Sinn Féin Should Lead the Radical Left

Sinn Féin should take a close look at the Meath East by-election. It was normal bland government stuff—the kind of thing the party hacks do in their sleep. It is a marvelous system where it is entirely possible they might get a Monkey elected, as long as it wore the old FG rosette. Those earnest radicals in SF should learn from the masters of spin and organisation. You see where the likes of FG and FF have the edge—is in their complete lack of respect for the electorate. These seasoned cynics know for a fact the electorate are politically inept—bland, and in many cases really scared. They know because they run the systems that educate the voters—many are the products of both religious and secular propaganda.

So when FG put forward the daughter of the tragic Shane Mc Entee—they knew it was a sure thing. The girl has no political pedigree; she is not radical even in the right of centre model. In real terms she is a number and she will adorn the back benches voting for or against any legislation as instructed. The old FG hacks will spout every so often as to how informed our electorate are—but I am afraid this is just spin so as to make really dumb people come across as intelligent.

Of course not all people who voted for the FG token candidate are dumb—many of the party faithful know about the numbers game, and they also know how to control society and protect the elite. But to succeed they need the blind assistance of the dumb electorate and they certainly got that.

Now where does Sinn Féin come in to all of this? Well rough figures suggest the poll was just 30% of the electorate which if correct tells us that 70% of those eligible to vote didn’t! Now as the boring political pundits remind us by-elections have a tradition of low turn outs. The question I am asking is why 70% of the electorate didn’t vote. Obviously some people were indisposed others may have been worried by the weather conditions and so on. Many people are apathetic to politics and the world around them save for what they can consume, others genuinely feel that the alternatives offered by the opposition parties are not credible.

Sinn Féin came third in the poll but if they had managed to steal some of the dissident vote they may have taken the seat. Now I say that with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek as I am no believer in our democratic system because basically it isn’t democratic, also if Sinn Féin add a number to the back benches it is just a pointless as FG.
However the main point that I make is an ideological one, yes that word again for those who love blandism they hate to hear it. With the centre right Labour party in disarray it is surely time for Sinn Féin to give the Irish people a real choice.

Do the Irish people need another left of centre party fighting for it citizens in the Dáil—or is it time for some leftist radicalism based on the rights and needs of the citizen. Yes they will run the risk of alienating some of their floating support but in my estimation they will gather huge chunks of the disenfranchised vote that is desperately seeking representation.

A radical Sinn Féin could restore democracy to the citizen and return the stolen natural resources to their rightful owners. With state intervention there would be massive job creation and improved economic growth—with all citizens paying a just amount of income tax. Sinn Féin could ensure that our Corporation Tax [lowest in EU] at 12.5% is actually paid to our citizens.
You see folks I deal in idealism and ideology—the right wing parties refer to this as 'Cloud Cuckoo land'—have a good look at the land they have created. Come on Sinn Féin do the right thing.

Scars of Ideology

There are times when one feels a deep sense of despair—and perhaps it is the movement from rural to urban that awakens it within me. You see in the little place where I live the clocks stopped years ago in many ways. It stopped in people’s view of society and of themselves—these people hold conservative values and change of any sort makes them uncomfortable. From the outside it appears idyllic. When I moved to Courtmacsherry in 2006 I was knocked out by the physical beauty—and the mild mannered no hurry and sure how bad attitude of the locals.

Seven years later everything looks the same but when one scratches the surface one finds that the skin is raw underneath. Yes unlike on my last visit to Dublin people are not rushing around aimlessly to fast food joints. There are no loud beeping of horns and banging fists on car bonnets. We have no neoliberal altars such as occupy the once beautiful Carrickmines valley.

Yet we do have our sores. In 2006 these houses sprung up in a field beside the estate where I rented a cottage. I had come to Courtmacsherry to write my first novel Viareggio. You could say these houses were thrown up—I passed by each day on my walk and what was an empty field soon filled with ordinary houses selling at exorbitant prices.

The houses were of course snapped up. Young upwardly mobile couples—and single people investing bought them up at rapid rate. Of course today all of these houses save for a few that were designated for social housing are in negative equity. Talking to local business people they lament the whole sad process.

This was once a thriving little resort—trains full of day trippers came from Cork city every summer Sunday in the fifties. People have holiday homes and caravans here—children have fond memories of golden summers spent by the sea. Mothers would arrive with their kids whilst husbands worked and drove down for weekends.

