Last week we had much-heralded Government response to the economic crisis that is engulfing the country like one of those frightening summer gorse fires you see in Australia or America.
Solemn–faced ministers gathered around their leader, Brian Cowen, at a press conference to announce what were predicted to be dramatic solutions to dramatic problems. However, as the farce got under way it was clear to see that the Government was tackling the blazing fires with a garden hose.
Savings of €440 million were projected for the rest of the year. This is a mere drop in the ocean relative to what is needed to combat the doomsday scenario facing the country.
Minister of Finance, Brian Lenehan, appeared inept and unsure when probing questions were asked of the small detail of such savings in the over-hyped plan.
In fact, it was a cobbled together exercise by the Government designed to show that it was doing something in the meltdown facing us. It was non-specific, clouded with the veneer of aspiration rather than expectancy. When forensically examined by economists, the plan failed to meet national school arithmetic standards in that it contained fatal miscalculations.
What hope have we as a nation if this display incompetence is a yardstick to measure future Government action to tackle the real problems? Two days after presenting the ‘great solution’, they all went on their summer holidays until the end of September. What a great little country we are.
Once again, the elephant in the room was ignored even though he was having a piss in the corner. The Minister bleated bland and non-committed assertions regarding public service pay and costs. It was the sound of the lambs surrendering to the foxes.
Bertie Ahern’s legacy lingers with a whiff of the unpleasant stuff. The government are once again capitulating to the public service unions. We said her last week that with at least 300,000 staff, the public service is pulling the economy down to the depths of the ocean. Unless such drastic action is taken, there is no way that we will survive this crisis.
Pluck up some courage and tackle the public service millstone now, for Gods sake!
The government Quangos should be next on the list for dismantling. There are so many mini-organizations operating within Government that one would think the country had a population of 20 million. Quangos are NGOs that make reports on reports and advise the advisors on what to advise the advisors to the government.
It is nothing short of a maze of waste costing the state hundreds of millions each year. Inevitably, these organizations are peppered with people affiliated to the Fianna Fail party. Egos abound within these miniature think tanks and the level of hot air released by them would blow a hole in the ozone layer, if there were not one there already.
Get rid of them now! Send them back to the real world.
The tribunals of enquiry into So Many Things That One Forgets now have cost over a billion and have meandered on for over a decade.
They have investigated the great, the good and the bad. They will arrive at the same conclusion that the public arrived weeks after they started – that corruption exists in public and private life in Ireland.
We have known this for years before these stage shows kicked off. The lawyers have fleeced the Exchequer of vast sums of money representing in many cases the most peripheral of figures. No sooner was a witness summoned than he sought at the taxpayer’s expense an army of lawyers to represent him or her. The tribunals became a real life version of the Dublin Theatre Festival. When it is all over, nobody will suffer. Except, of course, the ordinary folk who foot the bill for the €2,000 per day lawyers.
Stop it all now and let common sense prevail!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
RAINY DAYS AND NO SAVINGS
Who is laughing now? Not us, for sure. We take no pleasure therefore in saying we told you so. A long time ago. There is point gloating at the condemned man when you are next in line. It is a short-lived and empty pleasure.
For the last fifteen years, we have experienced a boom in Ireland. We all knew it had to end but nobody seems to have told the Government. For the last two years, all those who had a vested interest in a whole range of sectors that stood to lose out if we crashed peddled the mythical soft landing scenario.
A cursory look at the history of global economics would have yielded the information that cycles are boom and bust. An up and down graph that provides no mercy. This is the real world folks, not Disney. Stories of soft landings were suitable tales to get the children asleep at night.
We can spend all day apportioning blame. Best confine it to a couple of paragraphs and then look for a solution or some mitigating event that would help this little island.
The blame lies with Bertie Ahern’s Fianna Fail led Government. You can throw in greedy banks and various financial engineering thugs, but they are simply support acts.
Bertie blew the good times in so many ways. Bending his arse to the unions on a permanent basis was an important factor that cost billions.
Wanton and criminal waste of the river of taxpayer’s money flowing into the coffers from all sectors, especially property, are the real reason why we are in the mess that shows a €3 billion hole in Government budgets.
The Government is the keeper of the Irish family of four million people. In olden days the thrifty Irish mother, the Finance Minister of the family, put the spare shillings away when there was an excess in income. She would not say anything about it, but it would be there come the day that the need arose, as it always would.
Similarly, in modern times, a potato farmer achieving a bumper yield and price this year, will reserve a percentage aside because he knows that for every two good years of returns, he will have one bad one. He prudently predicts the cycle that inevitably will happen and plans for the shortfall.
Bertie Ahern would make a poor-quality housewife and farmer. He is the reason that we have nothing under the mattress for events outside our control. A blight has attacked world economic and finance crops. Not our fault, of course, but we suffer nonetheless.
What to do?
