From ‘golden share’ to red herring

YOU arrive back from holidays to find that your home has been robbed. You go to the police station, where a bored sergeant tells you that there’s nothing they can do about it. You protest, but the sergeant throws you in the cell to cool your heels. On the way home, you get mugged by a gang. As you arrive home injured to your burgled house, your neighbour asks: “Are you OK?” “I couldn’t be better,” you reply perkily.

Such was the nature of Willie O’Dea’s reaction to what amounted to a public dressing down by Cabinet colleagues over Shannon.

The Defence Minister professed himself “extremely pleased” with the outcome of yesterday’s Cabinet discussion on Shannon and, to boot, asked all the groups lobbying to retain the Heathrow service to step back to allow the Government space to resolve the crisis.