Omens and portents

THERE has been a much-hyped fictional rubbish being peddled that 2012 will mark the end of the world, based on some obscure calendar. As with all these prophesies they generally fall short of evidence based on the fact that so far they have proved to be rubbish.

But, we are feeling a little nervous about 2012. Yes, omens and portents of strangeness are bounding about the world.

Think about it for a moment: the Alliance Party leader David Ford declared his party as the truly ‘radical’ party at his party conference at the weekend and no-one – inside or outside the conference hall – guffawed. A few sniggers yes, but had that been uttered by any Alliance leader before this, there would have been one of those laugh-out-loud moments much beloved by the LOL texters.

To add to the omens and portents there was the sight of Fine Gael leader (and Taoiseach in waiting?) Enda Kenny addressing the Alliance conference. Fine Gael do not strike many people as being the natural bedfellows of Alliance (one glance at party policies is enough to confirm that) but Enda was adamant about being mates with Alliance.

What with Brian quitting as chief blame taker in the Republic as the conference was still ongoing, we do fear that this congruence of coincidences may not be a mere statistical anomaly and is the first of the sets of omens and portents that will afflict politics before the world ends in 2012.

[Editor’s note: we do not in fact believe that the world will end in 2012 being rational human beings, but we fear that there may be mature political debate breaking out, thus leaving satirists and comedians struggling for material.]