It will be cuts, cuts, cuts, of course. A gold-plated Chubb for the empty stable door.
We agree there has to be cuts. Any business trying to survive a recession will implement cuts in all areas. Workers will lose their jobs. Investment in plant and equipment will be put on hold. Expenses will be hacked in large and small factories and businesses.
The Government is the largest employer and business in Ireland. It employs 310,000 people on inflated salaries and expenses. This figure doubled in the last ten years. The economic boom in Ireland required the increase in public service jobs, the Government told us.
Well the boom is over. Get rid of them! 150,000 extra people on the dole are a huge cost to the Exchequer, will be the cry. Still, a lot cheaper than employing them to do nothing! (Unfortunately, for us, whilst the unions were buggering Bertie, they managed simultaneously to get him to sign a “job for life” clause so the above probably won’t work.)
The next thing to be done is go out and borrow to finish our infrastructure plans. Do not put these on hold. They offer the obvious benefits of what they were designed to do and they keep the construction industry from complete meltdown in the interim. Future generations will thank us in hindsight if we have the balls to do this.
Reform the stamp duty fiasco. Cowen and co are taking any money in from it now. The cash cow has gone dry so what is there to lose by cutting it drastically and maybe kick start the property market.
Then, force the banks to lend money to first time buyers. The arch-villains in the worldwide financial meltdown now shit in their drawers every time a couple come looking for a measly mortgage. Two years ago, a drug user from Nigeria would get 120% from the bank nearest the port he landed. So give them a Pampers adult nappy and let them lend and lend. The nappy can be in the form of a guarantee to the banks that protects a certain amount of their exposure. No different from Mum and Dad being guarantor for their kids first loan. Just go and do it Cowen! Think outside the box for once. These few measures along with hundreds of other creative ideas are needed now to keep the show on the road.
More thrifty ideas next week. Just have to call the mother and my old friend the spud farmer.
For the last fifteen years, we have experienced a boom in Ireland. We all knew it had to end but nobody seems to have told the Government. For the last two years, all those who had a vested interest in a whole range of sectors that stood to lose out if we crashed peddled the mythical soft landing scenario.
A cursory look at the history of global economics would have yielded the information that cycles are boom and bust. An up and down graph that provides no mercy. This is the real world folks, not Disney. Stories of soft landings were suitable tales to get the children asleep at night.
We can spend all day apportioning blame. Best confine it to a couple of paragraphs and then look for a solution or some mitigating event that would help this little island.
The blame lies with Bertie Ahern’s Fianna Fail led Government. You can throw in greedy banks and various financial engineering thugs, but they are simply support acts.
Bertie blew the good times in so many ways. Bending his arse to the unions on a permanent basis was an important factor that cost billions.
Wanton and criminal waste of the river of taxpayer’s money flowing into the coffers from all sectors, especially property, are the real reason why we are in the mess that shows a €3 billion hole in Government budgets.
The Government is the keeper of the Irish family of four million people. In olden days the thrifty Irish mother, the Finance Minister of the family, put the spare shillings away when there was an excess in income. She would not say anything about it, but it would be there come the day that the need arose, as it always would.
Similarly, in modern times, a potato farmer achieving a bumper yield and price this year, will reserve a percentage aside because he knows that for every two good years of returns, he will have one bad one. He prudently predicts the cycle that inevitably will happen and plans for the shortfall.
Bertie Ahern would make a poor-quality housewife and farmer. He is the reason that we have nothing under the mattress for events outside our control. A blight has attacked world economic and finance crops. Not our fault, of course, but we suffer nonetheless.
What to do?
It will be cuts, cuts, cuts, of course. A gold-plated Chubb for the empty stable door.
We agree there has to be cuts. Any business trying to survive a recession will implement cuts in all areas. Workers will lose their jobs. Investment in plant and equipment will be put on hold. Expenses will be hacked in large and small factories and businesses.
The Government is the largest employer and business in Ireland. It employs 310,000 people on inflated salaries and expenses. This figure doubled in the last ten years. The economic boom in Ireland required the increase in public service jobs, the Government told us.
Well the boom is over. Get rid of them! 150,000 extra people on the dole are a huge cost to the Exchequer, will be the cry. Still, a lot cheaper than employing them to do nothing! (Unfortunately, for us, whilst the unions were buggering Bertie, they managed simultaneously to get him to sign a “job for life” clause so the above probably won’t work.)
The next thing to be done is go out and borrow to finish our infrastructure plans. Do not put these on hold. They offer the obvious benefits of what they were designed to do and they keep the construction industry from complete meltdown in the interim. Future generations will thank us in hindsight if we have the balls to do this.
Reform the stamp duty fiasco. Cowen and co are taking any money in from it now. The cash cow has gone dry so what is there to lose by cutting it drastically and maybe kick start the property market.
