than regular blog subject Councillor Simon Harris.

This week Simon (4 Quotas in Greystones Town Council, Wicklow County Councillor and prospective – self declared- Dáil Candidate) treats us to a wonderful list of the Seven Myths about Enda Kenny. Some of the highlights.

Enda’s problem is a media creation

The people continually talking about Enda Kenny as a problem are media interviewers and talking heads on panel programmes, who continue to obsess not about issues that matter, like the impoverishment of decent people by mismanagement firstly of banking and more recently of the economy, but about the petty politics of personality.

Enda is still alive and has not been hit by a bus so this is why he is still leader (ok that’s not what Simon said but you might think that)

Fine Gael has a lot of talent. The party has a number of potential leaders. Richard Bruton, Phil Hogan, Leo Varadkar, Brian Hayes, Simon Coveney or James Reilly are just a selection from the wider number of men and women who could step up to the plate if Enda was hit by a bus. But he hasn’t been hit by a bus, and for anybody to suggest that anybody in Fine Gael has all of Enda’s skills (motivation, organisation, bridge-building, listening, understanding of administration and Dail protocols, plus Ministerial experience) topped up by some strange extra characteristic he lacks is kidding themselves. Talent and ambition aren’t enough.

Enda has loose lips

Watch Enda Kenny in the streets during an election and you see charisma on the hoof. You see a man who loves people and is loved by them. A man who remembers individuals, engages in Irish and English with equal ease, an unselfconsciously happy man whose lips don’t tighten and whose eyes don’t narrow when he meets opposition.

(A script for a party political broadcast if ever I saw one!)

The problem with Enda is that he’s shy and does not talk himself up

He has one media drawback. He hates talking about himself. He’s bad at doing it. Does that disqualify him from the office of Taoiseach? Surely not.

Simon has watched Enda since he was 12 and he’s a busy man.

For nearly half my life, I’ve watched a man of decency, honesty, integrity and a work rate second to none at the top of Fine Gael. He never stops.

Simon needs Head Office and leader support for his forthcoming selection convention. #Justsaying

By the way Councillor about that promise on transparency and expenses I can’t find the publication of your latest renumeration as promised before the locals? How goes it on the mileage ban and conference expenditure?

I’m thinking though that Simon may have given a gift to the nation – What are your Seven Myths about Enda Kenny? I think between the lot of us we can come up with a list of our own?