Not the Nine O' Clock News

We are in a strange place. The economy is recovering? The government are claiming their policies have been instrumental in achieving this. RTE political analysis supports this claim. Twice this week the comment ‘the government are finally getting through to the electorate,’ was used.

Well the thick electorate are finally realising what are great government we have. If we had all only listened to RTE all along sure wouldn’t we have realised this ages ago? It is of course a smug ascertain, obviously it counts for nothing that young people are still leaving in numbers, and indeed even more poignantly staying away. The fact that our health service is in meltdown doesn’t even register as these are the pundits of Ireland Inc. and if Ireland Inc. blinks its multiple orgasm time. To these people recovery is turgidly aligned to access to bond markets, and Ireland’s reputation abroad. They are consumed by FDI and fickle job creation that distorts figures and facilitates lying to the citizen. Anyway wasn't everything economic sponsored and overseen by the ECB-in a kind of threatening manner, so if there is any credit their hatchet men forced the issue for sure.

The truth is there can be no recovery without a full scale social recovery. A real recovery would hail the introduction of measures to create equality, and the only way this can be achieved is by redesigning the tax take to pay for services. Not as the neoliberals propose to cut taxes and slash services to all, save for those who can afford to pay for them privately. Fact is there is no recovery in the real sense, as this so called governments message is really ‘you will be alright as long as you can afford to pay for it.’

RTE purports to be our public broadcaster but it doesn’t serve the citizen. Its reverential tone to ministers, and government representatives is nauseating to say the least. Time after time it sells the government line through stealthily placed, and unchallenged dictates, which are devoid of balance. Their reporting of the water meter protests are shamefully biased and class conscious, and especially when they try to bring some absurd middleclass ethic to the right to protest.

Now the shinners have no chance with RTE. But also this week they were presented meretriciously with another shameful exploitative Spotlight-show. The BBC has much in common with RTE as both have lost their independent objective journalistic ethic, to be replaced by government interference, and demands for propaganda rather than truth.

I say this because any sane person knows that child abuse is not the remit of any political ideology or group. Sex abuse is the property of a society that has failed to deal with its dreadful reality. It is a societal issue, and the responsibility lies with all of us to face this reality. We should seriously and without prejudice examine its causes, and why it is so rampant throughout our society. To narrow it down to a single political party, or to try and align it with a group like republicans is disingenuous.

We all know that since the foundation of the state, that many groups including the Catholic Church were instrumental in creating the culture of silence in relation to abuse. All the political parties were complicit also. It is incredible to hear Lab, Fine Gael, and Fianna Fail, trying to make political capital out of what is a horrendous problem facing our humanity, but one expects little else from the ideologically bereft.

The shinners don’t help themselves mind. They are poorly advised re-strategy. At one stage they had the opportunity to seize the initiative, as the citizen was crying out for some form of radical protest. SF were surging in the polls, and the opportunity presented to lead a popular movement, that might break the right wing stranglehold on the Irish people. But the pragmatist within SF obviously won the day. We have since witnessed their watered down policy on abortion, and also their downright savage attack on the civil liberties of sex workers and their clients, [supported DUP bill to criminalise the clients of sex workers.]

The SF representatives on twitter are a pragmatic bunch as well; they are either in the non-responsive because of how important I am genre, or the passionate beret wearing agitators who have gone quiet since their election to councils. Or they are neo-middleclass business owners who like to tweet strong republican rhetoric, but yet can’t comprehend why someone could dare question their party’s policy on sex workers, like sex workers like? In a DM I was told they didn’t care about sex workers north or south, they just didn’t merit a concern. Then I was blocked from sending a reply.

I am afraid the shinners can only blame themselves for the drop in support, as I fear serving the Catholic ethos in matters of social policy, and an unwillingness to discuss their own policies, will send shock waves throughout the Irish left.