Bertie Ahern, the second longest-serving Prime Minister of Ireland, has quit. Some people are after him for allegedly pocketing money that he shouldn't have. He said he would be "comprehensively dealing with these matters at the tribunal" and denied any wrongdoing. "Never in all the time that I served in politics have I ever put my personal interest ahead of the public good," he added. "I have never received a corrupt payment...I have done no wrong and wronged no one".These are fighting words ready for fighting talk. Irish Prime Ministers are often accused of trousering the treasury. It seems part of Irish politics. Ahern says he never put his personal interest ahead of the public good. Can it be infered he put it two steps behind? He has never received a corrupt payment, he says. Has he received a dodgy payment or one that could be innocently construed as being OK? Seems some are looking into this.
As for saying he has done no wrong and wronged no one, what politician, or anyone else for that matter, can say this so emphatically? I wronged my wife last weekend and said sorry. I'm not in that lofty league of the innocent, though, so have failed there.
Lewis Carroll made Humpty Dumpty say he used a word to mean what he wanted it to mean. That is as true when it was first written, as it is today.
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