"The second thing was to have a property tax..."

Amazing.

I caught a repeat of the BBC's HardTalk interview with Ireland's former Prime Minister Bertie Ahern yesterday evening. At about one minute in, he is asked whether he allowed the Irish economy to 'overheat' and whether he should have 'put the brakes on'. He admits that maybe they did, but they couldn't put up interest rates as they had already joined the Eurozone.

And then at 1 minute 37 seconds in, he mutters as an aside, "The second thing we could have done is to have a property tax, which there was no stomach for in Ireland", and that's it. It's like the briefest glimmer of hope that there are others who understand all this, so fair play him for even having considered it, given that e.g. in the United Kingdom, any politician who suggests such a tax is immediately decried as a communist or worse.

"Bertie Ahern tipped for EU presidency"

Posted by Sold-2-Rent-1 over at HousePrice Crash

"... there might be an earlier deadline for "real fun" if that's how your mind works. How about the second week in June when the Irish EU treaty referendum is held. Did you know that they are the only country out of 27 to have a referedum on the EU treaty? It is no coincidence that Bertie Ahern resigned last week and is now front runner to be EU president. The Irish public will be conned into thinking that "their man" will have their interests at heart in the EU. Once voted in the EU will be a completely different beast to that of last 15 years."

Does the recent resignation-in-face-of-massive-corruption-investigation hurt his chances? Probably not...