The West Cork railway was shut down in 1961---afterwards the ships that used unload coal and cement stopped sailing up the estuary. The current winter population of Courtmacsherry is just over 200. The local business people had placed their hopes on the success of the aforementioned estate. With many of the residents unable to pay mortgages and with many out of work, there is no money left to be spent down the main street. One owner confided in me that local politicians said at the time the building of these houses would resurrect commerce in the village.

It is a sad sight indeed to walk into your local friendly bar for a quiet pint and chat—only to find that there is just the proprietor and oneself.
So the small village of Courtmacsherry is hurting too. Many will look at the property bubble and the greed values imposed by vested interests as the reason for the downturn. Yes it is true many people borrowed money that in hindsight they could never afford to repay. Others are victims of redundancy from failed businesses. Many are self employed trades’ people who no longer have a market as money drains from the system.

Recently whilst walking by our small harbour I noticed a couple of fishing boats alongside—one was in good repair but I would be fearful of going to sea in the other one. It struck me the madness that has gripped our society. This is the natural industry for a small seaside village—with access to the Atlantic Ocean. Yet we as a citizenry have not instructed our representatives to create a proper indigenous fishing industry. Just think of the amount of jobs proper investment would create—jobs created by the state for the good of its citizens. The spin offs into food processing, and marketing would provide more jobs. Money would come back into the economy and the local businesses would thrive on the backs of secure employment.

Let us remember our government only create the conditions to enable job creation—they don’t actually create jobs. Why is this? Don’t they want to create Irish industry for our citizens or is that too socialist or leftist for them? They prefer the over reliance on American multinationals who come and go on a whim –and have no intrinsic loyalty to the state. They don’t even pay the correct low rate of corporation tax—bullies as they might leave [fright.]
I would like to dedicate this piece to all of those who swallowed the neoliberal line back in 2006, about property and using houses as investments—and I plead with them to examine this ideology that has doomed them and this nation.

The Irish Empire Says Sorry

FG are good students. They attended their daily lectures with zeal. The Americanisation of our politics is almost complete. We live in a system that has no correlation with truth or reality. Enda Kenny can engage the electorate with an academy award winning speech. His empty words written by a scriptwriter and most likely edited by a barrister. At no stage in his emotional tirade did he admit to any liability on the part of the state. Nor did he mention how compensation to the Magdalene women might be calculated?

A long time ago I formulated the thought of Mr. and Mrs. Joe average nodding to each other sitting by the fire. They are impressed with things like the mention of Euros’ and the ECB. Words like democracy and contagion modern political buzz words that are meaningless. They are not amused however by dirty words like Sinn Féin—or social justice. These people have been brainwashed into acceptance. The ideology that led us to ruin will somehow save us—we will in turn do just about enough to return to the international gambling table.

So Enda has learned from the Empirical political leadership in America—politics is about spin and modern communication means that image is everything.

Our Taoiseach apologised on behalf of the state. Admitting that the state colluded with the Roman Catholic Church in detaining women and girls illegally from 1922—to 1996. The fact that these women and girls were from impoverished backgrounds didn’t warrant a mention. His hammed up emotional outburst was silly and unwarranted. He holds the highest political role in the state so one expects him to handle matters of this nature with dignity.

Who was actually to blame for the torture of these women? Was it the Catholic Church and the Irish State—who was the Taoiseach apologising for? As an Irish citizen I am totally innocent. I was a child up to 1976 and after that I had no idea that such places existed. I am sure there are many people like me. Were the poor citizens who inherited the class system from 1922 to blame as they didn’t rise up against their betters –those who controlled their economic and spiritual lives with such savagery? The ordinary citizen cannot be blamed as they were as put upon as the poor women and girls incarcerated in the laundries.

In the final analysis it was the well off and the rich who were responsible. In collusion with their high powered Catholic allies. They inflicted this concentration camp style torture on the women and girls whose only crime was poverty. So we get this patronising apology from the leader of FG. This party that represents the middle and upper classes the practitioners of neoliberal ideology. They apologise on behalf of us the citizenry as if somehow we were responsible. I am convinced that the election of June 1922 that gave these people their mandate was carried by this same collusion between our power brokers. Add in the British and threats of reinvasion—and one can see the pressure placed on the electorate at the time.

The shame of all of this –is in the absence of a true Irish State one that was based on equality, and respected and took care of all its citizens –not just the wealthy.
Enda Kenny can apologise all he wants—he can try to reinvent the facts all he likes. But the truth will out eventually and no amount of voice wobbles will stop it.

