Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Sinn Féins Joan of Arc
I hear the anguished cries of middle Ireland as they watch over the marching Sinn Féin with trepidation. One can almost feel the shudder, how could such a crowd of thugs and bank robber’s rise from the fires of hell—to debate equally with our respectable suited neoliberals, on important matters too like the European fiscal treaty.
What is more they send out their Joan of Arc—Mary Lou and she spreads her venomous message across the clothes lines of Ireland, and even Pat Kenny has to take her seriously. The neoliberals present us with a successful business woman who knows how to balance books; she is suitably serious if not a little out of her depth with Joan of Arc eyeing her contemptuously. They also have Eamonn the radical Eamonn that once stood for the Workers party and then Democratic Left, these radical left wing parties that sold their souls and were annexed by the Labour party.
Eamonn is not convincing as he constantly gives the impression that the line he is spouting is beyond his comprehension, government politicians are all guilty of this, it is like they are reading from a script but the information is passionless and second hand. Eamonn needs to attend more neoliberal night classes as he has not yet mastered the technique.
Declan Ganley that grand warrior of the right who gets to appear on national television because he is wealthy plays a stormer mainly because he agrees with Joan of Arc to a degree, and if you have St. Joan on your side you are on a winner. I wonder why they don’t ask other Declans to go on, like maybe the Declan from the St. Vincent de Paul, or all the Declans or Deirdre's out there in community groups.
Back to the poor old middle Irelanders the shuddering wrecks who imagine the Northern Bank funds been divided out at every mention of the shinners. These are the same people mind you who think it was alright for a sovereign government to sit back and allow its citizens be torched out of their homes, and also allow them be systematically cleansed from their traditional areas by sectarian bigots.
There were like all wars atrocities committed by all sides during the war in northern Ireland, yet according to middle-Ireland it was the Shinners who were responsible for all of it, these same shinners that were feted by the partitionists during the good Friday agreement—but you see they didn’t see it coming at all, the shinners have a vibrancy and as Joan of Arc said, Sinn Féin have a wealth of experience in tough negotiations unlike our middle –Ireland friends who were more worried about our living standards, than the welfare of their fellow citizens during the war in the north.
Personally my only worry about Sinn Féin is that they are not radical enough—and I can see them taking part in future coalitions and perhaps Joan of Arc will have transformed into Joan Burton—a nightmare scenario. If they possess any stealth like plan or suspicious underbelly this is it—the worries as expressed by the neoliberal middle-Irelanders don’t exist. If Sinn Féin are anything they are pragmatists and don’t be surprised if that daft republican party Fianna Fail get very cosy with them in time.
So what of the Fiscal treaty itself—I think it will be a narrow yes vote based on the conservative nature of this society, going forward I doubt if it will make any real difference as events are constantly changing. I welcome the election of Hollande in France as some sort of dart in the arse of neoliberalism, and also it gives me some hope that the federated Europe we are heading towards may not be totally dominated by the right. As I have pointed out much of the far right stuff been pushed on the citizens of Europe is based upon ideology that is new to Europe and thus has that distinct second hand feel to it. Politicians this side of the pond don’t understand it fully so they sell it very poorly, and the people will not have continued austerity without a major battle.
So folks you heard it here first a future Fianna Fail and Sinn Féin coalition and a United states of Europe I hear lots of sighs, but don’t begin to tell me that we are still a nation. I am afraid our nationality was stolen by outside forces a long time ago and our natural resources were gifted to wealthy interests at a terrible price for our citizens, we as a people have allowed this happen. Remember we don’t do ideology we do personality and we still admire entrepreneurs despite the austerity.
But let us not despair as we still have Joan of Arc and that has to be worth something.
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Taking the Bollix out of Bollixology
I have sorted it out in my head, and there is no need to worry about austerity or fiscal treaties or politics in general I have it sorted and in the end it was a very simple process.
No longer will I need to sit up all night worrying about our future, my nightmares have been replaced by bouts of restful sleep full of twitting birds, and meadows awash with wild flowers. I have found the secret folks and it came upon me at 4.02 am this very morning, in an instant my life has changed, as I have found the key to unlock the madness and mayhem that surrounds me.
If I was a mathematical person I would describe it as a simple formula one that can be applied to many things in life, but particularly when it comes to media and spin and our perceptions of same. This formula doesn’t require serious issues it works just as well with ordinary things, such as a visit to the shops.
You are probably unable to contain your excitement so I will let you have it people it is the simple awakening that comes to all jaded men and woman at 4.02am after another sleepless night, the dawning realisation as to what is wrong with the world and how does one go about fixing it, well?
