The IDS Factor.

IDS: To do, not to be.

IDS: To do, not to be.

During the recent RTE two parter, Freefall, Bertie Ahern did reveal a home-truth: That there was no popular or political support for reigning in spending. He was, of course, correct. If he as Taoiseach, and a popular Taoiseach for the great, great majority of his term in office, had announced that he was going to dampen down the property market (which was building 88,000 dwellings when Sweden, with twice our population, was building 12,000) and started directing our surplus tax revenues into a rainy day fund, he would have been savaged. Nevertheless, he must have had a gut feeling, as we all did, that this thing could not go on forever, despite all our hopes.

Yet he did nothing. Nor, for the most part part, did any of the opposition parties or social partners. The whole country turned a blind eye to fundamentals that we all knew were just too good to be sustainable.

Yet, here’s the thing: For the money he was on, Bertie should have been willing to be unpopular, and here’s why: Continue reading

Sinn Fein: An apology.

In a previous post, I wrote that Sinn Fein were a pro-choice party. I had come to this conclusion by misreading a press release from Sinn Fein from October 2007 (copied below) where (I believed) a Sinn Fein MLA, whilst stating that the party was against abortion, supported the right of women to make up their own mind. Having been contacted by a number of readers, I looked again, and discovered that I was in fact wrong.

I am a political opponent of Sinn Fein. But I also believe that they, like everyone else, are entitled to their position being put honestly, and opposed on the facts, so I apologise. I got it wrong, and admit that it would be wrong to tell voters in Donegal South West that Sinn Fein candidates support a broad pro-choice position, when in fact they share the same policy as the DUP, and only support abortion in limited circumstances as outlined below.  Continue reading