Promise on bondholders: Not a single red penny

Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s declaration yesterday that investors who hold junior Anglo Irish Bank debt will not be repaid in “any circumstances” will be widely welcomed — even if it has an air of déjà vu about it.

Coming, as it does, in the closing part of the electoral cycle, any climbdown, any concession, even if forced on Mr Kenny from Brussels, would have catastrophic consequences for his Government’s re-election prospects.

Once bitten, twice shy and all that.