Murdoch and Cloyne - it's an ill wind...

There’s a difference between schadenfreude and red herrings, and two men who know that to their bone marrow are Nick Clegg and Enda Kenny.I heard Nick Clegg on the radio this morning and he sounded positively bouncy. He was being asked about the Murdoch thing and he was assuring the interviewer that, whatever else his party could be accused of,  schmoozing up to Rupert Murdoch was not one of them. It wasn’t just relief that, unlike the British Labour party  and the British Conservative party, the Lib Dems had always been low down on the News International list for Christmas cards. And it wasn’t I suspect because Clegg dislikes Murdoch and delights in his present  battering.  No, Nick is cheerful because people are talking about politicians and their relationship to R Murdoch, not  about him. When you’ve clearly and incontrovertibly promised in an election campaign that you’ll not allow something to happen ( increased university fees) and then you allow it to happen (step forward N Clegg),  you don’t mind who replaces you in the sin spotlight, anyone will do, as long as they’re big and distracting.  Murdoch is vey big and very distracting.

I haven’t heard Enda Kenny in a while, but you may be sure wherever he is, he’s grinning inwardly like a Cheshire cat. That’s because the Cloyne Report has been issued, and the media spotlight is on the effect and handling of sex abuse charges in that diocese. Not, I’m sure, that Enda would wish abuse on any child or failure to follow-up on accusations of clerical abuse crimes against them,  but it’s shifted that damned spotlight, hasn’t it? For a while there it was nothing but Enda’s  recorded voice fom the election campaign, promising to stand by the Roscommon Hospital A and E department, followed by his present-day squirmings about maybe having been misunderstood, changed circumstances, blah-blah-blah. Because as you’ve probably heard,  the Roscommon Hospital A and E department has recently been shut down and it was Enda’s government wot done it. When you’ve clearly and incontrovertibly promised in an election campaign that you’ll not allow something to happen (closure of an A and E department) and then you allow it to happen – in fact you make  it happen (step forward E Kenny), you don’t mind who replaces you in the sin spotlight, anyone will do, as long as they’re big and distracting. Cloyne is vey big and vey distracting.

Ah me. And to think they crucified that poor Jo Moore woman for saying 9/11 was a good day to bury bad news.