Transformers: your guide to pre-election promises transformed

What a difference a day makes. Election day 2011 transformed the opposition parties Labour and Fine Gael from champions of  integrity and toughness to a clone of the former politics of cronyism and cant.  To savour the full whiff of hypocrisy and the smell of tyres as they doughnut their way to a full u-turn, here is a photo guide to the highlights of the pre-election fig leaves as they fall to reveal what lies beneath. (Click on the images for a larger picture).

                            

Most people will be familiar with Leo Varadkar's infamous 'not another cent' for unsecured bondholders speech, pre 2011 general election.  As an example of the difference between pre and post election Labour/Fine Gael it couldn't be bettered. Here it is again...and here is the new Leo Varadkar. 

Fine Gael also promised to put Ireland first, to defend hospital services, to end 'feather-bedding' and to stand up to the troika and the bankers.   'Burn the bond-holders' they said. Not any more.

Labour meanwhile championed the poor.  Child benefit would not be touched, and university fees would not be introduced.  But they were, both of them.

The Labour Party prided itself on its ability to feel the pain of the poor, and to get the country working again...or did they?

For many the election will have been an actual matter of life or death where hospital closures were concerned, for example.

It's not as if most voters didn't realise that politicians tell lies to get elected. This time it was different - the electorate was deadly serious and the candidates gave every indication that they would dispense with the usual political games.