We start with the very simple term ‘bollix,’ hah I hear, he is resorting to vulgarity not true my friends as when I complete the sentence you will see, ‘Taking the bollix out of bollixology.’
I will allow you a moment to digest the importance of this statement, and I will take a little of your time to explain from where the said term has come from, and how my mental state at 4.02am was just about perfect for this Eureka moment. We could just about take anything you wish but let us start with something ordinary, like do we really believe things like ‘every little helps,’ or that a certain supermarket chain want us to spend less, like why would they want us to spend less? It doesn’t make any sense, yet they actually use this in their advertisement. It is hardly crucial or important but all of this nonsense has to start somewhere, and in the early hours the mind ponders many a small matter and allows them a pride of place they hardly deserve.
I guess there is a room somewhere where the practitioners’ of bollix from the school of bollixology make up their routines. These guys are so successful they can more or less make us believe whatever they want.
They claim that a two party state which is the natural home of capitalism is an example of true democracy at work—this country fights war after war to inflict its brand of democracy on other societies. These victims are rarely white they are usually Asian,or African—or Arab in ethnicity.
Thus they spread the great capitalist virus around the globe and boy are we seeing it now in the Eurozone.
These people have managed to put the bollix into the European union also, what started out as an economic and social revolution has been annexed by the power of the capitalist markets to the extent that it has become dangerous.
The school of bollixology have gone to great lengths to turn even the most innocuous event into a competition—the recent Tv3 debate on the forthcoming treaty is a classic example.
The empire holds its games and in the most recent debate it was Martin and Coveney 2—Higgins and Mary Lou 0. But what were they scored on, certainly not ideology Higgins was berated for not answering a question that he wasn’t allowed answer. Joe Higgins is not great on TV people say, but that’s because he is not a performer Joe deals in ideology—Martin and Coveney deal in spin and rhetoric but according to the public they won—how is this or more importantly why is this?
Of course the bollix goes well beyond political debates and it goes into every area of our lives—people just won’t face the truth, the choice is there to be made, do we want to be citizens of a nation or consumers in an economy? Are we willing to allow self serving political parties forge the future for us, or will we as citizens reclaim what is indeed ours—can we take the bollix from the bollixology.
Monday, 16 April 2012
Irelands Stolen Red Flag
When James Connolly died the Irish labour movement died with him. It can be argued that following the sacrifices made in 1916, that Ireland entered a crucial period in its history. As we moved forward two distinct models presented themselves, one of course was Home Rule and the other was to further the aims of the men and women of 1916 and seek an Irish republic.
Had Connolly lived there is little doubt that he would have fought on to achieve the Irish Republic but of course in Connolly’s vision this was to be a 32 county socialist republic. When one revises the history of the period it is little wonder that Irelands possible first leader a committed Marxist was tied to a chair in 1916 and shot---it is important to remind people that at this time Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Europe—and Dublin housed some of the biggest disease infested slums in the World. Connolly and Jim Larkin had led the workers in a vicious fight against the employers during the great lockout of 1913-14, Connolly founder of the Irish citizen army was as they say a marked man.
But what of his ideology can one imagine an Ireland where Connolly’s thesis had risen to the fore—how different a place we would live in now, of course our entire history would be different and if it were not in the light of what is taking place in Ireland today, it would be a fruitless exercise to even consider its implications.
Yet what concerns me as an individual and as a citizen of this state is the roaring question as to why within a supposedly democratic system did Connolly’s doctrine go unheard, or if heard then why unheeded. Historians may point to a very conservative church dominated society the very church who were persecuted in other socialist regimes, is it understandable that the church should have feared talk of equality and the individual taking a stake in the collective?
Again if one uses a casual revisionist approach could there have been any institution more totalitarian than the catholic church alright they didn’t take people out and shoot them [not in Ireland anyway.] but how many people suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of these clerics—to whom the state mindlessly handed over power in areas of health and education and in the area of imprisonment such as in the industrial schools.
Other reasons that Connolly thesis was ignored after his death was the advent of the Irish ruling class. There was always an Irish upper class whom were educated at the best schools either here or in England. These people saw themselves as the natural inheritors of fiscal power--they included both the catholic and protestant ascendency, and were mainly composed of professionals like lawyers and Doctors and medical consultants.