Vincent Brownes PR man

The Tonight with Vincent Browne is a very popular show. Along with its television audience it is a big hit on twitter. Tweeters from all persuasions comment on their timelines about Vincent’s antics. Many also comment on his guests and are not afraid to praise or criticise. Some I know await gleefully in the hope that Vincent will tear into some hapless political hack. It seems to raise the animal in all of us to see some jumped up asshole in a suit—get their grilling from prosecutor Vincent. He doesn’t spare women either. I am convinced that Mary Hanifin lost her seat in Dun Laoghaire following her appearance on the show.

So it is particularly galling that Vincent has allowed the PR consultant make the most outrageous comments on his show. Not just once has our PR –hero made the same comments but twice. On neither occasion did Vincent correct him. Tell him to explain himself or ask him to retract his statement. No on both occasions he allowed our hero to spout his sick message with impunity. One wonders does Vincent secretly agree with him.

Like abortion prostitution is a divisive issue in Irish society. In fact anything to do with sexual morality and female reproduction is best not discussed. We have a whole load of ‘I don’t want to know,’ attitude. This leaves prostitution in the hands of criminals and abortion is dealt with by our heathen neighbours in the UK. An ideal solution for a state that has become hypocrisy instead of democracy. If we ignore it then it will disappear go away, ’anyway I don’t want to discuss these awful things.’

But our PR man does. Vincent interviewed a prostitute who had suffered terribly at the hands of her partner. He pimped her and lived off of her earnings. She actually was living proof as to why legalisation is needed. But Vincent and the Tonight show concentrated on the abuse and the sleaze, rather than seek a solution. One of his guests repeatedly asked him to view the German model over the Swedish law, [which criminalises the buyers of sex. In Germany many brothels are legal and workers have natural rights under the law. The buyers of sex are not criminalised.] Vincent ignored him concentrating on the criminality—and on the terminology used by the former prostitute to describe her clients.

There is of course the pertinent question. Why do people buy sex? Men mostly—some are married. I presume many have girlfriends’. There are those who are lonely depressed –disabled—it seems the buyers of sex come from all walks of life. There is no prejudice to age or social class, save the more comfortable can afford the charges.

But not only does our PR man [who was interviewed the following night after our prostitute] want to criminalise the buyers of sex. For the second time on the Tonight show he referred to such people as rapists. The first occasion he stated that visiting a brothel and paying for sex is akin to paying someone to rape their daughter. The second time he said that it was paying someone to rape a girl who was trafficked.
Now our PR man must be accusing the German government of collusion in this crime and any other jurisdictions that has legal brothels.

Of course Mr. PR, has the right to an opinion, but to say what he said twice on Vincent Browne and go unchallenged is amazing. Like Wilde reminded us that once is forgivable but twice? So far I haven’t seen any debate of this issue that even pretends to be balanced. It is a subject for the hysterical that is for sure. It pulls the right wingers from closed drawers. It leaves left wingers and liberals slightly embarrassed on how they could hold a view on such a thorny issue. I think the same dark blanket surrounds paedophilia and the true causes of it. The core issue is never examined. We wish for excuses rather than face up to the damn truth. This leaves the door wide open for serious freaks like our PR consultant. This reminds me that his previous title was as a member of some right wing think tank. Pity he didn’t stay in it, like a goldfish opening and closing his mouth. But we hear nothing.

Prostitution has always been with us. It will be with us forever. Make it safe legalise and control it—don’t allow the criminals run it.

The Truth about Irelands Sex Industry

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I have very little time for FG. They are hiding behind an ideology that even many within their ranks fail to understand. The have sucked the labour party into their lair. One such purveyor of ideological nonsense is Alan Shatter. I cringe when he appears on RTE news spouting government propaganda. Yet some of us have long memories. Whilst the rejuvenated FF, try to spin the working classes. I remember a time when they vehemently opposed divorce and sided with the now discredited Catholic Church on issues of morality. Paradoxically I now place hope in Alan Shatter, as in that moral silly season he was brave about divorce and personal morality. More recently he spoke in the daíl regarding abortion. He threw a pipe bomb into the bland and fearful stance taken by FG on the issue. I admire him for that.

Now he has to consider legislation in relation to the Irish sex industry. This is another hangover from the Catholic dictatorship, and we have failed to regulate for it. Worryingly some county and city councils have voted to petition the minister. They want to adopt the Swedish model which criminalises those who buy sex. This is all high and mighty but it is totally flawed. This model came to be through the endeavours of some ultra feminist members of the Swedish parliament. It has changed the industry I am not denying that. But it has also failed miserably in that it has driven the industry underground. What was once under control is no longer. The clear message from the Swedish experience is that prostitution will always be with us. The question is how do we as a society deal with it?