Then, force the banks to lend money to first time buyers. The arch-villains in the worldwide financial meltdown now shit in their drawers every time a couple come looking for a measly mortgage. Two years ago, a drug user from Nigeria would get 120% from the bank nearest the port he landed. So give them a Pampers adult nappy and let them lend and lend. The nappy can be in the form of a guarantee to the banks that protects a certain amount of their exposure. No different from Mum and Dad being guarantor for their kids first loan. Just go and do it Cowen! Think outside the box for once. These few measures along with hundreds of other creative ideas are needed now to keep the show on the road.
More thrifty ideas next week. Just have to call the mother and my old friend the spud farmer.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Profiting from our Misery
The first duty of a Government is to look after the citizens which it claims to protect under the Constitution of the country of Ireland. This is the mandate they were given when elected by those same people.
The world is in the grip of an economic crisis caused by many factors, one of the main ones being the price of oil. Oil is at the time of writing priced at $138 per barrel, 63% more than it was 12 months ago. Reflected at the pumps, this means a massive increase in costs for those who drive to work. Home heating oil has increased by the same ratio, agricultural diesel ‘ditto’. Manufacturing industry is being crippled under the weight of higher energy costs.
Everybody from the small homeowner to the large industrialist is suffering because of events outside their control. There are no winners in this situation. Right?
Wrong!
Every time the price of a barrel of oil goes up, the Government of this banana republic of ours wins. They win because of the high levels of excise duty and Vat on the price of oil. Every price rise at the pumps means more money is extracted from the unfortunate drivers of Ireland, who have no choice but to use their cars to get to work because the lack of alternative transport infrastructure.
Having blown away fifteen years of boom-time revenue, our Government doesn’t have a bean to see out the bad times that we are now facing. Therefore, despite numerous calls from various industry lobby groups for some sort of fuel rebate, the Government has refused to even consider the matter. They are making money on our misery.
One of those lobby groups is the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA). This body is so weak that the Government just swats away the feeble protests from it, not unlike you might do with an annoying fly. It might listen to the farmers (IFA) but the stuff the truckers.
The IRHA should consider using the ammunition it has in its arsenal.
If unity could prevail in this most notorious of fragmented sectors and a combined transport stoppage strategy was employed, the Government would soon wake up to the crisis facing all sectors because of their inherent greed.
If all trucks, buses, and smaller commercial vehicles stopped tomorrow, carnage would ensue.
In five working days there would be no food or general provisions left on the shelves of supermarkets.
In three working days there would be no fuel left in any of the filling stations.
In seven working days, stocks of critical medical supplies for hospitals would run out.
In five working days, pharmacies would have no medicines to dispense.
Pubs would close because deliveries of drink would stop. Restaurants would do the same.
Because most major factories use a JIT system (Just-In-Time) of ordering and receiving raw materials for production, factories would close within two working days, throwing tens of thousands out of work.
Schools would close immediately because there would be no buses to transport the pupils, and even if there were, there would be no heating in the classrooms.
Airlines would have to stop flying because fuel would not be delivered to their tank farms.
Within ten working days, the country would descend into anarchy. Riots and looting would be commonplace and a dysfunctional society would turn on itself. The Army would patrol the streets, but what services can hungry soldiers perform?
And, if you are waiting for the Government to implement the National Emergency Plan, you will wait.
We are an island nation that depends on transport to provide the links so that we can live. Without transport, any island is doomed.
Will the IRHA and other transport organizations please get together and tell the greedy mandarins in Government the consequences of ignoring the pleas of the transport sector.
For once in your life, show them the power that you have. They might just listen this time.
The world is in the grip of an economic crisis caused by many factors, one of the main ones being the price of oil. Oil is at the time of writing priced at $138 per barrel, 63% more than it was 12 months ago. Reflected at the pumps, this means a massive increase in costs for those who drive to work. Home heating oil has increased by the same ratio, agricultural diesel ‘ditto’. Manufacturing industry is being crippled under the weight of higher energy costs.
Everybody from the small homeowner to the large industrialist is suffering because of events outside their control. There are no winners in this situation. Right?
Wrong!
Every time the price of a barrel of oil goes up, the Government of this banana republic of ours wins. They win because of the high levels of excise duty and Vat on the price of oil. Every price rise at the pumps means more money is extracted from the unfortunate drivers of Ireland, who have no choice but to use their cars to get to work because the lack of alternative transport infrastructure.
Having blown away fifteen years of boom-time revenue, our Government doesn’t have a bean to see out the bad times that we are now facing. Therefore, despite numerous calls from various industry lobby groups for some sort of fuel rebate, the Government has refused to even consider the matter. They are making money on our misery.
One of those lobby groups is the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA). This body is so weak that the Government just swats away the feeble protests from it, not unlike you might do with an annoying fly. It might listen to the farmers (IFA) but the stuff the truckers.