The war of independence made the option of home rule redundant and the watered down version gave us the Anglo Irish Treaty of 1921. As a result this was probably the only time in Irish history that ideology over pragmatism set the agenda---many on the republican side still believed in the all Ireland 32 county socialist republic—but shamefully and with the help and support of their former British masters the free state as it was now called, entered into a bloody civil war—whereby 3000, people were killed. In all wars there are atrocities carried out by all sides—but the systematic executions of over 77-republicans in 1922-23, tells its own tale.
So the new state evolved in the most divisive of circumstance but not on the grounds of ideology –the differences were easily categorised as one side yearning for a united Ireland and the other wanting to go with what was conceded and make a fight for it later—with this simplistic explanation many an Irish child passed through our educational system.
Nobody asked the relevant question what the hell happened to socialism or even social justice, the labour party minus a leader like Connolly became the conscience of the centre right—and Ireland grew as basically a two party state—both with centre right leanings and one which even had some far right elements in the mid – 1930’s.
The modern labour party under Eamonn Gilmore had an opportunity never before trusted on to the Irish left. After the last general election it had won the most seats to Dail Eireann in its history. Faced with a critical choice that was to enter government in coalition with the neoliberal Fine Gael—or align with fellow 'left wing' elected TD,’s and Sinn Féin and form a decent and noisy opposition to the criminal monetarism that is enslaving our citizens. They chose to enter government and I as a committed disciple of social justice wonder why?
Perhaps when we examine the labour party and seek to understand their motives we would best take a long hard look at ourselves. Who votes for labour is it the working person on low income who lives in social housing or who maybe is out of work and is actively seeking same—or is it the retired school teacher who started life modestly but now can sit back each morning with a copy of the Irish Times—and spout armchair socialism to anyone who might listen.
The labour vote has changed, and in essence labour is in fact representing those that voted for them by staying in coalition with the neoliberals. The average labour voter is middle-class or on the fringes of the merchant class—[By class I am not only referring to financial status but even more so to a specific mind-set]these people do not do ideology as they were not raised or educated to do so, they solely exist to maintain an acceptable standard, many of these people did come from humble origins—but it is not out of any loyalty to a miserable childhood that they vote labour over FF OR FG. They vote labour because they see no difference between the three and if there is no ideological difference then the only thing separating them is spin and personality.
We should take a long and hard look at ourselves we the citizen the inheritors of a state that was formed dubiously with outside influence from God knows where—we have arrived at a very difficult place and what we choose to do now, will have a major impact on our children and their children. I am not bowing to economics here but I am pointing to an examination of what it is we are—us the citizens of the Irish Republic what values do we hold—what is it that we cherish, are we willing to sacrifice things to create a more equal society.Are we willing to act like citizens within a state that in its definition is a collective for the common good. Or as this present government insists –are we going to promote individualism—greed, and base our prosperity on the volatility of the market place—the question remains and all that is left is our choice of ideology.
Had Connolly lived there is little doubt that he would have fought on to achieve the Irish Republic but of course in Connolly’s vision this was to be a 32 county socialist republic. When one revises the history of the period it is little wonder that Irelands possible first leader a committed Marxist was tied to a chair in 1916 and shot---it is important to remind people that at this time Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Europe—and Dublin housed some of the biggest disease infested slums in the World. Connolly and Jim Larkin had led the workers in a vicious fight against the employers during the great lockout of 1913-14, Connolly founder of the Irish citizen army was as they say a marked man.
But what of his ideology can one imagine an Ireland where Connolly’s thesis had risen to the fore—how different a place we would live in now, of course our entire history would be different and if it were not in the light of what is taking place in Ireland today, it would be a fruitless exercise to even consider its implications.
Yet what concerns me as an individual and as a citizen of this state is the roaring question as to why within a supposedly democratic system did Connolly’s doctrine go unheard, or if heard then why unheeded. Historians may point to a very conservative church dominated society the very church who were persecuted in other socialist regimes, is it understandable that the church should have feared talk of equality and the individual taking a stake in the collective?
Again if one uses a casual revisionist approach could there have been any institution more totalitarian than the catholic church alright they didn’t take people out and shoot them [not in Ireland anyway.] but how many people suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of these clerics—to whom the state mindlessly handed over power in areas of health and education and in the area of imprisonment such as in the industrial schools.
Other reasons that Connolly thesis was ignored after his death was the advent of the Irish ruling class. There was always an Irish upper class whom were educated at the best schools either here or in England. These people saw themselves as the natural inheritors of fiscal power--they included both the catholic and protestant ascendency, and were mainly composed of professionals like lawyers and Doctors and medical consultants.