We have other choices. We can look at the German model. The sex industry in Germany is controlled by the state. Those that choose to work in the industry are treated like any worker. They pay taxes and have access to healthcare. There is no question of forced prostitution or human trafficking. The people who use the sex industry, i.e.- those who buy sex—are not criminalised. The system works very well. It provides a safe working environment for sex workers and for their clients.

In Ireland like in so many areas of personal morality we tend to leave the sex industry to the sleaze mongers. This inherited moral void is passed down through generations of moral cowardice. The Catholic Church set out our morality for us at the foundation of the state. We must always be outwardly pure—we export or abortion problem and hide our prostitution issue. This moral dictate came from an organisation that with government collusion systemically raped boys and girls and covered it up.

But let us not lay all of the blame for this at the door of the Catholic Church. We the citizens have failed to act on this also. It is akin to our attitude on drug abuse—let us criminalise all that we find objectionable and distasteful. Why do we choose to do this? Is it easier for us to face each other in the knowledge that we don’t have things like abortion and prostitution in Ireland? But we do—we send thousands of women abroad for abortions every year. Prostitution is rampant in every city and large town in Ireland. Yet it is in the hands of criminals. The people who work in the industry are unprotected against ruthless pimps. Young girls are trafficked from foreign countries to work in these seedy and dangerous back street brothels. It is an appalling system which only serves the criminal. TV 3 make silly documentaries and the Sunday World write patronising titillating muck about it.

The other aspect in all of this is the question of sexuality. Our attitudes to sex and what it means to us as individuals and as a society. Do we adopt the Catholic model and regard sex as a procreational device shamefully handed down by God. Or do we see sex and sexuality as a holistic gift? How does a society decide who should engage in sexual activity and who should not. Obviously we try to protect minors and quite rightly we associate active sexuality with maturity. But where does society’s intervention stop. Are we implicitly saying that sexual relations can only happen between two consenting adults? Does this not exclude people from enjoying sex like those without regular partners? Are people with disabilities not entitled to have sex? Let us remind ourselves that not a million years ago people were told to confine sexual activity to marriage. Even then they were denied contraception and vital information regarding reproduction—all in an effort to produce more Catholics.

Alan Shatter has a problem. We are still a conservative and closed society. Politicians are afraid of reactionary Ireland. The idea of legalising and controlling our sex industry is an appalling one to many. They would prefer it seems to leave it with the criminals. Then they can righteously refer to prostitution as dirty and unclean. TV3 can continue with their undercover sensationalism. The Sunday world can continue to titillate and patronise. The men and women who buy sex can continue to wander the dark alleys in search of gratification. Many of these people are isolated from the happy safe world most of us inhabit. Some are locked in loveless marriages others are single. Many have disabilities others suffer from mental illness. There are those also who just seek pleasure and comfort. How can a person in Hamburg legally go to a brothel? Pay for a sexual encounter with a person who is safe—well paid and is voluntarily doing their work? The government tax this encounter.

Yet in Ireland a person doing the same thing is taking their chances with their health. The person offering the sex may be forced into the situation. The profit goes to a sleazy pimp and who knows what goes on with drugs and violence associated with the whole process. I think people should have a basic human right to pay for sex if they need to. It is obvious that Alan Shatter will have his hands tied by the moral hacks.
Now they are proposing to criminalise those isolated people who buy sex—and in doing so will make an already dangerous business even worse.

The End

How did the neoliberals sell the citizen the concept of private health insurance? It is for me the biggest trick of all. I know deep down how it worked. It was because the people were frightened. If people are frightened like sheep they will run off the cliff. You see if you underfund something and make it damned uncomfortable for folk, they will be be fearful of it. Create long waiting lists poor facilities and wards that are crowded. That is how it is done.

Once you have private health insurance then you get private hospitals of course. Once again this serves the frightened. Irish society has been divided since the foundation of the state. We have a small underclass, and a large working class. In modern times we have a growing middle-class. This in reality is manufactured or should I say was manufactured by lending and access to credit. There are of course other factors also such as citizens investing in education.

Yet as the state evolved so did its divisions. Thus the concept of private medicine. Basically a state that operates a two tiered health service is admitting that it has ideologically failed its citizens. The government is refusing ideologically to treat it citizens on an equitable basis. To do this the state would have to demand much higher income tax, and divide the premium to care for its people. But the ideological choice was to create mayhem in the public health service, whilst the private sector prospered.

