Simon Harris dipped back into political history for inspiration this week – all the way back as far as Leo Varadkar.

Addressing the Mullingar Chamber of Commerce on Monday morning – just 25 miles from Tullamore, where Micheál Martin was opening the Fianna Fáil think-in, so no doubt the Tánaiste regretted the clash – he talked about how the forthcoming budget would look after the “people who get up early in the morning”. This looks to me like he is giving a signal about Fine Gael’s priorities in advance of the next election and beyond. If so, it will be a significant development in Irish politics.

Harris’s formulation of “people who get up early in the morning” wasn’t an accident, a random turn of phrase by a speech writer. He mentioned people getting up in the morning (including the early risers) and going to work five times during a speech of 2,000 words (of which 250 were spent gassing on about Gaelic football). There were a further nine references to people who work hard and the need to make hard work pay. It was a clear message, amplified by Harris at the Fine Gael think-in.

The people who get up early in the morning to work hard, etc, have a special place in recent Fine Gael history. When Varadkar launched his bid for the leadership of Fine Gael in 2017, following the retirement of Enda Kenny, he chose precisely this formulation of words and this message to appeal to the party’s faithful and its public representatives.

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