Gemma Hussey: Fine Gael’s Marie Antoinette

 

By Anthony Sheridan

Comedian Oliver Callan, as usual, wrote a brilliantly funny and cuttingly accurate analysis of the farcical election campaign between Varadkar and Coveney.

But former Minister Gemma Hussey from the Marie Antoinette wing of Fine Gael was not happy with what she described as  ‘this appalling stuff’.

Callan’s mocking and derisive tone when writing about Fine Gael political aristocrats only adds to the general cynicism surrounding politics she thundered.

How can people (the peasantry) ever hope to become full citizens of our democracy if they’re subject to such bitter and crass attacks on members of the ruling elite, she asks.

Gemma Antoinette doesn’t expand on what she means by ‘full’ citizenship or ‘our’ democracy but I suspect she’s referring to those peasants who are obedient to and appropriately respectful of the ruling class made up of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.

Hussey’s letter below:

Sir,

Oliver Callan is a terrific comedian and mimic. But as a political columnist, he is bitter and crass (“Leo and Simon are the brand leading the bland”), Opinion & Analysis, May 29th).

The mocking, derisive tone of his piece on the Fine Gael leadership contenders is a case in point. Should you not think for a moment whether such appalling stuff is partly responsible for the general cynicism and disengagement about politics which puts people off becoming full citizens of our democracy, a democracy which we’re lucky to have?

Yours, etc,

Gemma Hussey,

Dublin 4.