Folks, some of you may have noticed that I haven’t posted your comments, and in particular I seem to have struck a nerve with my EU President and Noel Dempsey postings! Just to assure you that it’s a software problem I’m trying to address, and not an act of wanton censorship. As you know, I don’t censor my critics (You know who you are, UKIP boy) and just edit for libel and for the bizarre people who want to publish painfully long anti EU tracts. They can get their own blog. And, of course, on the instructions of my Brussels paymasters/Giant Bilderberg Lizards who pay me so much to run this blog.
I have always voted, and I’ve always argued that people should vote. The truth is, voting does matter and does shape the society we live in, and under our electoral system, a relatively small number of votes does change the result.
Having said all that, I cannot really find a good reason to vote in an Irish general election. There is an historical argument, that people died for our right to vote, and I should honour their sacrifice. There is a global argument, that across the world, millions go without the choice I have. These are true: But I would be making as much of a symbolic gesture by making a donation to the National Museum or Freedom House as I would by voting to elect the next Dail.
The reality is that electing either Fianna Fail, or a Fine Gael/Labour coalition brings a level of change that would be unnoticeable to people who actually look for it. FF do not believe in political change or reform, and FG and Labour say they do, but cannot point to anything which radically improves my say as a citizen, my ability to change things. Economically, they will be the same. FG and Labour refuse to be clear as to the big things. Yes, both have published detailed documents, but when you read them, neither addresses the big issue: How do you promise to reverse the billions of euro in cutbacks that you have opposed without raising taxes on PAYE workers? The truth is, they won’t. The cutbacks will stand, and Labour in particular will be riven with bitterness as its poll ratings fall in government on the back of broken aspirations. FG will have yet another “Forrest Gump” moment of delight at being in a wonderful place despite themselves.
The Greens, ironically, offer the one chink of light. They are delivering on things like an elected mayor and civil partnership, but they don’t seem to have grasped that without pushing through electoral reform, they are doomed, because they don’t have to win a noble 5%. They have to win 15% in a constituency, one in six voters, and that ain’t going to happen, except maybe in Dublin North, and that’s only because Trevor will be elected as Trevor and despite being Green.
But here’s the positive bit about not voting: We’re not living in Chile or Nicaragua where one side of the ballot can sometimes hold monsters. Six months after the election, regardless of who wins, things will be pretty much the way they were, and the secret police won’t be knocking down our door, so I suppose we should be grateful for that.
It is always a thrill to come across a writer whose style really works for you. I’ve recently found that with the “political” novels of Richard Condon. I’ve posted briefly about his JFK based novel “Winter Kills”, and I’ve just finished “Death of a Politician.”
The book tells the story of the investigation into the 1964 murder of former Vice President Walter Bodmor Slurrie, a (very) thinly veiled pastiche of Richard Nixon, who is on the verge of becoming the mob’s first handpicked president.
It manages to be vicious and wry, and is packed with mirror images of Howard Hughes, Thomas Dewey, and the Rockefellers, amongst others. As with other Condon books, he assumes that the reader has a knowledge about the times and personalities, and spends most of the book poking fun at the sleazy intersection between politics and corruption.
As with “Winter Kills”, Condon holds off resolving the murder until the very last page, an old fashioned concept that works surprisingly well in today’s age of padded value-for-money novels. There really is a lot to be said for the short novel.
By the way, it was first published in 1978, so you might find it a bit tricky to find. My copy was found in the second hand section of the always excellent Chapters bookshop, the crack cocaine of book junkies like me, of which I cannot say enough.
I have always voted, and I’ve always argued that people should vote. The truth is, voting does matter and does shape the society we live in, and under our electoral system, a relatively small number of votes does change the result.
It is always a thrill to come across a writer whose style really works for you. I’ve recently found that with the “political” novels of Richard Condon. I’ve posted briefly about his JFK based novel “Winter Kills”, and I’ve just finished