The war of independence made the option of home rule redundant and the watered down version gave us the Anglo Irish Treaty of 1921. As a result this was probably the only time in Irish history that ideology over pragmatism set the agenda---many on the republican side still believed in the all Ireland 32 county socialist republic—but shamefully and with the help and support of their former British masters the free state as it was now called, entered into a bloody civil war—whereby 3000, people were killed. In all wars there are atrocities carried out by all sides—but the systematic executions of over 77-republicans in 1922-23, tells its own tale.
So the new state evolved in the most divisive of circumstance but not on the grounds of ideology –the differences were easily categorised as one side yearning for a united Ireland and the other wanting to go with what was conceded and make a fight for it later—with this simplistic explanation many an Irish child passed through our educational system.
Nobody asked the relevant question what the hell happened to socialism or even social justice, the labour party minus a leader like Connolly became the conscience of the centre right—and Ireland grew as basically a two party state—both with centre right leanings and one which even had some far right elements in the mid – 1930’s.
The modern labour party under Eamonn Gilmore had an opportunity never before trusted on to the Irish left. After the last general election it had won the most seats to Dail Eireann in its history. Faced with a critical choice that was to enter government in coalition with the neoliberal Fine Gael—or align with fellow 'left wing' elected TD,’s and Sinn Féin and form a decent and noisy opposition to the criminal monetarism that is enslaving our citizens. They chose to enter government and I as a committed disciple of social justice wonder why?
Perhaps when we examine the labour party and seek to understand their motives we would best take a long hard look at ourselves. Who votes for labour is it the working person on low income who lives in social housing or who maybe is out of work and is actively seeking same—or is it the retired school teacher who started life modestly but now can sit back each morning with a copy of the Irish Times—and spout armchair socialism to anyone who might listen.
The labour vote has changed, and in essence labour is in fact representing those that voted for them by staying in coalition with the neoliberals. The average labour voter is middle-class or on the fringes of the merchant class—[By class I am not only referring to financial status but even more so to a specific mind-set]these people do not do ideology as they were not raised or educated to do so, they solely exist to maintain an acceptable standard, many of these people did come from humble origins—but it is not out of any loyalty to a miserable childhood that they vote labour over FF OR FG. They vote labour because they see no difference between the three and if there is no ideological difference then the only thing separating them is spin and personality.
We should take a long and hard look at ourselves we the citizen the inheritors of a state that was formed dubiously with outside influence from God knows where—we have arrived at a very difficult place and what we choose to do now, will have a major impact on our children and their children. I am not bowing to economics here but I am pointing to an examination of what it is we are—us the citizens of the Irish Republic what values do we hold—what is it that we cherish, are we willing to sacrifice things to create a more equal society.Are we willing to act like citizens within a state that in its definition is a collective for the common good. Or as this present government insists –are we going to promote individualism—greed, and base our prosperity on the volatility of the market place—the question remains and all that is left is our choice of ideology.
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Enda Kenny's Ghost Writer Lacks Substance
There are some out there that think this government are doing a good job in what are extremely difficult times. These are people to whom the body of politics is still about personalities and localism they have no realisation that due to neoliberalism, politics is now global without personality, and very often devoid of substance.
Enda Kenny is the CEO of Ireland Ink [sic] self appointed I may add, as far as I knew he was Taoiseach of a very small country with around 4.5 million people—I wonder can he do both like be a Taoiseach and a CEO, at he same time. This is where the substance comes in—Enda Kenny has no qualifications or even experience to be CEO, of Ireland Ink, [sic], in fact what is he actually, he is just the leader of Irelands most right wing party- Fine Gael.
Enda is nothing if he is not dapper—he likes to pull up his pants before he sits down, straighten his blazer when he is standing, Enda is a fast walker immaculately groomed his stylists have him looking ten years younger than he is—this is learned political behaviour and learned from you guess where? That is right you are correct! The spin is in the appearance and the substance is unimportant.
Take his interview with Sean O’ Rourke at the weekend—the man is so busy he hasn’t time to make it to the studio to discuss the matters in question regarding Denis O’ Brien—the household tax, and the Fiscal treaty-leave all that to the hacks, this is the CEO-of Ireland Ink [sic] we don’t mix it with the rabble. So Sean respectful of your title O’ Rourke- interviewed the impeccable Enda on his own turf and entirely within the no substance agenda.
Enda of course had a bucket load of excuses about Denis O’ Brien and how he as CEO, of Ireland Ink [sic] wasn’t responsible for who was invited and who was not, he then waffled on about the household tax and the Fiscal treaty and he urged us all to put our differences aside and protect the generations to come by voting yes. On the jobs front he assured us that the entrepreneurs will deliver- and only as they can, the jobs will flow and the people will soon see the promised land. Sean reverential O’ Rourke didn’t ask him a hard question and that was it.
