I’m posting this on New Year’s Eve. Here’s a prediction about the weekend:
The AA or the Gardai will have issued a “Call” for drivers to “exercise caution” over the weekend.
By Monday night, a number of young men will be dead. The following pattern will then occur:
1. A shocking accident will have occurred, killing a number of young men. We will enter a three day media cycle.
Day one: Lurid images of the crash site and twisted torn remnants of vehicles, with reports from RTE correspondents ending with the phrase: “…as another community struggles to come to terms with its loss”.
Day two: Interviews with local people, shaking their heads in disbelief and shock. The local parish priest or councillor will mention feeling numb, and that every family has been touched by this. Again a mention of the community struggling.
Day three: The young men will be buried as RTE look on solemnly.
End of process. Will the media go back to actually find out who was to blame? Will we ever learn, with the same media intensity, of the outcome of the coroner’s reports that SOME of these drivers were drunk or on drugs or driving recklessly with little regard for their safety or more importantly, the safety of others? That some of them through their actions killed other innocent people?
No. Because in Ireland, there is a monster going around rural Ireland killing young men, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Every single person who dies in a “road tragedy” is completely innocent of any wrongdoing, whether they were driving home safely, stone cold sober, or whether they were the drunken reckless bastard who plowed into the stone cold driver. EVERYONE is innocent, and if you say otherwise you are a bastard. It’s the monster’s fault, and if we had a government that cared about us, it would do something about it.
It’s sad to say, but it doesn’t look like 2012 is going to be any easier that 2011, and potentially harder. Across the west, the challenge to our debt fuelled consumer lifestyle is growing, and as a society we’re kicking back. Initially, we’re voting people out (save for Canada and New Zealand), but how long will it be before populist charlatans start getting traction by targetting sections of society, like immigrants (Europe) or the poor (USA) as the source of many of our problems? Protectionism is already beginning to creep back onto the agenda (just listen to Sarko). On top of that, globalisation itself is under attack, ironically by people afraid of losing the consumer lifestyle that it has permitted. In Europe, a gut nationalism is taking root, a feeling in individual countries that we would be better off if we had a lot less to do with our neighbours and their problems, and by extension, the European Union. It’s not true, of course, but it’s a genuine feeling.
The most uncomfortable part of all this is that the only real solution is sacrifice, and how we apportion it. The truth is, western society is now permeated by a feeling that we are all entitled to more than we create, and that has been proven to be no longer sustainable. It’s true, we must attempt to divide the burden in such a way as to ensure that ”the vulnerable” get some protection, but even that is a challenge. Who are the vulnerable? The bottom 5%? 10%? 49%? Because, if we are to shield (and, in effect, subsidise) them, then it means that a heavier burden must be carried by the remainder, and that concept has not been accepted yet.
Our political systems are still populated by politicians who claim that relatively pain free solutions are on the table. The tired old adage about “the rich” is not viable, not because they don’t want to pay a cent in taxes (which tax authorities across the west will testify is not true) but because there is a fairness threshold that is hardwired into rich and poor alike about wanting to keep most of the fruit of their work. But more importantly, the rich don’t have to stay. You would be stunned at the speed in which a wealthy person can transplant a life. It’s literally less than the time between a general election count and entry into office of the new government.
Therefore, sharing the burden of sacrifice will fall on the whole of society, and that’s where the problem starts. Many people could probably accept a fall in their standard of living if they felt that such a drop would ensure them of employment and a minimum standard of living. The problem is that politicians aren’t, rightly, trusted when they make a pledge like that. Take the new Irish Fine Gael/Labour government, pushing through salaries of €127,000 for special advisor positions, claiming that they can’t find people who can do the job for less than that. How can a government ask for sacrifice after such a brazen “F**k you!” to the voters who just elected them? They can’t. Instead, they provide easy ammunition to the populists, and that’s the problem.
Anyway, thanks for reading my rants during the year. It was my best year ever in terms of reader numbers, which far exceeded anything I ever expected when I first started blogging four years ago. Happy New Year!
Most Irish politicians are liars. The curious thing is that only some of them actually know it. I have met elected officials who have genuinely not been aware that they were lying. “But we didn’t bring in a local tax. We promised not to. We brought in a local charge!” Some of them actually believe it themselves when they say stuff like this to you. Then there are others who do know they are lying and just don’t care. Of course, it’s questionable as to who are the biggest liars, the government or the opposition? One thing is certain, the opposition have a lot more to lose, because they aren’t in power, and getting caught lying can keep them out, whereas if you lie whilst in power and get caught, you’re still in power.
When I was in boarding school (yes, I was) we had a system at dinner of carving up an apple tart. One guy would cut it, and it would be passed around, with him getting the last slice, the idea being that he had a self-interest in making sure the slices were cut fairly. Here’s a thought: Why not let the opposition set Oireachtas salaries and pensions and holidays, once a year? They decide, in full public view, what politicians get paid. They also get to demonstrate to the public what they are really like with power, whether they are different, or just like the same fellas we have on the government benches.
