Speeches seemed to be in the air yesterday.

There was Ann Widdecombe’s speech in Brussels which raised a few hackles this side of the Irish Sea [just read the vitriolic Anti-Brit, Pro-EU comments under the article!]. Personally I think she nailed it [as they say].

Then there was the little speech by Our Glorious Leader.Varadkar in which he referred to the leader of the opposition – “He kind of reminds me of one of those parish priests who preaches from the altar telling us how to avoid sin while secretly going behind the altar and engaging in any amount of sin himself.”

Now I would have thought that it could be applied to any politician with a high degree of accuracy, but of course the Catholic Church was up in arms demanding retractions and apologies and generally proving the Streisand Effect once more. I doubt anyone would have noticed the speech if they hadn’t made an issue of it.

Naturally, Varadkar capitulated and apologised. Wimp.

I had no problem with what he said. I chuckled when I first heard it as it was quite clever [for a politician].

Last night I watched the news. Naturally Varadkar was one of the top items and was mentioned in the preamble headlines. They talked about the speech where Varadkar was quoted as saying He kind of reminds me of one of those Catholic parish priests who preaches from the altar telling us how to avoid sin while secretly going behind the altar and engaging in any amount of sin himself..I blinked. Did they say Catholic? I must have misheard because there was no mention of Catholics in the original. But then in the main item they once again quoted him as saying Catholic parish priests. And again when they were winding up the news by repeating the headlines.

So three times the RTE news quite deliberately misquoted. I’m trying to work out why. Is our national broadcaster deliberately trying to stir up some shit between the gubmint and the Catholics? Are they trying to blacken Varadkar?

I have just checked in case my hearing has deteriorated – and there it is in black and white – “Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has apologised for his comments to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin where he likened him to a sinning Catholic priest“.

Weird or what?