Enderella and the ugly sister attack the Big Bad Budget

IT all got a bit too Panto for comfort in the Dáil yesterday as Eamon Gilmore taunted the Taoiseach over Brian Lenihan’s seemingly boundless ambition.

“He’s behind you!” the Labour leader could well have shouted in the best yuletide musical tradition, but instead he settled for a less than friendly warning that the Finance Minister was seasonally shafting his boss.

The front bench responded with a mixture of shirks and smirks as the FF back-benchers feigned outrage, casting Mr Gilmore as the ugly sister of socialism as they did so.