When is a democracy not a democracy?

Question: What do the peoples of Donegal South West, Waterford and Dublin South have in common?

Answer: They matter less than the rest of us.

This may sound like quite an incendary statement but let me qualify it by stating here and now that this is not my opinion. It is, rather, the opinion of Fianna Fail and their coalition government lap dogs, the Green Party. Since 2009 there have been three by-elections outstanding due to the election of Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher to the European Parliment, the resignation from the Dail of George Lee and the death of Fianna Fail TD Seamus Brennan.

Fianna Fail have, at every turn completely rebuffed all efforts to have these by-elections held. Why? The goverment would have us believe that the country and political classes need to focus on the current (Fianna Fail created) economic crisis and that these by-elections represent too large a distraction. The simple truth of the matter though is that with the government's tiny Dail majority of 83 to 79, and with neither Fianna Fail nor the Greens expected to have poodle's chance in North Korea of winning any of these three by-elections, the goverment are running scared of the electorate. As usual, Fianna Fail regard their own needs as being more important than those of the Irish people.

Today sees the second day of a High Court challenge by Sinn Fein senator Pearse Doherty against the government aimed forcing Brian Cowan to name a date for the Donegal South West by-election. That's right folks, the government now have to be taken to the High Court in order to force them to uphold the constitutinal rights of the people. What's more disgraceful than anything else in this sorry episode in Irish democracy is that, at a time when the country is on it's financial knees, the government are actually defending their stance, legally challenging the constitutinal rights to equal representation of all citizens, wasting even more of tax payers money in the process.

The government's argurement isn't that these people don't deserve equal representation, nor that senator Doherty's legal challenge is wrong. It's merely arguing that it's up to the Dail, and therefore the govermnent to decide when these elections should take place. In other words, they know what they're doing is wrong, but they can't legally be forced to do the right thing. So they won't.

One of Brian Cowan's most infamous quotes (as far as this blogger is concerned) goes like this:

"Sometimes the government has to put the good of the country ahead of the good of the party".

Sometimes! That's right, as far as Cowan is concerned there are numerous occasions when the Fianna Fail good is more important than that of the people. Or the country. Many would argue (myself being one of them) that this is always how Fianna Fail approch the governance of the country. The famous tent at the Galway races cetainly wasn't erected for the good of the people living in West Cork, nor for the poor unfortunates on the health waiting lists!

I take my hat off to Senator Doherty. I'm no supporter of Sinn Fein but, for once, the party finds itself on the side of justice. Let's just hope that the High Court is on the same side.

Brian, The Drain's Blocked.

So, finally the dust is settling. The lies have almost all been unwound. The final and frightening reality of a decade of economic mismanagement has been laid at our feet. 50 billion is the price the few remaining tax-paying members of Irish society will have to pay to rescue Irish banks from the greed-driven insanity which brought them to the brink of failure.

When you add this figure to those other terrifying statistics of life in Ireland in 2010, namely our 20 billion annual budget overspend, 450,000 unemployed, 32% budget deficit for 2010, it begins to seem that the only thing stopping Ireland from going down the drain is the fact that the drain has been blocked by the overwhelming tide of Irishman-made disasters all rushing to sink first. 

The two Brians are fond of telling us that we will manage our own way out of this disaster, that our heroic Brians will shield us from the IMF wolves currently knocking on the door of Rosslaire Harbour, but the truth is that the EU and IMF have been calling the shots from day one of our current plight. At each and every stage of this perilous journey the Brians have been required to glance over in the direction of Brussles for the regulation thumbs up before dragging the Irish people towards the next disastrous pile of bad news, bad debts and bad decisions. Ireland is currently showing each and every nation comprising the EU exactly what this membership means. That the EU comes first, that individual member states can and will have their internal affairs meddled with in the interests the greater EU good. And as the EU can see something that the two Brians, to date, have been unable to fully grasp, namely that this unholy mess is almost entirely of our own (for own read Fianna Fail's) making, the EU are quite happy to heap the misery upon the heads of each and every Irishman, woman and child so as not to upset the bond markets to which even the EU are answerable.

For two years now there have been a number of alternative solutions to the current Irish banking crisis presented to the Irish political class. These ranged from immediately nationalising the banks (as idea as abhorrent to the two Brians as flying economy) to shafting the senior bank bond holders. Each and every suggestion aimed at saving the tax payer at the expense of larger vested interests has been rejected in favour of maintaining our status as good EU boys and girls. Let us not forget that this is the same EU which was already on the brink of a currency meltdown as a result of the decision to allow that other fiscal basket case - Greece, to join the party a decade ago. The same EU which, while preaching austerity measures for the little EU people, was at the same time doubling the entertainment budget for the already ludicrously over pampered politicians in Brussles.

It's no coincidence that while domestically Brian Cowan is suffering the lowest opinion poll ratings in living memory, internationally he is being lauded as one of the World's top ten political leaders. A decade of unchecked, bank-driven economic boom has resulted in the world's top politicians losing all touch with what makes a good politician. In the mid nineteenth century the Irish people starved while we fed the British army and British citizens. In the early 21st century we starve again while the bond markets are fed.  

Welcome to Ireland in 2010. Please sir, can I have some more?