After this budget, Labour's goose is surely cooked

Even though there are another three years to go to an election, the goose is already cooked for many Labour TDs.

'It is all very dismal for Labour -- made all the more so by Mario Draghi, who made it clear last Thursday that it is very much Frankfurt's way, not Labour's way, as far the €30 billion Anglo promissory notes are concerned.'

Michael McGrath, the Fianna Fáil spokesman on finance, responding to the budget last Wednesday, said: "Fine Gael [in the cabinet discussions] showed that its absolute priority in the budget is to protect those who have most. We are told the Labour Party made valiant efforts to protect households dependent on social protection but, clearly, it has failed.

Interestingly, at this point, Ruairi Quinn intervened to say: "Not so."

Even those of us who ...