Gilmore can restore country’s credibility

AT last, after the years of Haughey chicanery, Ahern cronyism and now Cowen indecisiveness, the country has a potential leader capable of restoring its self-respect and credibility.

All voters need now is the courage and confidence to elect in sufficient numbers enough Labour party candidates at the next general election to ensure Eamon Gilmore becomes Taoiseach.

Recent opinion polls placing Labour ahead of Fianna Fáil was encouraging but it is still only a snapshot of people’s frustration at the economic crisis and the woeful inability of the Government either to understand or deal with it. Fine Gael, led by the hopelessly ineffectual Enda Kenny, offers little by way of a convincing alternative.

Mr Gilmore alone has shown a sympathetic appreciation of what ordinary people are suffering and how, in clear, non-patronising language, the problems should be addressed. At the same time he and his frontbench have targeted the real villains of the piece: a banking sector encouraged in its greed by a Government wallowing in its complacency. Harold Wilson was right to remind us a week is a long time in politics but if voters can maintain their resolve, Ireland could be spared the possibility of what would seem like an eternity of Fianna Fáil misery.

Nick Nolan

Ballynalacken

Ballylanders

Co Limerick