Crafty spin all part of Bertie’s Dáil battle

EARLIER this week, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte claimed Bertie Ahern would play cricket on some spare patch of ground if he knew there were votes or populist appeal in it.

Well, the Taoiseach seemed to take him at his word for he came into the Dáil yesterday with the gimp of legendary Australian spinner Shane Warne about him (ok you have to use your imagination a bit).

Verbally, Ahern delivered most of Warne’s bag of tricks to the unsuspecting middle-order of Fine Gael, including the unfortunate Bernard Allen. He fired all kinds of spin-balls at Allen when the Cork deputy faced him, including googlies, leg-breaks and flippers. And he also proved adept at Warne’s other legendary skill — sledging.