I wonder about all of this, and as I said recently in a tweet, that I always get the impression that Enda Kenny is speaking from a script rather than from the heart. It is like he is possessed by a Ghost writer who in a previous life wrote inspirational verse for gift cards. When one examines what Enda is actually saying, you come up with the awful realisation that he is saying nothing sustainable. His usual rant about entrepreneurs for example –what does this mean? Who are these people he refers to—are they waiting somewhere to be called to action.
Lets examine the substance, the Banks are still operating a credit embargo, and as the CEO admits there has been no progress on upward only rent review reforms. So let’s allow that Enda parts the Irish sea -and the entrepreneurial hordes are set free to create these illusive jobs, the conditions that Enda’s government have set for them are restrictive, and many would be slain and counted as statistics within the first two years, and any jobs created would drown with them. So what has this government achieved—well the austerity measures they introduced have deflated the economy, the measures they have put forward to aid their entrepreneurial crusaders are negligible- so what have we left ,more austerity because the country is spending more than it earns etc.
In summation Enda Kenny’s government should resign—they are a failure of epic proportions, they rely on one single element of economic stimulus that is to attract multi-national investment mainly from you know where? That’s right you have guessed correctly—this whilst providing some jobs only assists our economy rather than allows it to flourish.
Enda is redundant on plans outside of his Ghost writers brief—as leader of this state and not Ireland Ink [sick] he should be aggressively introducing action by the state in areas of job creation using the state owned sector in areas like forestry, fishing, agriculture and our natural resources, to assist in the growth of this economy.
State is the collective of all of us citizens—right now we need a CEO—like we need kick in the face, what we need is leadership-not lazy scripted words devoid of substance.
Enda Kenny is the CEO of Ireland Ink [sic] self appointed I may add, as far as I knew he was Taoiseach of a very small country with around 4.5 million people—I wonder can he do both like be a Taoiseach and a CEO, at he same time. This is where the substance comes in—Enda Kenny has no qualifications or even experience to be CEO, of Ireland Ink, [sic], in fact what is he actually, he is just the leader of Irelands most right wing party- Fine Gael.
Enda is nothing if he is not dapper—he likes to pull up his pants before he sits down, straighten his blazer when he is standing, Enda is a fast walker immaculately groomed his stylists have him looking ten years younger than he is—this is learned political behaviour and learned from you guess where? That is right you are correct! The spin is in the appearance and the substance is unimportant.
Take his interview with Sean O’ Rourke at the weekend—the man is so busy he hasn’t time to make it to the studio to discuss the matters in question regarding Denis O’ Brien—the household tax, and the Fiscal treaty-leave all that to the hacks, this is the CEO-of Ireland Ink [sic] we don’t mix it with the rabble. So Sean respectful of your title O’ Rourke- interviewed the impeccable Enda on his own turf and entirely within the no substance agenda.
Enda of course had a bucket load of excuses about Denis O’ Brien and how he as CEO, of Ireland Ink [sic] wasn’t responsible for who was invited and who was not, he then waffled on about the household tax and the Fiscal treaty and he urged us all to put our differences aside and protect the generations to come by voting yes. On the jobs front he assured us that the entrepreneurs will deliver- and only as they can, the jobs will flow and the people will soon see the promised land. Sean reverential O’ Rourke didn’t ask him a hard question and that was it.
I wonder about all of this, and as I said recently in a tweet, that I always get the impression that Enda Kenny is speaking from a script rather than from the heart. It is like he is possessed by a Ghost writer who in a previous life wrote inspirational verse for gift cards. When one examines what Enda is actually saying, you come up with the awful realisation that he is saying nothing sustainable. His usual rant about entrepreneurs for example –what does this mean? Who are these people he refers to—are they waiting somewhere to be called to action.
Lets examine the substance, the Banks are still operating a credit embargo, and as the CEO admits there has been no progress on upward only rent review reforms. So let’s allow that Enda parts the Irish sea -and the entrepreneurial hordes are set free to create these illusive jobs, the conditions that Enda’s government have set for them are restrictive, and many would be slain and counted as statistics within the first two years, and any jobs created would drown with them. So what has this government achieved—well the austerity measures they introduced have deflated the economy, the measures they have put forward to aid their entrepreneurial crusaders are negligible- so what have we left ,more austerity because the country is spending more than it earns etc.
