Its odd to watch. The Irish newspapers are turning massively against the Fianna Gael/Labour coalition in recent times - but especially against the premier Enda Kenny in his capacity as author of the current belt-tightening operations. This is to be expected, but there is an extra edge to the venom not only because of the objective levels of hardship and deprivation experienced by the low-end earners and the unemployed, but because something in the Irish national project has been irremediably broken. Some years ago a Fianna Fail government scrapped water rates in order to scoop up votes for re-election. No one stopped to ask if the measure was affordable - in other words, who would fix the drains and water-mains in future? Now Ireland has a privatised rubbish collection service with weight-tolls and an impending water tarriff linked to meters. Throughout the country the resistance is beginning to take pro-active forms while the installers and their state agency protectors are turning distinctly nasty in the front gardens and the pavements of the nation. Who actually believes that water services can be delivered free? Or that the rates were a Bad Thing? Heres the point: Irish people are apt to regard any government impost (taxes in ordinary terms) as a foreign imposition and a clear sign that someone has taken over their country. Otherwise stated, the country history of rebellion has led its modern inhabitants to expect that freedom will be ... well, actually FREE. Yet the most casual examination of Irish economic history since independence must demonstrate that, far from being free, it has been an exercise in borderline insanity, alleviated by only a few few bright spots such as the Hydro-Electric Scheme and ... U2. The real problem here isnt about the weasel behaviour of Fianna Fail and their money-bags allies (when not actually the same people) or the belt-tightening excesses of Fianna Gaels school-marm government but a crisis of political consciousness arising from the revelation that theres no such thing as a free independence. This is not a plea to surrender sovereighty - such as still exists - just an invitation to wake up to the most rudimentary facts of economic life and get real about the past and present. And never, never, never, to vote for Fianna Fail again - because what well get as a result is a house-keeping coalition or the revolutionary enchantments of Sinn Fein. PS What is wrong with Martin Conways eyes?
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 14:47:04 +0000
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