Fianna Fail via www.irishsentinel.com
It’s a long held belief of mine that the party poliical system as it exists now doesn’t serve the people. It serves the parties themselves first, the politicians second, their cronies third, and the rest of us if we’re lucky. I understand how hard it would be to get a majority on difficult decisions if there were no parties, but would it be wrong to expect our politicians to work hard in our interests representing our opinions?
Right now our government is spending valuable time trying to keep itself in power, time that it could be using to directly address some of the many problems affecting the nation. As the country steers listlessly towards bankruptcy, the people have finally taken to the streets, and there’s a lot more to come I’m sure. The people have no confiedence in the government and it is only a matter of time before it falls.
Not before time the idea of an all party emergency government is being mooted, a step that would hopefully restore some confidence internationally in Ireland PLC. It will take a radical move like this to help us out of this mess, and when the dust settles and the history books are written and the fingers pointed, the party political system will hopefully go under the spotlight and be exposed as the flawed, anachronistic millstone around our collective necks that it is.
As much as anything else, this episode is showing us of the need for real political leadership, forward thinking decision takers with top quality advisers. Right now it seems like we have none of these. Not that I blame Cowen & Company personally for everything that has happened, the seeds of which were sown a long time ago (oh how Bertie must be laughing now…). However, this government has spectacularly failed to protect, manage or restore confidence in the banking system and the economy as a whole.
It’s clear to me that we, Ireland, need help. We don’t have the right people in power to get us out of this mess. A Dail without parties would have realised this a long time ago and done something about it.
[P.S. It's also time for an end to the libel laws as they stand, or for our journalists to take a stand and defy them. The unprintable knowledge they have could have put an end to this government a long time ago...]
Posted in ireland, opinion, politics | 1 Comment »