The IRHA should consider using the ammunition it has in its arsenal.
If unity could prevail in this most notorious of fragmented sectors and a combined transport stoppage strategy was employed, the Government would soon wake up to the crisis facing all sectors because of their inherent greed.
If all trucks, buses, and smaller commercial vehicles stopped tomorrow, carnage would ensue.
In five working days there would be no food or general provisions left on the shelves of supermarkets.
In three working days there would be no fuel left in any of the filling stations.
In seven working days, stocks of critical medical supplies for hospitals would run out.
In five working days, pharmacies would have no medicines to dispense.
Pubs would close because deliveries of drink would stop. Restaurants would do the same.
Because most major factories use a JIT system (Just-In-Time) of ordering and receiving raw materials for production, factories would close within two working days, throwing tens of thousands out of work.
Schools would close immediately because there would be no buses to transport the pupils, and even if there were, there would be no heating in the classrooms.
Airlines would have to stop flying because fuel would not be delivered to their tank farms.
Within ten working days, the country would descend into anarchy. Riots and looting would be commonplace and a dysfunctional society would turn on itself. The Army would patrol the streets, but what services can hungry soldiers perform?
And, if you are waiting for the Government to implement the National Emergency Plan, you will wait.
We are an island nation that depends on transport to provide the links so that we can live. Without transport, any island is doomed.
Will the IRHA and other transport organizations please get together and tell the greedy mandarins in Government the consequences of ignoring the pleas of the transport sector.
For once in your life, show them the power that you have. They might just listen this time.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
A BLOODY NOSE NEEDS A TISSUE
Well, look what we have done to poor old Europe! Left their Lisbon Treaty in shatters, it seems. Ireland is now the pariahs of the European Union. A little island in the North Atlantic, population 4 million, has wrecked the plans of the other 496 million people in the EU by voting No to the Lisbon Treaty.
One German MEP stated that we should “be thrown overboard from the EU boat without a lifeboat” for doing such a thing.
It is only when you hear such a statement you realize that we were so right to vote No in the first place. The bullies in the European schoolyard, having muttered veiled threats before we voted, now are very clear about their desire to kick the shit out of us for not doing what suited their agenda.
Ireland has a constitution, which demands that any changes to it are voted on by the people. This amendment required just such a vote. In this instance, that luxury was not afforded to the citizens of the other 26 countries that make up the EU. We wonder if it were, how many of the 500 million people would have voted against the Lisbon Treaty?
In 2005, the basis of what is now the Lisbon Treaty document, was put to the French people and roundly rejected by them. France took no chances this time and did not allow a free vote on the issue. They have some cheek is lecturing Ireland on the democratic decision reached by their people.
Already the blame game is underway in Ireland and in Europe as to who is responsible for this so-called `failure' to bend the knee to our masters. So what really happened to make Ireland reject the Treaty?
The answer is a combination of factors.
First, the intelligence of the Irish voter is of the finest calibre. In all our general and local elections, we have always the PR (proportional representation) system. Experience of this complex voting exercise has educated the Irish voter.
Secondly, the arrogance of all the mainstream parties in personalizing the canvass.
Images of your local TD or councillor, seeking your Yes vote insulted the electorate by asking them to vote along party lines without actually examining the contents and implications of the treaty.
Thirdly, the bullying tactics of Brian Cowen and his cohorts in Europe, who were wheeled out to the Irish public telling them to be grateful for 35 years of EU benefits and implying that Europe was owed a Yes result or there would be hell to play.
The fourth, and probably most pertinent reason, was the strength of the No campaign. Normally a plethora of loony left-wingers, Greens, Sinn Fein and various shadowy anti-establishment organisations would have comprised the No opposition. They would have been dismissed by the media and the politicians for what they were - a disaffected bunch of no-hopers with spurious agendas. They would have little or no credibility with the electorate.
However, this time the No campaign was painted with a veneer of respectability and
authority by the presence of the Libertas group, led by businessman, Declan Ganly, together with the campaign fronted by another well-known and successful business magnate, Ulick Mc Evaddy.
The articulate arguments of these men in relation to the tax issues, amongst others, made the floating vote suddenly sit up and as their own questions. These were no head bangers telling the nation to vote No because an endangered snail species in Kerry might become extinct if the Yes campaign got their way.
These guys had street credibility and a history of business achievement envied by many, including those in Government, who questioned their source of funding in a effort to blacken them.(just tell them you won it on the horses, lads!)
The high turnout was reckoned to favour the Yes campaign but the reverse occurred because those higher numbers were people who were informed of the alternative and arrived armed to vote No.
The schoolyard bully is always a coward. It is no different this time. Cowen and EU president, Barriso, have crawled back into the undergrowth threatening that when we are on our own they will get us.
And they probably will, you know. But for now at least, they are looking for some tissues to wipe the blood of their noses.
