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?
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