In a Seanad in another dimension, Senator Yoda swings into action on the bondholder question.
I spoke recently in a debate in the Law Society in UCD on Seanad abolition, and I must admit, I was convinced. My opponents spoke about a senate that was full of deep thinking public servants, working the People’s business, and holding both the government and a Mad Max style Dail of yahoos and scoundrels in check. It was a beauty to behold. I expected to see Senators Homer, Cicero, Yoda, Mr Spock and Plato up there with the same dozen names that are always mentioned with the Seanad. How could we possibly abolish this, our last bastion of civilisation against the savagery of the zombie hordes that infest the Dail?
Then it struck me what the core of the opposition’s argument was: the Seanad is grand, just you people are too stupid to appreciate it. You people, who object to the rigged elections for people rejected in Dail elections, are too dense to see how subtle it is.
Sure, it did nothing about PPARS, burning the bondholders, eVoting, massive Tribunal costs, corruption, local government reform, political reform, banking regulation, massive pensions for retiring politicians, etc, but it did accidentally get drunk in 1963 and stop the Pawnbroker’s bill. Have you people no sense of gratitude?
The Seanad: if it was any good, do you not think we might have noticed?