One German MEP stated that we should “be thrown overboard from the EU boat without a lifeboat” for doing such a thing.
It is only when you hear such a statement you realize that we were so right to vote No in the first place. The bullies in the European schoolyard, having muttered veiled threats before we voted, now are very clear about their desire to kick the shit out of us for not doing what suited their agenda.
Ireland has a constitution, which demands that any changes to it are voted on by the people. This amendment required just such a vote. In this instance, that luxury was not afforded to the citizens of the other 26 countries that make up the EU. We wonder if it were, how many of the 500 million people would have voted against the Lisbon Treaty?
In 2005, the basis of what is now the Lisbon Treaty document, was put to the French people and roundly rejected by them. France took no chances this time and did not allow a free vote on the issue. They have some cheek is lecturing Ireland on the democratic decision reached by their people.
Already the blame game is underway in Ireland and in Europe as to who is responsible for this so-called `failure' to bend the knee to our masters. So what really happened to make Ireland reject the Treaty?
The answer is a combination of factors.
First, the intelligence of the Irish voter is of the finest calibre. In all our general and local elections, we have always the PR (proportional representation) system. Experience of this complex voting exercise has educated the Irish voter.
Secondly, the arrogance of all the mainstream parties in personalizing the canvass.
Images of your local TD or councillor, seeking your Yes vote insulted the electorate by asking them to vote along party lines without actually examining the contents and implications of the treaty.
Thirdly, the bullying tactics of Brian Cowen and his cohorts in Europe, who were wheeled out to the Irish public telling them to be grateful for 35 years of EU benefits and implying that Europe was owed a Yes result or there would be hell to play.
The fourth, and probably most pertinent reason, was the strength of the No campaign. Normally a plethora of loony left-wingers, Greens, Sinn Fein and various shadowy anti-establishment organisations would have comprised the No opposition. They would have been dismissed by the media and the politicians for what they were - a disaffected bunch of no-hopers with spurious agendas. They would have little or no credibility with the electorate.
However, this time the No campaign was painted with a veneer of respectability and
authority by the presence of the Libertas group, led by businessman, Declan Ganly, together with the campaign fronted by another well-known and successful business magnate, Ulick Mc Evaddy.
The articulate arguments of these men in relation to the tax issues, amongst others, made the floating vote suddenly sit up and as their own questions. These were no head bangers telling the nation to vote No because an endangered snail species in Kerry might become extinct if the Yes campaign got their way.
These guys had street credibility and a history of business achievement envied by many, including those in Government, who questioned their source of funding in a effort to blacken them.(just tell them you won it on the horses, lads!)
The high turnout was reckoned to favour the Yes campaign but the reverse occurred because those higher numbers were people who were informed of the alternative and arrived armed to vote No.
The schoolyard bully is always a coward. It is no different this time. Cowen and EU president, Barriso, have crawled back into the undergrowth threatening that when we are on our own they will get us.
And they probably will, you know. But for now at least, they are looking for some tissues to wipe the blood of their noses.
Monday, June 9, 2008
LISBON TREATY MY ARSE !
It is only when you see the flustering and blustering of Brian Cowen and assorted Government ministers in the last week as the polls showed that the No vote was equal to the Yes vote that you realize the Irish people are being sold a dummy by their own Government on the Lisbon Treaty.
Cowen and his fellow puppets in all the main parties are afraid of displeasing their masters in Brussels. What we are getting, in effect, if we vote Yes, is a Constitution of Europe, which will take precedent over our own. It is fair comment to say that our current Irish Constitution allows the people have a say in their destiny in Europe. Most other countries steam-rolled it through, with recourse to the opinion of the people who elected them to high office.
In Ireland, thanks to the foresight of our fore fathers, issues like these have to have the approval of the people. In this sense, we will be used as a barometer of opinion as to where the EU is headed. There is no doubt that a federal Europe on the lines of the United States is the ultimate aim of the bigger states like Germany and France. here. The Lisbon Treaty is of course partially the work of Bertie Ahern who got agreement on a great deal of what we are voting on when Ireland had the EU presidency for six months in 2006.
Of course, as we now know, Bertie had only his own interests at heart when he brokered that deal. Ireland came way down the list on Bertie’s agenda.
He had his own goals to pursue, which was a nice job in Europe in reward for being a good boy and leading little old Ireland into the starting stalls, to use a horseracing term. (Not that Bertie would know too much about horses. Oh! Wait a moment – he does! He made a fortune on the English racetracks in the nineties. Christ! I nearly forgot about that.)
Anyway, Bertie probably has the best of both worlds now that he is no longer leader of our country. Cowen will take all shit from Brussels if he fails to deliver and Bertie will claim all the glory if the Yes side wins by saying that he was the architect of the Treaty. Cue a plaintive cry from Drumcondra about that job he was promised.