Of course, all that assumes that the Irish public have the attention span to notice stuff like this. Going by Fianna Fail’s rising ratings in the polls, one would have doubts.
There’s a big lie knocking around Irish politics that our political system would be so much better if we didn’t have a whip system, and TDs could vote their own way without fear nor favour. It’s a load of nonsense, and here’s why: Irish politicians like being able to blame their party for things. There’s nothing unusual about an Irish politician, from a government party, going back to his constituents are saying “Well, obviously I was agin’ closing the local hospital/school/puppy farm, but I was outvoted!” Ah, says you, but hold on a minute. If there was no whip, they wouldn’t be able to say that, would they? Well, let me take you back to the golden days of Dublin County Council and the old section 4 rezoning motions. What would happen would be that councillor A would want to rezone a bit of ward A for his good pal Stroky McDodgy. But the good councillor would know that it was very unpopular in ward A. So he’d get councillor Z from ward Z on the other side of the county to propose the rezoning. Councillor A would huff and puff and then be “outvoted”, the poor creature. Everyone’s happy, save for the people who live in ward A.
Here’s a better idea: Let our TDs introduce costed delayed earmarks into the budget. What would that be, on a wet Tuesday, you ask? It would be where a TD, shocked at budget cuts to close the local primary school, could go through the budget, find alternative cuts from existing spending, and propose those cuts as an alternative to the full house, or maybe to a committee of the house empowered to approve the change. Now that would be real power. Sure that’ll never happen, you say. The big boys in the Department of Finance would never stand for the Deputy for Rockall South Central getting his sticky fingers all over their lovely budget (Assuming they noticed, of course. They did mislay €3.6 billion, after all) but they would not be the biggest opponents. The biggest opponents to TDs having that power would be TDs themselves. It’s all well and good giving out yards about why X is not being funded, but asking them to point out what other group of constituents should have their funds cut instead, that’s a step too far. Sure, that’s the sort of thing an elected representative legislative body should be doing, surely? What that’s got to do with us mere TDs?
Colonel Zhai Zhigang, the first Chinese man on the moon.
“Good evening. Paris entered its third consecutive week of martial law today as President Le Pen attempted to restore order across France in response to the ongoing economic crisis and trade disputes with her neighbours. A summit with English prime minister Boris Johnson broke up without progress, as neither country was willing to unilaterally lower the large tariffs on imported products which now dominate the former European single market. Former German chancellor Angela Merkel, laying a wreath at the tomb of assassinated President Sarkozy, who was murdered in the panic of 2012, expressed regret at the European unemployment rate of 30%, and blamed the decision of European governments to dismantle the eurozone in 2012 as being the catalyst for the collapse of free trade across Europe. She said there was some truth to the Beijing People’s Daily’s description of Europe as “an economic backwater”.
In Dublin, the Taoiseach has resigned following her decision to deploy British troops to assist the overwhelmed Irish security forces, following weeks of rioting across urban areas in the country. In her resignation speech, the Sinn Fein leader called the thousands of businesspeople who have fled the highest income tax rates in Europe “Traitors who should be delighted to pay taxes to their country”. Last week , twelve people died in a pitched battle with police and soldiers which resulted in the Irish Parliament being burnt down.
In the United States, President Perry announced that the US Border Patrol would soon have powers to detain pregnant women from seeking abortions in Canada, following the sharp increase in cross-border abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe Vs. Wade. The president also received a gift of the US flag that Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin placed on the Moon in 1969 from Chinese President Hu. The flag had been recovered by China’s astronauts when they had placed a large Chinese flag on the lunar surface in December 2020. President Hu also announced that China intends to land a man on Mars by 2025.
Finnish Police today arrested over one hundred protestors demonstrating against the presence of Russian troops in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The president of Lithuania has stressed that with the collapse of both NATO and the EU, it was important for small countries to be respectful towards the dominant power in the region, and that Russian troops were present as a sign of good faith. The president refused to comment on Russia’s ongoing military occupation of Ukraine, other than to say that it was “an internal Russian affair”.
Prime Minister Johnson has suggested that Chinese requests for ministerial representation at the British cabinet, given the size of Chinese investment in the UK and Chinese loans to the UK government, were being “looked at” by the attorney general. He expressed satisfaction that British ministers were no longer being asked to consider amending or rejecting draft regulations drawn up in Brussels. That’s the news tonight. Good night.”
Mmm. Nice cup of tea. With taxpayer funded biccies, please.
