Here come the pleaders!

The Axeman Cometh.

With the Bord Snip Nua report imminent (And with parts of it leaked already.) we should be gearing up for the usual low fact/high emotion rigmarole that passes for informed debate in this country. What is very Irish is the fact that we don’t like fact (Such as the idea that we have no money.) to collide with our emotion (It isn’t fair!). On top of that we naturally assume that the people carrying out such policy always have some sort of hidden agenda, as if Mary Harney and Mary Hanafin meet in secret, rubbing their hands in glee at how many people they have hurt today.

The reaction to An Bord Snip Nua will be the same. We’ll be inundated with the usual “Of course there must be cutbacks. But surely an exception must be made for one-legged Irish-speaking Camelherds!”

I don’t know why the government doesn’t manage this better. Instead of letting the pleaders demand special treatment in a vacuum, where they sound so reasonable, why not put ALL the special pleadings together so that the public can see how much money they will have to pay in extra taxes to protect all the special cases. 

Who knows? Maybe the public will be willing to pay extra taxes to protect the pleaders?