Pot, Kettle Black (2)

Yesterday I posted on the question of 'principles' and the instance where someone (William Hague) has changed their opinion on important matters. Well, it would seem that William Hague is not alone in having had a 'Damascene' conversion.

Dick Roche, Ireland's European Affairs Minister, has lambasted Nigel Farage for the latter's intervention into the Irish Referendum debate, where he is due to share a platform with Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou McDonal, Sinn Fein Deputy Leader in arguing for a 'No' vote; whilst Roche and Irish Congress of Trade Unions General Secretary David Begg, will present the 'Yes' case. Setting to one side Roche's 'lambasting', which has been delightfully 'filleted' by Harry Aldridge over on IndependenceHome, it is worth considering another side to Dick Roche.

Dick Roche was the Government’s representative to the European Convention, and as such made 149 proposed amendments, with only 36 resulting in changes to the text, meaning three out of four attempts by Ireland to get the text changed failed. Mary Ellen Synon has an excellent article highlighting Roche's 'principles', which can be read here, during which article she takes you from Megrahi to the ‘Ireland for Europe’ campaign - in, as she puts it, five short hops. So having tried extremely hard to preserve Irish 'concerns', Roche now feels they did not matter?

As the Open Europe press summary for today shows, Gisela Stuart will also be in Dublin on Wednesday, taking part in a lunchtime debate, yet there appears no 'howl of outrage' from Roche in respect of her 'intervention' in Irish affairs. The OE press summary also contains a long piece on the Irish referendum which is well worth reading.

Maybe the 'Dick' has had a 'Roche' of blood?