News
New breed of politicians thinks it can get away with anything!
IN the old days, when politicos came seeking our vote, we were well aware that much of what they said was unbelievable, cant, humbug and baloney.
For that reason we never labelled them ‘liars.’ That would be going too far – so we were quite prepared to share their euphemistic make-believe world. Consequently, whenever we cried ‘shame’ at their irresponsible actions, we did so out of a sense of good-humoured skepticism. We were conscious of a certain ethical elasticity that existed between the politico and the punter.
But, Biffo and his crew changed all that. They’ve created a new breed of politico: the cynic. He’s the guy who doesn’t give a damm, and says as much! Hence, our fury at the FF and Green vote of confidence in O’Dea and the ‘for he’s a jolly good fellow’ response to Sargent’s meddling in a court case.
GRACE OF GOD
Having got away with the expenses scandals, the bloated salaries scandal, the FÁS scandal, the jobs for the boys scandal, the HSE scandal, the bank scandal, the property speculator scandal, the Dail committee scandal, the ‘sharing of the economic pain / we’re all in this together’ scandal, the cut-backs scandal, the bashing of the public service scandal, they now think they can get away with anything. Indeed, it was only by the grace of God that O’Dea, having been backed four square by the entire government, did not get away with his despicable line that he was the ‘real victim’ in the brothel scandal.
The ‘meeja’ has since acknowledged that it was the unelected Green senator, Dan Boyle, who was responsible for cutting the tripes (albeit unwittingly) out of O’Dea. Boyle, who represents nobody, mused on a teenage website that something was not quite right with the Defence Minister’s sordid antics.
The Greenie’s public conscience-wrestling was wrongly interpreted as a warning that the party would implode because of the scandal, but it was enough to put the wind up Gormley who, in turn, convinced Boss Biffo that they should pull the plug on O’Dea. Otherwise, Gormley argued, there literally would be no Green Party, in government or out of government.
So, the politicos cynically presented the O’Dea sacking as a principled act when it was nothing of the sort, and neither was the Sargent resignation. In fact, the resignations of the two ministers were the worst examples of mock-heroics and had little to do with bending to public opinion or wanting to maintain a high standard of probity.
Political expediency compelled them to resign their ministries. Nothing else.
LIKE RABBITS
There was no courage or nobility. The two were caught like rabbits in the beam of a flash lamp and probably would have brazened it out were it not for fear of collapsing the government.
Cynicism won the day, but then, that was inevitable because cynicism has always been at the heart of the jaded negativity and self-interest espoused by the FF-Green coalition.
However, the problem now facing the punter is that, whereas in the past, we tolerated with amusement the individual cynic who came looking for our vote, it’s a different matter when the entire institution to which the politico belongs oozes cynicism.
Cynicism on a grand scale indicates that Irish politics is on its way to becoming meaningless. If the Taoiseach can offer nothing as a way out of a situation in which he represents the voice of sarcastic doubt and hopelessness, how can he rebuild public trust in the political process and in the institution of government?
TOPSY-TURVY ETHICS
Biffo has moulded an Ireland that contains a reversal of the process in which scorn was expressed. In the past, the punter took a mocking approach to politics. Now it’s the other way round: cynicism is coming from the top down.
All of which creates a fundamental ethical problem: if our lawmakers no longer respect the public that elects them, how can we, the public, respect the lawmakers? And, if we can no longer respect the lawmakers, how can we respect the laws they make?
OK, so the argument goes, we’ll wait for the general election to clean out the Biffo gang. That might restore public confidence in government. But, and here’s the rub, will we not be replacing Tweedledum with Tweedledee?
Or, to paraphrase Michael Moore, ‘the lesser evil is still evil.’ What a prospect confronts the battered Kathleen Mavourneen!
SIGN OF THE TIMES?
Here’s a strange one: Tucked away in an inside page of the Irish Examiner was the chilling news that TCH recorded a pre-tax loss of €3.5 million and ‘fundamental reorganisation’ costs of €7.75m in 2008.
Staff have now been asked to agree to a 12-month moratorium on company pension contributions, a pay freeze, cuts to mileage and subsistence expenses and a change to shift work schedules. Wow! Cuts to mileage!
A LITTLE LEARNIN’
Batt O’Keefe, that political kite-flier ‘par excellence’ (Return of Fees, Abolition of NUI, Extra Points for Maths, Dumbing Down of Leaving Cert, etc., etc.) recently got up the nostrils of his former butties in the Regional Tech (now CIT), where he once worked as a humble teacher.
Some lecturers in institutes of technology, he disclosed, were working only four hours a week lecturing students. He knew that because ‘high-profile academics’ had told him so. (Were the ‘high profile academics’ from the Reege, one wonders?). The situation, he warned, would have to change.
Now, we all know that pointy-heads are paid to think, not necessarily to teach hard sums to grotty scrotes. It’s a fact that Batto well knows. After all, during his time as lecturer at Cork’s Regional Technical College, he was renowned for having the best sales record in the country as a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman.
In fact he’s still retained an affection for the auld Encyclopedia Britannica and his Department pays the company an annual fee of €450,000 to allow schools use their online resources.
The INTO, however isn’t too impressed. One in three schools has to rely on satellite broadband, which is so slow that teachers don’t use it. On top of that, teachers are barred from gaining access to the material on their home computers if they want to prepare classes involving the use of the Encyclopedia.
And then, to really clinch the debacle, Encyclopedia Britannia’s version of the Civil War in Ireland was hilariously wrong.
Sometimes, it seems Batto can’t win!