The speculation in the Irish Times about yet another hefty tax charge on home owners, this time for water, got me wondering. Is there a breaking point, a moment of realisation, where a substantial section of the income tax paying population declare enough is enough? I don’t mean the usual Fianna Fail “This is a disgrace and we will magically and painlessly make this all go away when returned to power”. I mean a section of the country who recognise that the constant demands for state spending on everything from welfare to public sector pay and pensions is now making the government hit them for an extra €1000 every year in hard cash, through water and property taxes? Will they wake up?
You would think that they would, but I doubt it, for a number of reasons. The first is that the average Irish voter has shown an extraordinary propensity to wanting to be lied to. When Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein promise to abolish those taxes AND maintain spending, most Irish voters, through a mixture of moronic stupidity and colluding self-delusion, will accept that as a reasonable proposition. Secondly, a new party, offering a clean and limited “We will abolish THIS tax by cutting THIS spending” would just not get traction. I can picture the response on the doors already: “Oh yes, the tea party, yes, I like your low tax policies. Now, why are they closing the local hospital, that should be given more money. No, I agree, taxes should be cut, but more money should be given to the local area. That school there needs a new floor in its hall, can you do something about that? No, I agree we should cut taxes, but my mother needs her hip done and there should be more money spent on…”
Of course, it was only a matter of time before we imported them into Irish politics. “The West Wing” and British politics made sure of that. Today, there are huge swathes of the British Parliamentary Labour Party made up of people who went from college to trades union or NGO to parliamentary assistant to special advisor to safe seat in a former mining district, without ever having to meet a human. It’s not like there aren’t people who work in the NGO sector who don’t believe in stuff, but these guys were just passing through.
In Ireland, he doesn’t even have to do the NGO thing. He can go straight in, and soon you see him sweeping down the corridors of Lenister House or Kildare House, folder under an arm, checking Politics.ie on his (taxpayer funded) smartphone, or plotting his next “We got ‘im!” at leader’s question time, like it all matters to anyone outside of the Leinster HotHouse. Looking into his face, it must be how a wild dog looks into the eyes of a domesticated dog, and sees how he’s turned. He’s one of them now.
The money’s good, especially for his age, and it’s almost like a drug dealer giving the first sample free. By the time he reaches a serious political height, he too believes sincerely that surely no one could work for less than €127k? Sure, how could you get by?
The recent development, and by far the creepiest one, are those who have gone even one step further than their UK counterparts, who actually want to be ministers. The guys who have realised that being a TD is a huge amount of work for little actual power and constant public abuse. A special advisor, on the other hand, gets to whisper in the ministerial ear, actually shape policy, and gets paid just as well, if not better, and doesn’t have to go on The Frontline and listen to the cattle mooing angrily at you. Send on one of those, what are they called again, you know, the little people with the worried look on their faces all the time? Oh yes, backbenchers. That’s the one. Send one of them on. I’m too busy. I have a country to run.
Reading the British eurosceptic media, it only dawned on me recently that they are against the EU primarily because they’ve never understood it. Just consider Britain’s unique position: a former global power that due to its geographic location has managed a certain form of detachment. They say they want a common market and no more, never quite understanding that a common market alone was never what was on the menu. Whose fault is that? Possibly their own leaders, certainly, but they honestly cannot blame the rest of Europe for wanting to integrate closer, because that closer integration is in Europe’s interest.
Of course, they now point to the euro crisis as evidence that the entire project is a mistake. It is true that a crucial flaw in the euro, the lack of a functioning fiscal union, is now threatening the very existence of the single currency, and it is true that eurosceptics pointed this flaw out from the very beginning. But it is also true that for ten years the euro did provide stability, prosperity, low inflation and price transparency, sometime the British eurosceptic media has airbrushed out of the story.
So, to put it in terms that the Daily Mail will understand: this is our Dunkirk. This is our darkest day, and like Britain in June 1940, things are looking grim. Our previous strategy hasn’t worked the way that we hoped, but neither did Churchill’s. There were those who told Churchill that the British army was finished, its equipment abandoned on beaches in Northern France, and that he should abandon his plan to defeat fascism and compromise with the new conventional wisdom, and make peace with Hitler’s new Europe. But he didn’t. He adapted and stuck to his principles, and won. Like Churchill, we’re not going to give up because this is too important and because we too actually believe in our cause. It’s that which British eurosceptics have never understood, because they have never believed that we could feel as patriotic and as passionate about our cause as they are about theirs. We do, and we’re not going to walk away. It’s just too important.
I see Fine Gael and Labour are either u-turning on another policy or else admitting that here is yet another issue where they made up their opposition policy at five minutes to closing time on a beermat. This time it is banning corporate donations, suggesting that the supreme court will rule such a ban unconstitutional.
Fair enough. Why not just tax corporate donations at, say, 1000%? The Supreme Court will be fairly loath to interfere in a taxation issue, and it’ll ensure that companies will still have the (very expensive) option to donate to the candidate of their choice, provided they are happy to pay the political donation tax. Everybody’s a winner!
