There and Back Again
Returned to County Down in the early hours after a quick jaunt down to Dublin for what turned out to be an abortive heave on Brian Cowen. For a few hours, the atmospherics felt similar to the days leading up to the fall of Albert Reynolds in the mid nineties.
However we didn't scale the heights of rumour counter, rumour and conspiracy theory reached then, when at every other moment we were hearing about potential developments which would shake both the state and the church to their cores (after one particularly imaginative intervention from Pat Rabbitte the then Guardian correspondent David Sharrock wrote memorably that the Dublin South West TD had become "the first Rabbitte to pull a red herring out of a top hat").
Instead it all petered out quickly, with the Fianna Fail party willing to give Mr Cowen more time, even though the Dubliners I chatted to on Grafton Street were almost unanimous in expressing the view that he should have resigned long ago.
Around 18 months ago I drove south to report on a rash of resignations from Sinn Fein's ranks. Now by contrast the party is going from strength to strength - winning the Donegal by-election, performing well in the opinion polls, their new TD Pearse Doherty impressing in his Dail interventions on the budget and now Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin scoring points on his interrogation of Mr Cowen over the Anglo Irish golf outing.
How low will Fianna Fail go when Irish voters finally get the chance to cast their verdicts on the financial mess the state is in? And how much of a gap will there be between the size of the Fianna Fail party in the next Dail and the strength of the Sinn Fein group?
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Mark,
I find it incredible that Cowen, and indeed the FF party insists on staying the course when they are not wanted. Who do they think they are? The English Conservative Party? They deserve all they get in the eventual election. It's just bad form.
Love, PieMan
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People need to turn anger into positive action by giving the Government a hammering at the polls. Voters need to send the Government a strong message that they do not have the support of the people for the outrageous cutbacks which they have implemented and they do not have a mandate for the type of slash and burn economic policies which they are currently pursuing.
Now is the time for change. Politics on this island needs to change. Sinn Féin is different to the other parties. A vote for Sinn Féin makes sense. Sinn fein offer a real alternative to the type of politics that has landed us in this economic mess and now is the time to for a left wing alternative - an alternative that seeks to protect our most vulnerable citizens from the effects of the recession rather than targeting them to pay for it.
How much of a gap will there be between the size of the Fianna Fail party in the next Dail and the strength of the Sinn Fein group?
If Mr Cowen is replaced, it could lead to the General Election taking place sooner than the expected timeframe of mid to late March. Labour and Sinn Fein are vying to stake a claim for a spot on the top table of southern politics and with the spotlight on Sinn fein being the main party of leverage for the dismissal of the government and its policies.
Labour have dithered and only now have tabled a motion of no confidence in the Government and not the Taoiseach. A fact that will no doubt come back to bite them.
Sinn fein have consistently said the immediate priority for all should be the earliest possible removal of this Government and the calling of a general election. Watch as the political landscape changes and changes utterly.
The only revenge will be the laughter of our children.
Eyes wide open
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What I’d like to see, above all, as a result of Ireland’s current problems, is the total and absolute annihilation of the Fianna Fail party. They have shared power with Fine Gael (Tweedledum and Tweedledee) for 90 years and the only thing dividing them is that they were on opposing sides in the civil war, with one of them actually starting the war. They are so alike; you wouldn’t be able to fit a cigarette paper between them.
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We won’t see normal politics in Ireland until the country is re-united. Then we could see a coalition of; say the DUP and Fine Gael, or Labour and the SDLP, maybe Sinn Fein and the remnants of Fianna Faile, though Sinn Fein might want to stand alone. Only then will we see an end to Civil War politics.
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eyeswideopen1
Very poetic but what the South needs now is a strong goverment who can steer them through the next decade or so. For times are going to be tough and whoever takes control will have to play ball with the EU, ECB, IMF and the markets, for if they don't then in every likelihood they would be asked to leave the Euro and very possibly the EU. Funding would be withdrawn and it would become a bankrupt state. Is this going to happen I hope not but now is a time for stability and not fundamentalism. Now is a time for unity and not factionalism. Now is the time for strong finacail management and not idealism.
The problem is I don't see which party can bring this to the table.
As far as a truly socialist or left wing country that has worked you have to struggle to name one;
People's Republic of China - Has only emerged from the depths of poverty since it has taken on capitalism and started free market economics. Still has major issues to contend with, corruption possible being the most common.
Cuba - A living hell in paradise, that's how one Cuban described his country to me. Wholesale poverty and corruption.....
