More politicians want to be back-seat drivers than at the wheel in time of crisis

In the spotlight: There will be a lot of focus on the Green Party and it’s 12 TDs this week. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

John Downing

Hard to resist raiding the 'Old Jokes' Home', as government-making talks drone on, and on, and then on again. Our venerable joke, logged in the 1960s, has it that a Garda patrol arrives to find a car embedded in a telegraph pole with four drunks sitting in the back seat.

Garda: "Right, which of ye was drivin'?" Drunken chorus: "None of us, guard. Sure, can't ye see we're all in the back seat."