two occasions when she had no need to. An absolutely lovely person, who left a great impression. May she rest in peace.
- Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari? That’s certainly the biggest news in Motorsport in many years, and it will bring loads of eyeballs to the track when he first decks out in red. My take though is that it’s better news for Ferrari than for Hamilton – there’s nothing in their recent history that suggests that they can give him a title-winning car. Still, every kid dreams of driving the red car, not the silver one, so there’s that.
- Taylor Swift-gate is rocking the US culture wars this week. If you haven’t heard, it’s all based on a rather novel conspiracy theory cooked up by some – read that word before shouting at me – prominent Trump supporters, most notably former candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. The theory goes like this: Taylor is dating Kansas City Chiefs Tight End Travis Kelce. The Chiefs are in the Superbowl. Vivek is worried that the Chiefs might win – or more precisely that the game will be rigged – only for Swift and Kelce to endorse Joe Biden while holding the trophy. Naturally, this is being widely mocked as evidence of how deranged some people on the right have become. With friends like these, Donald Trump doesn’t need enemies.
- I didn’t write about being on television this week because, let’s face it, most of you probably noticed. I got a lot of comments along the lines of “it’s very unfair the way it’s always 3 on 1 on the panel”, but to be honest, I quite like it that way. I think it’s a genuine error by producers: When you’re being shouted down, you can’t really lose. If you manage to make some decent points and look like you’re being ganged up on, then public sympathy will tend to trend in your direction. As it happens, I think poor old Regina Doherty was let down by Fine Gael: She had to defend self-deportation policy, only for the Government to change it the very next morning. I understand they don’t want to announce a new policy on a 10pm television show, but still. In her shoes, I’d have been annoyed.
- The €50bn to Ukraine from the EU passed, as expected, after some rather overt bullying of Hungary’s Viktor Orban. I still think the whole Ukraine strategy flawed – not because, like some readers, I dispute Ukraine’s right to self-defence or have any particular loathing for President Zelensky – but because there’s no exit strategy. At the moment, the war seems set to go on until one of the two belligerents literally bleeds out, and the west’s approach seems to be more about entrenching that stalemate than breaking it. If you’re going to help Ukraine, you should help them win. If all you’re doing is giving them just enough to hold out, then you’re basically subsidising a re-run of the First World War. It’s utterly pointless, and immoral.
- Back to America: Polls come and go, but this one was notable: President Joe Biden has opened up a sizable lead over former President Donald Trump in a new poll thanks to his massive 22-point lead with women voters. It comes from Quinnipiac University, a well regarded outfit, and suggests that Trump’s big loss in the sexual assault case (however fair or unfair you think that was) isn’t going to do him the power of good. By the way, what to watch for there is not just the verdict, but the footage of Trump’s deposition in the case making its way into TV ads this summer. Call me old-fashioned, but I’m not sure women are going to vote for this.
- One of the newfound joys of this job is getting to read Kevin Myers new column every week before the rest of you. This Sunday, it’s on the recently concluded public pay talks, and opens with a very good point I’d never thought of: If you’re a public servant negotiating with the unions on behalf of the taxpayer in order to get the best value, isn’t it a problem that the worse you do in those negotiations, the more you get paid? Maybe they should subcontract the whole thing out to a law firm, like they do with almost everything else.
- Dee Forbes is still making herself unavailable to answer questions about RTE. You’d nearly have to admire it at this stage – the most overt “eff you” in recent Irish history, surely. Still, one wonders if there’s genuinely nothing our politicians can do about it. Some kind of re-run of the Oireachtas enquiries referendum – with more safeguards this time – highlighting this case might well be a good idea. You shouldn’t be able to entirely ignore the national parliament of the country.
- Finally, I miss “The Traitors”: The BBC show which put 22 people in a castle to play a murder mystery game where some of them secretly “murder” the others while the remainder try to uncover the guilty parties. In the end, the finale gave us one of the most heartbreaking and brutal moments in recent TV history, as disabled model Molly (21) discovered that she’d been brutally tricked from the start of the game by UK squaddie Harry (23). As one wag noted: Every girl who’s ever fallen for the charms of a cheeky chappy with slicked back hair should have been made watch the series on repeat. Language warning here.
See you next week.
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