In summation Enda Kenny’s government should resign—they are a failure of epic proportions, they rely on one single element of economic stimulus that is to attract multi-national investment mainly from you know where? That’s right you have guessed correctly—this whilst providing some jobs only assists our economy rather than allows it to flourish.
Enda is redundant on plans outside of his Ghost writers brief—as leader of this state and not Ireland Ink [sick] he should be aggressively introducing action by the state in areas of job creation using the state owned sector in areas like forestry, fishing, agriculture and our natural resources, to assist in the growth of this economy.
State is the collective of all of us citizens—right now we need a CEO—like we need kick in the face, what we need is leadership-not lazy scripted words devoid of substance.
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
The Battle Rages But The War Has Still To Be Won [update]
The massive energy coming through the social media—where people are rallying against the household charge would be refreshing if it were not for the naivety exposed by those earnest lefties—that their fight against the might of neoliberalism is but a skirmish.
Boldly the protagonists wave the starry plough and throw insults and accusations against the suited politicians who represent an unaccountable—[at least in the short term] government. The government spokespeople who normally use RTE as their spin accomplice, dither and stutter to defend what they even admit is an unfair tax.
A neutral would be stupefied by it all the first question they might ask is why introduce an unfair tax—the ditherers would say because we have to, if we wish to keep services at a level that people are used to and expect. Yet this is in itself a complete lie—as funding can be sought and taken from a wide source of revenue options the fact that they have chosen the unfair tax route is simply down to ideology.
Here we go again ideology—now when am I going to learn that Irish politics has nothing to do with ideology—sure isn’t it all about fixing our road—or getting Johnny a job, but hey folks all you bearded lefties out there and I am referring to the women also, [joke] this is about ideology and if the only matter that is getting your fire lit is the household tax and a little bit of corruption then wait for the big stuff. At the moment you are only creating a skirmish in what is the undeclared World War three.
I am a lefty as well in case you are all worried and I am only growing a beard, but to my simple mind the fact that we have since the 50’s gifted our natural resources to private interests is the biggest shame and robbery of the Irish citizen—it is akin to every man woman and child in this country getting mugged. What do I hear about it very little—how would our angelic government ministers explain that to RTE -3000’ barrels of oil per day from the new Barryroe field-- and gas also, all going to private interests stealing from the citizens of this state. Surely that is a bigger issue than the household charge as to my mind it epitomises the corruption and the ruling class agenda in this country since the foundation of the state.
Getting back to World war three for a second—the ideological battles are raging right across the globe as we speak particularly within the Euro countries right now—whereby economic blackmail is used to subject citizens to the power of capitalism—and perhaps at its most sinister accuses the citizen of being wasteful and dishonest living above their means—and now these rigid fiscal measures are to be imposed not only as solution but also as retribution for wastefulness, for example those who responded to the phone call or letter from the bank offering them loans or properties abroad—etc.
Neoliberalism has many guises it propagates individualism at the expense of the collective—as the collective is bad for the select few but great for the citizen—however it holds all the aces and this is where the lefties should be careful about their strategy—midst all the screaming and shouting about the household charge, Fine Gael went up in the polls by 4 points. Why is this –the austerity saintly no-ideology party are getting more popular, yes you see because they own the spin machine and they have frightened the lives out of the middle-classes.
Throughout the history of our state—left wing collective type politics has been successful parked in the economic nonsense car-park—the idea of a country becoming as self sufficient as possible in relation to size and geography is sneered at, and branded as lunatic. Why? Because it means they might have to share not just wealth but power and democracy. Imagine an Ireland in control of its natural resources, as in fishing-agriculture-oil and gas, an Ireland where its citizens mattered and the infrastructural services to its citizens were paramount. The lefties should tread carefully and don’t inflate a skirmish into a battle, the war has just started, it will be long conflict, remember that this war is about ideology, as Brian Hayes said that income taxes may be increased if the household charge is defeated or deflated by non participation. Wow! Income tax increased like we might have to pay more according to our wealth and ability to pay—to provide for the very services his government are spoofing about, now we might have got him alright.
Boldly the protagonists wave the starry plough and throw insults and accusations against the suited politicians who represent an unaccountable—[at least in the short term] government. The government spokespeople who normally use RTE as their spin accomplice, dither and stutter to defend what they even admit is an unfair tax.
A neutral would be stupefied by it all the first question they might ask is why introduce an unfair tax—the ditherers would say because we have to, if we wish to keep services at a level that people are used to and expect. Yet this is in itself a complete lie—as funding can be sought and taken from a wide source of revenue options the fact that they have chosen the unfair tax route is simply down to ideology.