Laos - Only visited here once, beautiful country beautiful people but poverty and corruption everywhere. I even had to pay a bribe to get a taxi back to the border.
Vietnam - very similar to Laos but not so rich in minerals.
No the time for a Daley to the left was during the tiger years which did happen to a certain extent with the social package that was given to those in need as well as the elderly.
What is needed now is a steady center of the road goverment, which is something that I fear is not going to happen. Only last night I was watching RTE and there were all the various parties talking about recovery and saying all was going to be OK with one putting forward a four year plan. Four years to get back to where they were in 2006 / 2007, they must be living in a parallel universe for they keep talking about the economy without including the public sector and its debts. The size of the deficit is still way too big and the public debt is still rising and is unsustainable for a country its size. Personal debt is also a big issue for Ireland has the highest personal debt now globally something no one talks about. Couple that with the private sector debt namely the banks and you can see a long, difficult and painful road ahead. Until the politicans face up to this and start telling it how it is how do you expect the public accept and face up to the problem. They are looking more like Greece as every day goes by. So how long before the penny drops?
Here is a little quiz to see where you and they are;
Which stage are you / they at?
1. SHOCK & DENIAL
2. PAIN & GUILT
3. ANGER & BARGAINING
4. "DEPRESSION", REFLECTION, LONELINESS
5. THE UPWARD TURN
6. RECONSTRUCTION & WORKING THROUGH
7. ACCEPTANCE & HOPE
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I will refer you to a piece I wrote earlier.
In the south Sinn fein put forward a comprehensive pre buget submission. Central the the Submission is the need for economic stimulus to protect and create jobs. Competitiveness will not be secured on the back of cheap, insecure labour. Families on the breadline is not the answer to our problems, reductions in the minimum wage or running down protections for workers is not the solution. What can be done? Saving must and can be made in a way that is equitable and does not injure the long term goal of a sustainable economy. Sinn Féin set out proposals for raising the €2billion which the government is now implementing through totally unfair cuts. Mispaid bonuses and overblown salaries must be retrieved, there must be a cap on salaries of banking executives and an immediate abolition of their bonuses.
We need to know the extent of the banks bad debts. The time for speculation as to the state of the banks balance sheets is over.
We need to have the truth. An independent inspector must, on behalf of the taxpayer, establish their liabilities.
We need a new, robust financial regulatory system.
The banks must pay back the taxpayers money while working in the state’s interest.
Sinn Féin has long demanded reform with the ending of tax shelters and tax exile status, the ending of the scandal where middle income workers are taxed at the same rate as those earning hundreds of thousands of euros.
Currency differentials and VAT rate differentials hurt business and the consumer. We need VAT harmonisation,tax harmonisation and nurture a dynamic all Ireland economy.
Capitalism ultimately fails because it acts in the interests of capitalist business. Capitalism is the only morally valid socio, political system that allows people to act in their self-interest with no social conscience other than an attitude of insensitivity toward injustice and problems in society.
Today the leader of the free world America and her allies use fear and droconian laws to bring fear to her citizens. Note the introduction of the colour coded state of alert. It would seem the american dream has nightmare qualities brought to the people in technicolour with all the subtlety of waterboarding and we are told capitalism is the only way?
Eyes wide open
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6. At 8:37pm on 18 Jan 2011, eyeswideopen1 wrote:
I will refer you to a piece I wrote earlier.
In the south Sinn fein put forward a comprehensive pre buget submission.
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The only problem with their proposals is that they did not stand up to scrutiny. It reminded me of the Lib Dems on the mainland, they said an awful lot of things thinking that they would never be in power and now they have been catapulted into a position of goverment their overstated over simplified statements have come back to haunt them. All politicans should be aware of what they say and what they promise for they will come back to haunt you.
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Chris London I sense that my musings may have set in motion a journey of thought from which there may be no going back. On reading article no.5 your call for strong government in the Dail was commendable only for the point being lost between wanting a "steady center of the road government" and in the need for "the politicans face up to this and start telling it how it is".
In article 7 your comparison of the lib Dems and Sinn fein has to be seen as an acceptance that Sinn fein will hold positions of power at the highest level in both parts of the island. Surly you would agree that on your own stage of change chart you have went from went from
2. PAIN (even if it is shared) & GUILT to
7. ACCEPTANCE & HOPE
Remember your last lines "All politicans should be aware of what they say and what they promise for they will come back to haunt you.
Eyes wide open and onward to victory
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