Thanks for posting the full video, Bix. :-) The cat calls to O’Donnell’s question (the oh, good Lords) makes me think that all the other journalists on the panel are under the misconception that because it’s scripted entertainment no-one ever gets seriously hurt. A fantasy that Linda tries to perpetuate (paraphrasing “Oh, come on, come on, come on, I’ve got to slap you down now, come on now it’s all just entertainment”, making sure to later include a cute bodyslam joke to diffuse the situation). Which, if anything, makes their health and safety record a lot worse if they thought about it for a second.

Part of the problem is that she’s clearly perceived as a joke candidate (hence O’Donnell’s riposte “Do you have any idea what’s in it?”, when she dodged his question about the jobs bill twice). An image that isn’t helped by her international ignorance (the Republic of Ireland is a part of the EU and has been since 1973, also unemployment in Ireland is currently at 12.7% (see http://www.cso.ie/statistics/sasunemprates.htm for details) and thus isn’t an economy you really want to emulate.