Fergus Finlay

And it doesn't have...

The other ingredient that's necessary in a situation like that is charisma.

It doesn't have anything like charisma.

You only have to look at Chuck Schumer on the television.

It's like the definition of anti-charisma.

It drives people not to anger, but to sleep.

And a lot of the Democrats are like that.

But and there is no I mean, the issues are the issues.

Cost of living, state of the economy.

Opposition to the war.

And there's nobody on the Democratic side putting forward rational and coherent arguments.

Fergus Finlay.

Well, he's not the first, is he?

I mean, the late Gareth Fitzgerald started life as a commentator, was a commentator when he went into politics, was a commentator when he was Taoiseach and was a commentator when he stopped being Taoiseach.

and was always wanting to speak his mind.

I mean, I didn't hear the podcast, but I read the Matt Cooper article.

And when you see it in context, he's not making an anti-rural Ireland statement.

It is a fact that all over the world, poorer regions of countries get more capital and tax and revenue from the centre than richer regions do.

It is a fact, I mean, in the 80s and 90s,

The reason coherence funds and structural funds and regional funds were set up by Europe was because of all the poorer countries in Europe, of which we were the prime one at one point, who needed their support.