Here we go again ideology—now when am I going to learn that Irish politics has nothing to do with ideology—sure isn’t it all about fixing our road—or getting Johnny a job, but hey folks all you bearded lefties out there and I am referring to the women also, [joke] this is about ideology and if the only matter that is getting your fire lit is the household tax and a little bit of corruption then wait for the big stuff. At the moment you are only creating a skirmish in what is the undeclared World War three.
I am a lefty as well in case you are all worried and I am only growing a beard, but to my simple mind the fact that we have since the 50’s gifted our natural resources to private interests is the biggest shame and robbery of the Irish citizen—it is akin to every man woman and child in this country getting mugged. What do I hear about it very little—how would our angelic government ministers explain that to RTE -3000’ barrels of oil per day from the new Barryroe field-- and gas also, all going to private interests stealing from the citizens of this state. Surely that is a bigger issue than the household charge as to my mind it epitomises the corruption and the ruling class agenda in this country since the foundation of the state.
Getting back to World war three for a second—the ideological battles are raging right across the globe as we speak particularly within the Euro countries right now—whereby economic blackmail is used to subject citizens to the power of capitalism—and perhaps at its most sinister accuses the citizen of being wasteful and dishonest living above their means—and now these rigid fiscal measures are to be imposed not only as solution but also as retribution for wastefulness, for example those who responded to the phone call or letter from the bank offering them loans or properties abroad—etc.
Neoliberalism has many guises it propagates individualism at the expense of the collective—as the collective is bad for the select few but great for the citizen—however it holds all the aces and this is where the lefties should be careful about their strategy—midst all the screaming and shouting about the household charge, Fine Gael went up in the polls by 4 points. Why is this –the austerity saintly no-ideology party are getting more popular, yes you see because they own the spin machine and they have frightened the lives out of the middle-classes.
Throughout the history of our state—left wing collective type politics has been successful parked in the economic nonsense car-park—the idea of a country becoming as self sufficient as possible in relation to size and geography is sneered at, and branded as lunatic. Why? Because it means they might have to share not just wealth but power and democracy. Imagine an Ireland in control of its natural resources, as in fishing-agriculture-oil and gas, an Ireland where its citizens mattered and the infrastructural services to its citizens were paramount. The lefties should tread carefully and don’t inflate a skirmish into a battle, the war has just started, it will be long conflict, remember that this war is about ideology, as Brian Hayes said that income taxes may be increased if the household charge is defeated or deflated by non participation. Wow! Income tax increased like we might have to pay more according to our wealth and ability to pay—to provide for the very services his government are spoofing about, now we might have got him alright.
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Neo Liberalism The Truth
It is a grand little country after all—where our austerity preaching politicians are feted as celebrities and people like Lucinda Creighton and Paschal Donohue come across as angels such is their innocence and horror if there is a mention of ideology or in their case codology.
The name of the whole game here is spin—because spin works and spin is politics—Paschal in particular likes to lecture you and I Mr and Mrs Joe citizen—that we are broke and Government are being forced to borrow money just to pay our public service bills—if he is good form he will throw in a bit about the nurses and the doctors, and social protection is another favourite.
Somebody should tell Paschal that Ireland has a long history of borrowing money from the markets to pay all of these bills—and the crisis began when we just couldn’t go back to the well anymore. The funds that we are using now come at a much lower interest rate-but perhaps the real problems we face is in what we have chosen to do with these funds, and what caveats were attached to us receiving this money. Paschal of course has no ideology at all he is as much for the worker as he is for big business in fact nobody in this coalition will admit to having ideology be it left or right.
Lucinda Creighton is well able to speak but she tends to get lost down blind alleys and often looks completely perplexed like the questions she is fielding are grossly unfair and bare no relevance to her daily experience in Fine Gael—the no ideology party. The new buzz word from the government is to tell us little citizens that we will march out of this crisis and it is only a matter of time before Enda Kenny parts the Irish Sea and the hordes of neo-liberal suited entrepreneurs are going to save us from this politically imposed austerity.
Little Joe citizen is asked to believe this patent nonsense like we are about to accept an apology from an aggressor who has dropped an atomic bomb on us by mistake—and then we put them in charge of clearing up the mess.