Even now mid-recession the advertisments for private health cover are prevelant. We have stupid and poorly conceived adverts telling us that without VHI or Laya healthcare you are screwed if you get ill. Often these adverts are targeted towards young mothers with small children. The message is clear if you dont have a good plan you are not a good Mum?

Recently I had cause to visit one of our flagship private Dublin hospitals with an elderly relative. I was amazed, this place was like a hotel. Beautifully done airy with lots of space. The wards were super modern and the nursing staff friendly and efficent. I commented on this to a good friend whom has worked at the coalface in the public system for over twenty five years. He told me that the public system was ready to burst at the seams. There is a permanent shortage of beds, and of nursing staff and supporting care workers.

I reflected on my observation that the private sector was awash with nurses who appeared to have alot of time on their hands. The system was peaceful and calm. So how did this happen. Why is the state funded system in such disarray? Most consultants work between the two systems, so the level of patient care is not in question. What is questionable however is the privacy and comfort of patients. Also the length of time it takes to get a diagnosis through the public system.

There is something rotten with an ideology that divides its citizens on the grounds of ability to pay. It makes a mockery of the idea of citizenism and statehood. This particular private hospital is a shrine to neoliberalism and the middle-class greed and fear as induced by the celtic tiger.
I await the citizens roar to disturb what is a very silent place.

Citizenism

It is the worst of times one can say so with impunity. There are times when a person could feel they have woken from a bad dream. I try to engage my business honestly each day. As a writer of fiction I can run and hide in my stories. I can wallow in the imperfections of my characters. Sometimes I even seek solace with them—marvelling at their heroics or their restrained emotions.

Yet it extremely difficult to get away from the news. The spin—the billion euro radio, where small people rattle off sums with an air of superiority. It is like they are saying ‘I mean billions like, I actually said billions not millions!’ The spin continues, and life but not as we knew it goes on.

Politics is a funny business. Politicians are very funny individuals especially within the framework of what we would like to term our democracy. FG for example has
around 35,000 members. This from a population of 4.5 million. Labour would have far less than this. Yet we charged them to battle for our economy free us citizens from bank debt—and create a universal health plan. None of these things has happened. Mainly for ideological reasons in FG. For example the government chose to pay unsecured bondholders.

If you read up on FG they are referred to as right of centre—or Christian democrats whatever that means? But both FG and FF their ideological brothers have stripped this state, and namely you and I the citizen of our natural resources. So when they say that the country is broke and that we must tighten our belts, they are in fact lying. This country is not broke? It struggles because the citizen has no access to his and her assets. They have destroyed our fishing industry which is larger in area than our land mass itself. They have given away our oil and gas and other valuable resources to their friends in high places.

There are many other areas where we as citizens have been robbed. There is a huge potential in forestry and agricultural food processing. But the state sits back and does nought, threatening people with disabilities and bus passes. You see fellow citizens we don’t have a state any longer. We have a government that is unrepresentative of the citizen. It is choked by the outdated and undemocratic whip system. It is served by radio and television and newspapers that serve its interests and propaganda.

One can argue in these blogs for a miraculous conversion to socialism or indeed social justice. But the spin doctors pour boiling water on any ideologies save for neoliberal. Does anyone remember the series of silly speeches made by Enda Kenny? The man was demented—he spoke at length about job creation, and how the entrepreneur was standing by to save the day. I wrote at the time that I couldn’t wait for Enda to part the Irish sea and I would watch in awe as the entrepreneurial hordes marched on us with their jobs. They didn’t and Enda was lying as usual.

This government is anti state. They are bereft of policy. Only state intervention will create the jobs we need in sufficient numbers to refloat our economy. But how can a state intervene if we don’t have a state, but only government. Using the natural resources I have listed above and investing in indigenous projects is the way to job creation. The government I presume deep down know this so what is holding them back. The IMF—or the ECB—I seriously doubt it. What is holding them back is their fascist like adherence to a failed ideology. There is no room for citizenship or state within the confines of neoliberal thinking. So how can a government so slavishly ruled by this philosophy do the right thing by the very citizens they have no respect for?

There will be another general election but it may be a few years away yet. They bank on the notion that their ideology is in vogue. The opposition is more of the same well FF anyhow. The social democrats in the Labour party are proven worms, spineless and traitors to their fellow citizens. So we are left with capitalism and the unrealistic unworkable, against human nature socialism. Well how about a good dose of Irish citizenism—something new and very radical.