Furious Higgins in a league of his own

THE political leader of the year is not Bertie Ahern. Sure, we learned a lot new about him this year but it wasn’t all good. He’s taken a few heavy dents in the past 12 months. For the first time going into an election, there will be no showroom shine.

So what do we know a bit better now? He’s not quite as nice as his carefully-cultivated image suggests. And his survival instincts are formidable. BertieGate showed him to be a much more crafty and calculating survivor than his mentor Charles Haughey (who was in many ways a lousy tactician).

On a recent trip to the Middle East, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair explained the “Mr Tony” nickname that his critics throw at him. When he first entered politics, he said, he wanted to please everybody. As he became older and less eager to please, he realised that some of his decisions would anger people, alienate people, turn people against him.