05/12 The Sunday Papers

The Front Pages

The headline in the Sunday Independent is 'SF swing can make Gilmore Taoiseach,' in which they claim that a government led by Gilmore and with Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams as Tánaiste is 'uncomfortably close to reality'. Latest poll figures conclude that Labour will get 48 and Sinn Fein will get 24, leaving them 11 seats short of an overall majority.

The Indo speculates that they could get those 11 seats from Independents. Fine Gael are set to win 67 seats, which if you think about it means they could almost go into government without the support of Labour, if Gilmore was to attempt to double cross them like that. 67 + 15 Independents = 82. Fianna Fail, meanwhile, will win 12 (really? that many?) according to the poll, while the Green Party will lose all of their seats.

If Fine Gael or Labour were to attempt to go in without the other, Independents will be kingmakers. If they were to go in together, which seems far more likely, their majority would be such that Independents would be practically irrelevant. One of those irrelevant men, Michael Lowry, was speaking to the Sunday Tribune. He said, "My position is that I'm reluctant to vote for the budget for several reasons. But certainly there is no question of me voting for it if the negotiators on behalf of the state can't do a prudent deal for the country."

It is suggested Lowry might abstain from the vote. Excluding the North Tipp TD and Jackie Healy-Rae, the Government will have 80 votes for the budget. The opposition can garner 80 also if they decide to reject it. That means the deciding vote would be with the Ceann Comhairle. That man is Seamus Kirk of Fianna Fail, oh well.

Tales of the Tabs

One of the big stories in the Irish Mail on Sunday is the feud between X-Factor's Louis Walsh and Strictly Come Dancing's Bruce Forsyth. The BBC host gave out about Walsh's comments in April that Forsyth ‘shouldn’t even be alive at his age’ to the Strictly audience, saying, "Louis Walsh said I should be dead. He said in print that I should be dead by now. Can you believe that from a jumped-up karaoke judge?"

He continued, saying he thought that X-Factor "looks like a fireworks display with singers. It’s not my kind of thing. If I was still doing Play Your Cards Right I would love to have done the question, 'We asked 100 people if Simon Cowell turned up with lovebites all over his body would they be self-inflicted? Ninety-nine people answered Yes and the odd one out was Dale Winton – but only because he didn't understand the question'."

Louis Walsh responded to Forsyth's comments, saying "Bruce should just retire. His comments are the sign of old age. He’s too old to be on TV. He should just bow out gracefully now at the top of his game and go home to sit on his sofa and drink Horlicks."

The Sports Pages

The headline in the Observer is 'Football Association condemn Fifa as 'opaque' after 2018 bid humiliation'. "Bidding was not a waste of money," English FA secretary Alex Horne said. "That would be an unfair reflection on the work that went into it but I am hugely underwhelmed by the process that produced the final outcome. 20-2 is an orchestrated anti-English vote. We need to be big enough to accept that."

"Fifa do a lot of good work but we feel hugely let down," acting FA chairman Roger Burden added. "They put out a very clear process and at the end seem to have completely ignored it. If there are unfair or illegitimate practices going on around Fifa's executive committee, people have a right to know and they should be exposed."

In the Scottish newspaper the Daily Record, Irish striker Anthony Stokes is the latest Celtic player to claim that referees favour Rangers over Celtic. "It's a completely different atmosphere against Rangers when you're a Hibs player compared to being at Celtic," he said.

"Maybe that had an effect on me with the early tackle I made on Papac. But what annoyed me was that we watched DVDs of four or five Old Firm games from the past. In every one Rangers players were going in and snapping the Celtic lads but there was never a yellow card.

"The tackle I made was down to me being wound up a bit too much. I still don't really think it was a bad tackle - he followed through a bit and got injured by the way he landed."