The truth of the matter is that the powerful Eurocrats will swipe Bertie’s interest away as that of an annoying fly buzzing around their big room. And they will do the same to Ireland. Make no mistake about that.
The EU is a much more culturally and geographically spread entity now. It is not like the days when it was made of ten states and Ireland had one tenth of the power and a proper veto on items of national interest.
In those days, Albert Reynolds could win an election by boasting about the £8 billion punts he extracted from the EU coffers for Ireland. Those days are no more. The EU is a community of 300 million people of which we make up a little over 1%.
What clout do you think we are going to have in such a monolith? Very little, under the proposed Lisbon Treaty and no matter what way all the Government and opposition spin it you can be sure of one thing – we will be shafted.
Tax harmonization will enter through the back door, be very sure about that.
Take no heed of the so-called get out veto clause for Ireland. It is so vague and open to interpretation that we will not stand a chance of imposing our will upon the rest of Europe. They have looked on for the last 35 years as we rifled the coffers of Europe to make the country temporarily rich, only for Bertie and his cohorts to blow all the gains away on crazy projects and arse-licking the unions.
Vote No for a chance to make the many grey areas of this Treaty more black and white. Do not let the vested interests of Cowen, Kenny and Gilmore (not to mention Bertie) allow us to sleepwalk into a federal Europe without any protection.
Do not believe the false and alarming rhetoric that comes from them about us being the black sheep of Europe if we vote No.
Vote No!
And, if you get the chance, vote No a second time!
Cowen and his fellow puppets in all the main parties are afraid of displeasing their masters in Brussels. What we are getting, in effect, if we vote Yes, is a Constitution of Europe, which will take precedent over our own. It is fair comment to say that our current Irish Constitution allows the people have a say in their destiny in Europe. Most other countries steam-rolled it through, with recourse to the opinion of the people who elected them to high office.
In Ireland, thanks to the foresight of our fore fathers, issues like these have to have the approval of the people. In this sense, we will be used as a barometer of opinion as to where the EU is headed. There is no doubt that a federal Europe on the lines of the United States is the ultimate aim of the bigger states like Germany and France. here. The Lisbon Treaty is of course partially the work of Bertie Ahern who got agreement on a great deal of what we are voting on when Ireland had the EU presidency for six months in 2006.
Of course, as we now know, Bertie had only his own interests at heart when he brokered that deal. Ireland came way down the list on Bertie’s agenda.
He had his own goals to pursue, which was a nice job in Europe in reward for being a good boy and leading little old Ireland into the starting stalls, to use a horseracing term. (Not that Bertie would know too much about horses. Oh! Wait a moment – he does! He made a fortune on the English racetracks in the nineties. Christ! I nearly forgot about that.)
Anyway, Bertie probably has the best of both worlds now that he is no longer leader of our country. Cowen will take all shit from Brussels if he fails to deliver and Bertie will claim all the glory if the Yes side wins by saying that he was the architect of the Treaty. Cue a plaintive cry from Drumcondra about that job he was promised.
The truth of the matter is that the powerful Eurocrats will swipe Bertie’s interest away as that of an annoying fly buzzing around their big room. And they will do the same to Ireland. Make no mistake about that.
The EU is a much more culturally and geographically spread entity now. It is not like the days when it was made of ten states and Ireland had one tenth of the power and a proper veto on items of national interest.
In those days, Albert Reynolds could win an election by boasting about the £8 billion punts he extracted from the EU coffers for Ireland. Those days are no more. The EU is a community of 300 million people of which we make up a little over 1%.
What clout do you think we are going to have in such a monolith? Very little, under the proposed Lisbon Treaty and no matter what way all the Government and opposition spin it you can be sure of one thing – we will be shafted.
Tax harmonization will enter through the back door, be very sure about that.
Take no heed of the so-called get out veto clause for Ireland. It is so vague and open to interpretation that we will not stand a chance of imposing our will upon the rest of Europe. They have looked on for the last 35 years as we rifled the coffers of Europe to make the country temporarily rich, only for Bertie and his cohorts to blow all the gains away on crazy projects and arse-licking the unions.
Vote No for a chance to make the many grey areas of this Treaty more black and white. Do not let the vested interests of Cowen, Kenny and Gilmore (not to mention Bertie) allow us to sleepwalk into a federal Europe without any protection.
Do not believe the false and alarming rhetoric that comes from them about us being the black sheep of Europe if we vote No.
Vote No!
And, if you get the chance, vote No a second time!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
THE BANKS – DEVILS IN DISGUISE
I have never seen the devil in the flesh. For many years, I lived with the comfortable notion that the devil was an invention of my mothers in order to get me to bed early and generally behave myself. In the bright spring of youth, every pleasure was apparently a sin in the eyes of my parents and their peers.
