The Users: A comment.

Judging by the emails I’ve received, I seem to have struck a nerve with this post here. I’m not familiar with all the personalities that some of you had suggested the post was based on, and it was a composite of at least two people that I’ve met in Irish politics. But I will say that at least two of you each hit on one of the people.  

Labour: Same policy on property tax as “right wing” PDs.

Oh, how the worm handbrake turns. From today’s Irish Times:

“Labour leader Eamon Gilmore today said he opposed the idea as many people had already paid a property tax in the form of stamp duty. People who are struggling to pay their mortgage cannot be asked to pay a property tax on top of that, he said. “It would be perverse to ask people to pay a property tax on a property on which they are paying a mortgage and the size of the mortgage is now in many cases more than what the value of what the property is worth,” he added.”

All of which is true, and all of which the PDs used to say last time Labour brought in the Residential Property Tax. This is the thing about Labour, and where right wing PDs were always wrong about Labour. Labour talks left, but when it comes to the point of actually taxing people for the common good, Labour is now as wedded to low taxes as the late lamented Progressive Democrats. They’ll support taxes on the fictionally taxable  super rich, but when it comes to Swedish style taxes on all to fund services for all, Labour is much more Ayn Rand than Willi Brandt.

The PDs are dead. Long live the PDs.

Live! From Leitrim!

The Strip, Leitrim.

Dateline June 2020. Leitrim. Counting is continuing in the county plebiscite to legalise prostitution and gambling in the county, following a turnout of 72% in the vote yesterday. Opinion polls have shown the result will be very close, but Mayor of Leitrim Billy Murtagh (Independent) has expressed confidence that the people of the county will endorse the proposals of his administration. The Mayor told reporters “When I was directly elected Mayor of this county by the people last year, I told them that Leitrim, like every county under the new devolution and local government laws, has an opportunity to make its own economic way, and it is my belief that this county can be the Las Vegas of Ireland. We will of course have proper regulation, but this is going to be the entertainment capital of this whole island, and remember, what happens in Leitrim stays in Leitrim!”

Opponents of the plan include both of Mayor Murtagh’s opponents in the mayoral election. Angela Hartigan, the Fine Gael candidate, has savaged the idea saying that “it will turn Leitrim into the gutter of Ireland”. She has proposed that Leitrim, because of its important place in the heritage of Ireland, should have its economic growth subsidised by other more prosperous counties. “Leitrim is entitled! It just is!”

Although Leitrim is the first county to exercise its powers under the new legislation, other counties and their mayors are looking on with interest. Mayor Tom Morray (Sinn Fein) of Louth has said that he is considering copying the Leitrim proposals. “It would be a shame not to use our position so close to Belfast for economic advantage. The north of Ireland is absolutely crawling with perverts willing to pay good money. Of course, we’d probably have to put in a few gay knocking shops as well, you know, for the DUP lads, but sure, a euro is a euro.”

Interestingly, not all counties intend to use their new devolutionary powers to liberalise. Some members of Roscommon County Council are discussing designating North Roscommon as a “family values area” with a ban on the sale of pornography, restrictions on drinking, off licences and nightclubs and a tough zero-tolerance approach to law and order to attract Leitrim residents with young families. “Not everyone wants to live surrounded by hos and bitches jiving like it’s new jack city.” A local farmer and undertaker remarked.