The Blueshirts’s Law and Order policy.

Saw this, and thought this is how FG would really like to do it.

Right wing methods to deliver left wing aims.

The National Treatment Purchase Fund is one of Mary Harney’s successes as minister for health, and yet here is an example of a hospital refusing to work with it to reduce the suffering of patients.

Why? Many opponents of the NTPF are opposed to it on ideological grounds, believing that paying public money to private hospitals is wrong, even if it relieves suffering.

What is the difference between those bound by that ideological straitjacket, and those Thatcherite/Republican lunatics who are opposed to government spending on ideological grounds? Sod the ideology and the “It’s all very well in practice, but will it work in theory?” nonsense.

The NTPF works, using the free market to provide access to treatment regardless of income. Most people who are suffering want treatment, and don’t give a toss who provides it or owns the hospital. The purpose of a government is to reduce suffering, and that is exactly what the NTPF has done for 165,000 people. You can read some of their stories here.

Books you should read: A View from the Foothills.

A well-written glimpse behind the ministerial door.

I’m only a third the way through it, but I can already recommend Chris Mullin’s “A View from the Foothills” as well worth reading. Mullin, a British Labour MP, former minister and Birmingham Six campaigner, as well as writer of the excellent political thriller “A Very British Coup” has published his diaries from his time as a junior minister, and they’re an absolute treat for anyone interested in British politics, or indeed, how decisions are made in politics.

The book is peppered with little vignettes of Blair and others, but also underlines how much of modern politics and government is taken up with time wasting nonsense. The one depressing line running through the book is the sense of helplessness amongst even ministers about how to shape society in a better way. In particular, his picture of an entire underclass (experienced through his northern England constituency)  that is completely dependent on welfare funded by the rest of society whilst at the same time completely ungrateful about it is pretty grim. He also rails against the fact that sucessive governments, both Labour and Tory, have actually improved the living standards of the great majority, yet the prevailing culture is that everything is worse then it has ever been.

Funny, fascinating, touching, and easy to pick up and put down. Possibly the British political book of the year.

Is it worth voting?

Interesting piece here from British Labour MP Tom Harris about why people don’t bother to vote. I have to admit that the last local and European elections were the first time I seriously considered not voting, because I just don’t see the point. Local government in Ireland is pretty much pointless and exists almost entirely for the benefit of politicians, and the European Parliament does not change as a result of elections, as the three main parties just carve stuff up between themselves. In the coming mayoral election in Dublin, if the mayor doesn’t actually have the power to do things (as oppose to consult and chair things) you would have to ask is it worth the hassle?

The funny thing is, people will vote for power. If every constituency had, for example,  an elected official who had the power (and the funds) to actually fix things whether it was welfare entitlements, speed ramps, graffitti, etc, I suspect that people would actually turn out to vote for such a person.

The problem for me is that literally hundreds of elected Irish officials exist purely to “call” on other people (who have power) to do things, and then send us a bill, through our taxes, for having done so.   

Instant Police State. Just add water.

From the British Civil Contingencies Act 2004. You can see it here. With the stroke of a pen, a British government can do the following. I particularly like the “other specified activities” whatever that means. Reading The Guardian? 

“(b) provide for or enable the requisition or confiscation of property (with or without compensation);

(c) provide for or enable the destruction of property, animal life or plant life (with or without compensation);

(d) prohibit, or enable the prohibition of, movement to or from a specified place;

(e) require, or enable the requirement of, movement to or from a specified place;

(f) prohibit, or enable the prohibition of, assemblies of specified kinds, at specified places or at specified times;

(g) prohibit, or enable the prohibition of, travel at specified times;

(h) prohibit, or enable the prohibition of, other specified activities;

(i) create an offence of—

(i) failing to comply with a provision of the regulations;

(ii) failing to comply with a direction or order given or made under the regulations;

(iii) obstructing a person in the performance of a function under or by virtue of the regulations;”

Massachusetts: Americans just don’t like each other.

Republican Scott Brown: Senator for some of Massachusetts.

There has been a lot of analysis as to how the Democrats managed to lose what should be their lock seat in the Senate special election. But one fact seems to be missed by Europeans. See, we just don’t get it: How could anybody be against universal healthcare? Even people like me on the centre-right believe that affordable healthcare is a must. Yet on a turnout of 54%, which is respectable if not spectacular, 52% of Mass. voters voted for a candidate who is openly hostile to the president’s plan. Of course, there are mitigating factors: Mass. voters already have universal healthcare (Brought in by Mitt Romney when he was Mitt Romney.) and it seems that the Democratic campaign was a bit lacklustre, but the fact is, they lost what should have been a solid seat. Why?

Europeans talk about social solidarity, and it is, for the most part, bollocks, and usually a code for people in cushy state jobs to demand that actual wealth creaters pay more tax to keep them in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. Having said that, it is hard to imagine crowds of Europeans taking to the streets to deny other Europeans healthcare rights. Yet, not in the states. Deep down, Americans don’t really have the same connection to each other. Just look at gun sales: Who are they buying guns to protect themselves from? Bin Laden? The French? Nope. From each other. During the LA riots and Hurricane Katrina, Americans took to their roofs and properties with guns to protect themselves from other Americans, and that’s why healthcare is not the slam-dunk it would be in a European country.