Drink was the devil’s potion and Hell awaited you if you abused it. The pleasures of teenage fornication were denounced from the pulpit, and pronounced as a fast track route to meet Satan. Needless to say, all thoughts of the devil and Hell were quickly extinguished by the lust engendered by Susie next door. For her part, she didn’t seem too interested in the devil either! Neither of us had the good fortune to meet him and if we had we would have probably sought his approval and carried on with our shenanigans.
Decades later, I still have not encountered the devil in the flesh. However, I have met him, and he exists all right - in the shape of the bank manager.
Not any individual bank manager, let me say. The modern day bank manager dealing with clients at the coalface of business and living is mostly a decent sort.
He will do what he can for you but he is controlled from on high. He or she has no power.
In days of yore in Ireland, the local bank manager was a powerful figure. He was his own man and had the power to make or break you with his sole decisions. He had no need to refer to higher office for decisions made on a point-scoring chart. He looked in your eyes and made a character judgement that was seldom wrong. Nowadays, the bank manager in that sense no longer exists.
Instead, you deal with a faceless credit committee that lives somewhere in a shiny glass building in Dublin and never has eye contact with those they loosely term ‘customers’. Victims would be a more appropriate word.
Your account manager in your local branch doles out the good or bad news to you these days. If headquarters hasn’t approved your loan request, they will make suitable sympathetic clucking noises as to the grey suits taking the matter out of their hands. This of course is all an act, mastered by years of training by those same grey suits in the game known as ‘Pass the Buck and care not a Fuck’
The devil in Irish society is the Bank. Not just any bank, all banks. The Bank controls your life whether you are a small business, a regular worker, a home carer or a large business.
The Bank is the many faces of the Devil. Never was it more evident than today in post Celtic Tiger Ireland. For the last 15 years, the banks have thrown money at people who did not even necessarily want it. You were encouraged to borrow by all the banks. In fact, you were made to feel somewhat inadequate and lacking in entrepreneurial spirit if as a small business, or developer or whatever, you did not match the banks expectations that you were good for another million or so. It was very much akin to the scene that took place in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. The banks dangled the apple in front of you and seduced you with promises of great things in the future.
Now however, as the credit crunch bites the Devil reveals himself in glowing red.
He arrives in the shape of a dull grey-suited bank auditor who tells you that you were very foolish to take up that loan offered by his colleagues by some years back. They need to increase the security, they need a higher rate of interest, they need this, and they need that to cover their red asses from being burned by the Devils own fire.
Mark Twain was right when said that a banker is somebody who offers you an umbrella on a sunny day and takes it away on a rainy one.
Yes Mother, you were right all along. The Devil does exist!
Drink was the devil’s potion and Hell awaited you if you abused it. The pleasures of teenage fornication were denounced from the pulpit, and pronounced as a fast track route to meet Satan. Needless to say, all thoughts of the devil and Hell were quickly extinguished by the lust engendered by Susie next door. For her part, she didn’t seem too interested in the devil either! Neither of us had the good fortune to meet him and if we had we would have probably sought his approval and carried on with our shenanigans.
Decades later, I still have not encountered the devil in the flesh. However, I have met him, and he exists all right - in the shape of the bank manager.
Not any individual bank manager, let me say. The modern day bank manager dealing with clients at the coalface of business and living is mostly a decent sort.
He will do what he can for you but he is controlled from on high. He or she has no power.
In days of yore in Ireland, the local bank manager was a powerful figure. He was his own man and had the power to make or break you with his sole decisions. He had no need to refer to higher office for decisions made on a point-scoring chart. He looked in your eyes and made a character judgement that was seldom wrong. Nowadays, the bank manager in that sense no longer exists.
Instead, you deal with a faceless credit committee that lives somewhere in a shiny glass building in Dublin and never has eye contact with those they loosely term ‘customers’. Victims would be a more appropriate word.
Your account manager in your local branch doles out the good or bad news to you these days. If headquarters hasn’t approved your loan request, they will make suitable sympathetic clucking noises as to the grey suits taking the matter out of their hands. This of course is all an act, mastered by years of training by those same grey suits in the game known as ‘Pass the Buck and care not a Fuck’
The devil in Irish society is the Bank. Not just any bank, all banks. The Bank controls your life whether you are a small business, a regular worker, a home carer or a large business.
The Bank is the many faces of the Devil. Never was it more evident than today in post Celtic Tiger Ireland. For the last 15 years, the banks have thrown money at people who did not even necessarily want it. You were encouraged to borrow by all the banks. In fact, you were made to feel somewhat inadequate and lacking in entrepreneurial spirit if as a small business, or developer or whatever, you did not match the banks expectations that you were good for another million or so. It was very much akin to the scene that took place in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. The banks dangled the apple in front of you and seduced you with promises of great things in the future.
Now however, as the credit crunch bites the Devil reveals himself in glowing red.
