Craic On

Leaders

When leaders are in power they are usually in for a number of years and put loads of bills through parliament. They spend most of their time on it.

However, leaders are usually remembered for a maximum of three things – and it is usually one.

Think of Tony Blair for example. What’s his legacy? What do people think of when they hear his name? It’s the war in Iraq.

He did lots of other things including helping bring the peace to Northern Ireland but it will be the Iraq War that will be on his political headstone.

UK Political Headstones

Here are a number of leaders from the UK and what they will be remembered for:-

Harold Wilson – Devaluation of the Pound

Edward Heath – Miners Strike with resulting Three Day Week

Jim Callaghan – Winter of Discontent

Margaret Thatcher – Miners’ Strike, Falklands War and Poll Tax

John Major – Black Wednesday

Tony Blair – Iraq War

Gordon Brown – Financial Collapse

David Cameron – Too soon to say buy maybe rise of UKIP

US Political Headstones

If we look at US leaders:-

John Kennedy – Cuban Missile Crisis, Berlin Wall Speech, Starter of Space Race

Lyndon Johnson – Vietnam War, Civil Rights Laws

Richard Nixon РWatergate, d̩tente with Russia and China

Gerald Ford – Nothing

Jimmy Carter – Failed Rescue Mission in Iran

Ronald Reagan – Collapse of Communism (Mr Gorbachev, Tear Down Those Walls), Trickle Down Economics

George Bush Senior – Nothing

Bill Clinton – Monica Lewinsky, Economic Boom

George W Bush – War in Iraq

Barak Obama – Obamacare, Killing of Osama Bin Laden

Irish Political Headstones

So, you see, you are remembered for no more than three things and it is more likely to be just one thing.

I don’t know Irish politics so well but I would venture the following

Bertie Ahern – Celtic Tiger and Brown Envelopes

Biffo – Bank Guarantee and Bailout

Enda Kenny – Irish Water?

Politicians try so hard to get to the top and want to do so many things and succeed in doing many things – but they are only remembered for 1-3 of them by most people.

Of all the things that Tony Blair did in more than a decade in power it is the Iraq War and his cozying up to George W Bush that will be remembered. That will be what is on his political headstone.

On Enda Kenny’s headstone will it say Irish Water?