His Day is Here

Yesterday we noted that, by the standards of the New Ireland, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern can be proud of his family -- one daughter married into a boyband, and the other with a high profile novel. But as Bertie looks around at his fellow prime ministers at the next summit, he might still feel like he's in the ha'penny place. Real PMs own football clubs. The prime example is Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi, owner of reigning European club champions AC Milan. Now it seems like Asian PMs want in on the act. This BBC story claims that Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra wants to buy Liverpool football club and he certainly has the cash to do it.

Thaksin's entry into politics and his generally shameless self-promotion makes him very different from those reclusive Oirish businessmen who may or may not be buying Manchester United. Being Liverpool fans ourselves, our main hope would be that, if he does buy the club, he gets around to sacking manager Gerard Houllier as soon as possible, and (in the dream scenario we share with Tory leader Michael Howard) bring in Derryman Martin O'Neill from Celtic as the new manager.

But back to Bertie. What if he now views his Italian or Thai counterparts as a new role model? For one thing, the party name would have to change. Both have a preference for apolitical but populist names: for Berlusconi it's the football chant Forza Italia (Go Italy) and for Thaksin it's Thais Love Thais, a fine sentiment indeed. But Bertie is saddled with the name Fianna Fail, Soldiers of Destiny, which is a tad strident. There is however, a ready-made alternative. Look for the Republic's natural party of government to be renamed You'll Never Beat the Irish.