Power and principles separate bedfellows

THE Greens last night realised the inconvenient truth — that it is impossible to hold onto their principles while at the same time reaching out for power.

In perhaps the most downbeat assessment heard on a programme for government from one of its own architects, negotiator Dan Boyle said: “It is not a great document, it may not even be a good document, but it does contain good elements and those elements come from us.”

His decidedly partial enthusiasm was no doubt due to the way the list of priorities and targets in the 85-page tome so closely mirrors the Fianna Fáil manifesto, indeed, large chunks of it appeared to have been cut and pasted from Bertie Ahern’s election platform wholesale.