One other thing: If I hear another Republican talk about the need for bipartisan support and to bring this thing “Back to the drawing board” I’ll puke. The Republicans controlled Congress from 1994-2006, and the White House from 2001-2009, and did damn all to fix healthcare, so it’s a bit rich to suddenly start talking about the need to work together in this. The fact is, most Republicans regard poverty and hardship as self-inflicted, which explains why they don’t really give a damn. The sad thing is, they may well speak for the majority of Americans on the issue.

An Occasional Guide to Irish Politics: The Left Wing Nutjob.

Slogans not stuff!

Everything! Is written! With exclamation marks! His answer, and it’s nearly always a he, is that “the people” should take to the streets! That seems to be the answer to everything, as if the people standing on Molesworth Street can have a moral effect on drink driving rates. He’s big into the working class standing up for themselves, but don’t for the love of Marx, try to get him to define the working class, because you’ll make his nose (And possibly brain.)  bleed. Apparently a taxi driver isn’t, if he’s self employed, unless he comes from Jobstown, but a junior doctor is, unless he comes from Blackrock, or he studies hard and becomes a consultant, whereas he is then no longer working class, but if he opposes health cuts, then he is working class again. You think there’s be some sort of wallchart available, given out with the Socialist Worker. Maybe you could collect and swap stickers: ” I’ve two hardworking working class bin men, so I’ll swap you one for a fascist Anglo Irish plutocrat.”  

His greatest contempt is reserved not for those on the right, but his fellow travellers on the left. He’s much happier picketing the Labour Party than Fianna Fail, or denouncing the People’s Left Party for splitting from the Left People’s Party (Insert appropriate Life of Brian sketch here.) and given a choice between patiently implementing a policy that might reduce hardship on someone, or denouncing everyone else for not implementing a socialist republic immediately, he’ll happily go with the latter.  

It would be wonderful if we could cede a county or two to him to run, and put his socialist plans to the test, as we all look on, eating cornettos and nudging each other. Maybe Leitrim, where he could tax the rich and spend to his hearts content. Until the rich left, and the money ran out, and, of course, he doesn’t do cutbacks, so…how long would it be before he announces that the rich do not have a right to leave, and what is needed is some sort of wall…   

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD: 18 months later…

It’s been 18 months since FG and Labour won the general election. Can anyone tell me what will be different? And please, no remarks about Fianna Fail. Actual differences in policy being implemented. I know I have a fair few FG readers, so let me know in the comments section. In fact, If you’d like to do a guest blog, you’ll be more than welcome.   

Books you should read: The Dying Light.

Both exciting and disturbing in equal measure.

“The Dying Light” by Observer journalist Henry Porter is terrifying because it is so humdrum in its approach to the creation of a very modern form of tyranny. The story follows a young British lawyer (And former SIS operative) who is investigating the death of a friend and former head of the Joint Intelligence Committee. Downing Street doesn’t like that, and deploys the subtle but suffocating tools of the  state against her and her allies.

What is genuinely troubling about the book is its believability, and how the “If you have nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to fear.”  argument has been used to equip the state with a frightening array of powers open to misuse by unprincipled people in power, or worse still, people who think they know what’s best for the rest of us. The scariest thing of all is that the arguments made by the chief baddy in the book are the exact same arguments I’ve heard a well-meaning political aspirant make to me about the need for the Irish government to have these powers!

Also worth noting is the difference between the role of the British Parliament in the book, and how the Oireachtas would respond to the same challenges. Suffice to say it’s hard to see the Dail acting as a bulwark of individual freedom.

A lot of the powers used by the government in the book are already in law in the UK. Just look up the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 which is practically a police-state-in-a-box.

I found “The Dying Light” to be pretty much unputdownable. 

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael stand for legitimate policy goals. Honestly.

A glacier seen moving through an FF policy meeting yesterday.

I, like many others, have tended to give FF and FG an unfair press. To those of us not in those parties it has always been a puzzle. Why would anyone interested in politics, that is, the implementation of ideas, join either? Then it dawned on me. Doing nothing is a legitimate policy platform. If one benefits from the status quo, then it is entirely proper for one to join a party that believes in as little change as possible.

It’s at this point that FF and FG people leap up with their shopping lists of positive changes that FF and FG have brought, and it is a fair comment. FF and FG in government, like the Communist Party of the People’s Republic of China, have brought in change when to not bring in change was to damage the status quo even more. Take the last 12 years of FF in government. Throwing money at stuff is not change. Cutting taxes was the PDs’ idea. But what did FF bring in that was radical and solely FF? The minimum wage? Possibly. The smoking ban? Would that not have been brought in by whoever was minister for Health? After twelve years, where were the big changes that happened only because FF made them happen?

I’m not being smart here. Maybe I’m wrong? All you FFers out there, let’s hear it.