The Time Is Here...

So, after the high drama/farce/tragedy/pastoral-comical (delete any you feel are unwarranted, by all means) of the last week, we now know the general election date: the 11^th of March. This is actually very good timing for me, as I should be somewhat free to obsess about the election in this very space. General elections are a strange combination of fodder and entertainment (entertaining fodder?) for me; the last one in Britain, for example, I followed rather obsessively, once remarking to a bemused friend when leaving college how delighted I was to be able to watch the prime ministerial debates that evening.

I note that the country's major news outlets seem to share my enthusiasm; as, I suppose, they should. Not only is this obviously an important topic that should be covered in depth, but this is a big time for them; harvest time, you might say. The news becomes more closely followed, and election junkies such as myself rely on news outlets slavishly. I noticed earlier today that the websites of both The Irish Times and RTÉ have "Election 2011" sections. I like to imagine that these sections were feverishly set up in the moments after the date was set, rather like towards the end of this clip (the part I mean will be immediately obvious). In fact, I have a feeling they've been there since the Dáil reconvened, but that's not quite so entertaining.

Other people are drumming up business from this election too. I noticed while passing through Dublin city centre today that bookmakers Paddy Power have put up posters advertising the odds on different people (Brian Lenihan (33-1), Brian Cowen (20-1), Éamon Gilmore(7-1), Enda Kenny(1-16)) becoming Taoiseach. I was bemused and a little frightened to notice that one of the posters bore the face of Charles Haughey; I wasn't previously aware that he was seen as a candidate for the office of Taoiseach.

General election season is always an interesting time; we're in for an entertaining month and a half. Hopefully we'll be offered an event as hilarious as Gordon Brown's "bigoted woman" comment, and the reversals that followed (the work of Malcolm Tucker, I've always suspected). In all seriousness, this is the most important and radical election in living memory. For me, though, that just makes it that much more entertaining. What on earth is wrong with me?



I couldn't finish without offering this picture of Conor Lenihan, which thoroughly amused me. Bizarrely, according to the picture's caption, he's actually opening a conference, as opposed to, say, accusing someone of murder. Of course, one likes to imagine he's pointing at Brian Cowen, but it seems unlikely.