Let us look at the spin and the way it works and how they are managing to keep the stench of neo-liberalism away from our sensitive noses. There was a very important statement made by Joan Burton earlier this year where she referred to social welfare fraud and how successful the reporting of people who were thought to be abusing the system—was to the increase in detection of welfare fraud—she of course is using fraudulent figures herself in this area—as Michael Taft has so graphically enlightened us the figure is near to 26 million euro rather than the 600 million the government are spoofing about. Why do they do this—well it is spin and it is purposely done to paint those on welfare as been central to the current mess we are in.
If that hurts wait for this, do the government ever publish figures as to how much money would be saved if we were to implement the following—means test children’s allowance—and college grants—and state old age pensions. We Joe citizen will accept a fair threshold of income and correlated assets and anybody above this reasonable line will be deemed to be in no need of these benefits, so the money saved I suspect billions would be redirected to the poor and the needy perhaps into educating disadvantaged children.
There is no chance of this happening for those people who are wealthy enough to do without these state payments basically control politics in Ireland and they are fundraisers for Fine Gael etc, one does not cut off one’s own foot but are people who claim benefits that they don’t need, are they not defrauding the state?
Michael Noonan stood up and said it and I could not believe what I was hearing he is offering a 30% tax break to certain high value foreign citizens to come and live here and create loads of magical jobs now before you stop laughing I tell you he was very serious about this fairy-tale from fairy land. We must understand that not only do neo-liberals not do state or sense of nationhood they profess that the state has no role in job creation. This of course just means that the state has no role but to make the conditions favourable for entrepreneurs and foreign high value entrepreneurs at that. This from the no-ideology party who are whipping the poor and the vulnerable with austerity.
The name of the whole game here is spin—because spin works and spin is politics—Paschal in particular likes to lecture you and I Mr and Mrs Joe citizen—that we are broke and Government are being forced to borrow money just to pay our public service bills—if he is good form he will throw in a bit about the nurses and the doctors, and social protection is another favourite.
Somebody should tell Paschal that Ireland has a long history of borrowing money from the markets to pay all of these bills—and the crisis began when we just couldn’t go back to the well anymore. The funds that we are using now come at a much lower interest rate-but perhaps the real problems we face is in what we have chosen to do with these funds, and what caveats were attached to us receiving this money. Paschal of course has no ideology at all he is as much for the worker as he is for big business in fact nobody in this coalition will admit to having ideology be it left or right.
Lucinda Creighton is well able to speak but she tends to get lost down blind alleys and often looks completely perplexed like the questions she is fielding are grossly unfair and bare no relevance to her daily experience in Fine Gael—the no ideology party. The new buzz word from the government is to tell us little citizens that we will march out of this crisis and it is only a matter of time before Enda Kenny parts the Irish Sea and the hordes of neo-liberal suited entrepreneurs are going to save us from this politically imposed austerity.
Little Joe citizen is asked to believe this patent nonsense like we are about to accept an apology from an aggressor who has dropped an atomic bomb on us by mistake—and then we put them in charge of clearing up the mess.
Let us look at the spin and the way it works and how they are managing to keep the stench of neo-liberalism away from our sensitive noses. There was a very important statement made by Joan Burton earlier this year where she referred to social welfare fraud and how successful the reporting of people who were thought to be abusing the system—was to the increase in detection of welfare fraud—she of course is using fraudulent figures herself in this area—as Michael Taft has so graphically enlightened us the figure is near to 26 million euro rather than the 600 million the government are spoofing about. Why do they do this—well it is spin and it is purposely done to paint those on welfare as been central to the current mess we are in.
If that hurts wait for this, do the government ever publish figures as to how much money would be saved if we were to implement the following—means test children’s allowance—and college grants—and state old age pensions. We Joe citizen will accept a fair threshold of income and correlated assets and anybody above this reasonable line will be deemed to be in no need of these benefits, so the money saved I suspect billions would be redirected to the poor and the needy perhaps into educating disadvantaged children.
There is no chance of this happening for those people who are wealthy enough to do without these state payments basically control politics in Ireland and they are fundraisers for Fine Gael etc, one does not cut off one’s own foot but are people who claim benefits that they don’t need, are they not defrauding the state?
Michael Noonan stood up and said it and I could not believe what I was hearing he is offering a 30% tax break to certain high value foreign citizens to come and live here and create loads of magical jobs now before you stop laughing I tell you he was very serious about this fairy-tale from fairy land. We must understand that not only do neo-liberals not do state or sense of nationhood they profess that the state has no role in job creation. This of course just means that the state has no role but to make the conditions favourable for entrepreneurs and foreign high value entrepreneurs at that. This from the no-ideology party who are whipping the poor and the vulnerable with austerity.
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