He arrives in the shape of a dull grey-suited bank auditor who tells you that you were very foolish to take up that loan offered by his colleagues by some years back. They need to increase the security, they need a higher rate of interest, they need this, and they need that to cover their red asses from being burned by the Devils own fire.
Mark Twain was right when said that a banker is somebody who offers you an umbrella on a sunny day and takes it away on a rainy one.
Yes Mother, you were right all along. The Devil does exist!
Monday, May 26, 2008
FIDDLING WHILE ROME BURNS
In the week that was in it, a scan at the headlines in the newspapers says a lot for our priorities, or perhaps more pertinently, the impression that the sub-editors of our national dailies (and not just the red tops) have about our priorities.
Our new Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, was caught using what was termed unparlimentary language in our parliament. In some heated exchanges in the Dail on Tuesday last, he was heard to the term ‘fuckers’ after a discussion about the cost of living in this country of ours. This was a muttered aside to his Tainaste, Mary Coughlan, after the debate had finished and the microphone in front of him was still switched on.
The next day the headlines screamed as though the man had murdered some of his opponents in the Dail with his bare hands. Banner headlines and various conspiracy theories as to whom he was referring to dominated all the papers, the venerable Irish Times included.
Is it not enough to make you sick?
The country is going down the tubes at a speed that is as bewildering and scream inducing as going down a 200 metre slide with grease on your bare ass and all that concerns the masses is apparently the F-word was used in the Dail!
Is there any hope left for us at all?
We are giving Cowen a small honeymoon period to show his mettle. It has to be very short. Drastic action is needed to avoid the country having to be taken in charge by the IMF.
Bertie has gone to the backbenches with the daft notion firmly fixed in his head that he brought prosperity to Ireland by his cunning methods and grasp of economics (he once claimed to have a degree from the London School of Economics). This notion on one side of his brain refuses to be overcome by rational thought that he was lucky and the real test was how he would prepare the country for the inevitable downturn that would come.
We know now the answer to that question.
He blew 15 years of good times in a variety of pet projects, a vastly inflated public service and a total cave in to the main cause of our current perilous state, the trade unions. His legacy will be one of utter waste of everything that was accumulated over 15 years.
In one year alone, he presided over the evaporation of the gains of a decade and a half.
In Inchodowney, in a famous Fianna Fail think-in, he declared himself a socialist. That was in 2005. The truth is that Bertie was who you wanted him to be during his entire career. Like the chameleon, he could change his colours to suit all occasions.
He will find a nice job in Europe (there will be none left in Ireland) and he will go to his grave with the delusion that he made the people of Ireland rich.
Meanwhile, Cowen is left to deal with the war. Time will tell if his efforts and potential will work.
Sadly, in the meantime all we can do is fill acres of newsprint because he uttered a curse in the Dail. Truly, the country is fucked!
Our new Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, was caught using what was termed unparlimentary language in our parliament. In some heated exchanges in the Dail on Tuesday last, he was heard to the term ‘fuckers’ after a discussion about the cost of living in this country of ours. This was a muttered aside to his Tainaste, Mary Coughlan, after the debate had finished and the microphone in front of him was still switched on.
The next day the headlines screamed as though the man had murdered some of his opponents in the Dail with his bare hands. Banner headlines and various conspiracy theories as to whom he was referring to dominated all the papers, the venerable Irish Times included.
Is it not enough to make you sick?
The country is going down the tubes at a speed that is as bewildering and scream inducing as going down a 200 metre slide with grease on your bare ass and all that concerns the masses is apparently the F-word was used in the Dail!
Is there any hope left for us at all?
We are giving Cowen a small honeymoon period to show his mettle. It has to be very short. Drastic action is needed to avoid the country having to be taken in charge by the IMF.
Bertie has gone to the backbenches with the daft notion firmly fixed in his head that he brought prosperity to Ireland by his cunning methods and grasp of economics (he once claimed to have a degree from the London School of Economics). This notion on one side of his brain refuses to be overcome by rational thought that he was lucky and the real test was how he would prepare the country for the inevitable downturn that would come.
We know now the answer to that question.
He blew 15 years of good times in a variety of pet projects, a vastly inflated public service and a total cave in to the main cause of our current perilous state, the trade unions. His legacy will be one of utter waste of everything that was accumulated over 15 years.
In one year alone, he presided over the evaporation of the gains of a decade and a half.
In Inchodowney, in a famous Fianna Fail think-in, he declared himself a socialist. That was in 2005. The truth is that Bertie was who you wanted him to be during his entire career. Like the chameleon, he could change his colours to suit all occasions.
He will find a nice job in Europe (there will be none left in Ireland) and he will go to his grave with the delusion that he made the people of Ireland rich.
Meanwhile, Cowen is left to deal with the war. Time will tell if his efforts and potential will work.
Sadly, in the meantime all we can do is fill acres of newsprint because he uttered a curse in the Dail. Truly, the country is fucked!
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