NOTE: John Fitzgibbon tried to comment on my Modest Proposals, but for some reason, perhaps due to the length, it didn’t take. So in the interests of openness I’m reproducing his email to me, with his permission.

I agree with much of your proposals Philip. Not briefed to judge others. I think the following
Longstanding issues were [...]

The debate between Mr Ahern and Mr Kenny showed, if ever anyone doubted it, that it was between two deeply conservative leaders. This is often hidden by the Irish names of the parties. In European terms how could you label them? This is my attempt.
Parties
Fianna Fáil: Conservative (populist)
Fine Gael: Conservative
Progressive Democrats: Neo-Conservative
Sinn Féin: Conservative [...]

I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time, particularly since I got an email from William Wall about his Citizen’s Manifesto , and shortly afterwards spotted
Damien Mulley’s Questions for the Politicians that stop at your door. Suzy Byrne made a similiar point to my number 1 on Damien’s blog, but [...]