Santa Claus has come and gone for the Green party. Good old Saint Nick delivered them into a government coalition, giving them seats at the cabinet table, chauffeur driven cars, a handful of ministerial announcements and a brand new fold away bicycle for Sergeant Trevor that fits comfortably in the boot of a state car.
On the local front, Santa gave Snow White a Dáil seat. What she has done with that seat is another story but she got it nonetheless. Poor old Compost Noonan was obviously a bold boy as all he got was a year as Deputy Mayor. However, his Santa Claus was Head Prefect Cuddihy and he was wearing a blue shirt. Better Manners is a much better Deputy Mayor.
Many of Composts’ supporters feel that he got a raw deal and maybe the Blue Shirts wanted to keep him in a box in a bid to ensure the safety of their own seats. Grassroots thinks differently. Maybe the Head Prefect has a bit of foresight after all. The first chance Compost had with the beloved chain, he denigrated its status by donning it in the local boozer dressed up as Elvis Presley.
His colleague and boss, Snow White, has let him down. She is not as good at misleading the local journos as Compost. She does her best to stand by her convictions and if that doesn't work she simply runs away. But Compost runs to the hacks with a poor mouth looking for attention.
"I don't know what to do," said Compost…… "Maybe I will leave the party," he said. "I thought everything was going to be great. I didn't sign up for this. Now people are giving out to me and I can't handle it," he cried.
Wake up journos! He is a member of the Green Party and they are members of Government. They are part of Ireland's decision-making team. During these difficult times we need real leadership. We need people who can make harsh decisions that we will benefit from in the long run. We need people who have the ability to guide us through these tough times. We don't need people who will run away when the pressure is on.
Poor Snow White must be disappointed at her colleague's abject failure to stand his ground. Then again she is not very influential herself. She runs to the media when Gormless leaks departmental announcements to her in advance, but she runs as soon as the real questions have to be answered.
So we all know it's going to be a bleak Christmas in the Green Camp, but over in the Red Camp, the Kerry Blue is pulling out all the stops to ensure that he has a great 2009. And he doesn't care if his party colleagues suffer as a result.
He has the election posters ready to hit the polls with an out-of-date photo and he even has his advertising slots booked in the local papers. Rumour has it that he is getting some help from the Obama PR team.
Meanwhile, his colleague and arch enemy, Euro Butler, is doing his best to oppose anything and everything to get a vote. And for every big decision the City Fathers have to make, such as filling that pot hole on Patrick Street, Euro Butler wants a referendum.
Silent Frawley has begun his campaign with the completion of one sentence at a recent council meeting and Lady Marie is tipping around quietly. They are OK; at least Seamus is in their corner.
The FF'ers are all over the place. Last week they had no candidates and this week they have so many that they have to conduct interviews, multi-lingual interviews at that! Grassroots has learned that they may well be putting forward an army of candidates with at least four from the St Patrick's parish. The Monsignor won't be happy about that but he will probably be too busy competing with the new Casino that's set to open near High Street.
There you have it folks, the last Grassroots column of 2008. We had some good times and some funny times, and a lot of our local reps have been annoyed but it’s all part of the territory and fair play to the councillors for taking it on the chin. Happy Christmas from good old Grassroots.
