Madam, - Under the headline, "We are stuck with inept trio and a dismal alternative", Vincent Browne (Opinion, December 31st) disparages the credentials of Enda Kenny as a potential taoiseach.
I would, in the past, have agreed with Browne, but Kenny's performance as leader of Fine Gael, both electorally and in his ability to put together and lead a fairly credible front bench, must surely suggest that he should not be so easily dismissed as a political lightweight.
Vincent Browne is an alpha male commentator, and Brian Cowen is an alpha male politician. As Taoiseach, Mr Cowen is ably demonstrating that this isn't always the most productive way of providing leadership, while Mr Browne's career as a publisher and editor should surely, by now, have taught him a basic lesson about the successful building and leadership of a team-based enterprise: the brightest boy in the class does not always make the best leader. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - Vincent Browne (Opinion, December 31st) thinks that a loss in a second Lisbon referendum could lead to Mr Cowen's resignation. The inverse is more worrying: the desire to lose Mr Cowen could lead to another win for the No vote. Perhaps he should take a leaf from Anglo Irish Bank tactics and move himself to another country in advance of the audit. - Yours, etc,