In her column for Drivetime this week, Olivia O'Leary looks at Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's efforts to distance himself from politics of the past by self-styling as a leader of the 'new European centre', despite many of his ideas owing their origin to Thatcherite and Reaganite debates of the 1980s.
"So if he is a child of Reagan and Thatcher, why is he so keen to reject the 80s label? Is it a fear of seeming old-fashioned? Is he adopting the Tony Blair trick of putting 'new' in front of everything and hoping that will make it more attractive? Remember Blair's constant mantra of 'New Labour' and compare it with Leo's slogan to compare himself with Emmanuel Macron as icons of the 'New European Centre'? Leo who described himself as to the right, or centre right, in an interview with Hot Press in 2010? "