Ruairi Quinn: Waffling and lying as he exits politics

Lying is the currency of Irish politics. Our public representatives lie to get into office, they lie when in office and they lie after leaving office, usually to justify their lying while in power.

Labour TD and former Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn is just the latest so-called public representative to engage in lying to justify his and his government’s disgraceful and traitorous behaviour.

Speaking to Newstalk’s Shane Coleman (Part 1, 7 mins) Quinn was asked:

Did you genuinely intend to burn the bondholders once in office?

The minute the election was over Eamon Gilmore appointed three people to negotiate a programme of government with Fine Gael.

I’m told they were immediately informed of the real position by the Dept. of Finance. It was horrific, it was horrific.

The liar here is asking us to believe that he and his Labour cronies were unaware of how serious the situation was, three years after the financial catastrophe, until they met Dept. of Finance officials.

I’m not going to waste precious minutes of my life nor insult the intelligence of readers by actually analysing/refuting this loathsome and cowardly lie.

Coleman went on:

I knew before that election date that the ECB were not going to let the next government burn bondholders, is it not something you should have realised?

Quinn reply:

I’m pausing because I’m trying to formulate a considered reply. We were in freefall.

You’re like somebody in the upper stand of a football match, looking at the game. You see the whole picture. Think of somebody down in the middle of Croke Park going for a high ball.

All you can concentrate on is what’s coming at you and what you see. You don’t have the advantage of being a spectator looking at the whole play and being a disengaged participant.

We were fully engaged and this was life and death in many, many respects.

Pausing to formulate a considered reply my arse.

He was struck dumb because of the difficulty of coming up with a believable lie to such a basic question.

His moronic explanation that it was easy for those who could see the forest but impossible for those who could only see the trees tells us all we need to know about this man’s political intelligence and his lack of honesty in answering questions.

Asked about his saddest moment in politics Quinn said:

Seeing sincere and good people losing out because they no longer fit the contours of the landscape…they don’t understand that their time is over.

Clearly Quinn is referring here to his colleague Pat Rabbitte who, like many Labour politicians, travelled the road from radical socialist to unapologetic capitalist and is now operating in a delusional bubble of denial.

Asked about Labour’s prospects in the next election Quinn said that people would change their minds when voting for a government rather than mid-term protest.

Quinn, in common with all old regime politicians, seems to be completely unaware that Irish citizens have finally woken up to the traitorous behaviour of his generation and are eagerly waiting for the opportunity to consign them to the dustbin of history.

Copy to:

Ruairi Quinn
Labour Party

Banking on a Happy Christmas :-)

So, as part of my Christmas preparations I needed a €100 note to accompany a card. No point in going to my local shop, I thought, better go straight to the local AIB bank and get a nice, crispy, brand new note.

No, sorry, we don’t deal in €100 notes.

What…but you’re a bank? You’re supposed to hold all currency denominations to serve your customers.

Sorry, we do get €100 notes from customers but we don’t hold them directly. Try the Post Office, Credit Union or maybe your local supermarket.

So, back to my local supermarket.

Yes Anthony, we do have €100 notes, how many would you like?

Happy Christmas and a very prosperous New Year to everybody.

The Northern Ireland 'crisis' – Who cares?

Hello, hands up all those who are stressed out by the latest ‘crisis’ in the Northern Ireland talks.

Ah come on people, there must be somebody interested, these are very serious talks, something could happen…..if they fail…..ya know.

Ok, surely somebody’s worried that agreement has yet to be reached on the issues of identity, parades and the legacy of the past.

Yes, of course you’re right. Millions have died in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and other places in just the past few years and all those horrific deaths are important but…..ya know…..something could happen in Northern Ireland if the ‘crisis’ is not resolved.

I mean, just last week somebody was heard shouting ‘Up the Republic’ a few miles from a loyalist housing estate…..surely you can see how fraught the situation is becoming.

Let the Brits keep the dump.

What…..Who said that…..who made that nasty comment? You should be ashamed of yourself…..this is a very serious issue…..it is…..I’m telling you.

Ah come on now…..who turned off the lights…..That’s just juvenile behaviour

Hello…..hello…..is there anybody there…..hello…..hello…..

Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin breaks with commoner boyfriend

I see the highly talented, highly intelligent, beautiful and gifted Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin has broken up with her boyfriend, some guy with the funny/awkward name of Tubridy.

I’m not one for giving out personal advice, of course, but, really, she should try to find somebody from her own level of talent and ability.

Journalist Michael Clifford: Getting it wrong on the bank inquiry

According to journalist Michael Clifford the lack of a paper trail concerning the major decisions taken during the 2008 financial crisis is of minor importance (Irish Examiner).

If that were all that was wrong in the department, we’d all be in clover.

In his article Clifford leads the raging elephant of political/administrative corruption into the room, sticks a long, well sharpened spear up the creatures rear end to ensure maximum pain and then proceeds to completely ignore the ensuing rampage.

Instead he focuses on what he obviously believes are more important aspects of the first days of the latest banking inquiry.

Like, for example, how finance officials had to go home to find out details of that year’s budget or how Fianna Fail is reacting to the inquiry.

This journalist could not be more wrong.

The lack of a paper trail is the single most important aspect of the entire disgraceful episode because it tells us just how corrupt our political/administrative system has become.

Allow me to analyse Clifford’s raging elephant in the room.

Rob Wright, the Canadian public servant who compiled a report on how the Department of Finance was asleep at the wheel during the boom, gave evidence.

Rob Wright is wrong in his conclusion that the Department was asleep at the wheel.

The Department of Finance was not asleep at the wheel. The Department was fully aware of what was happening throughout the boom years, the Central Bank, Revenue and all other relevant state agencies also knew exactly what was happening.

No action was taken because our corrupt political system was, and still is, more concerned with protecting the interests of those who benefitted hugely from the boom than they were/are in the interests of the Irish people.

All our state agencies, including the police, operate under the direct control of our corrupt political system.

Wright was ‘flummoxed’ by the lack of a paper trail surrounding the major decisions made during the crisis.

He was told by many public servants that it was the Freedom of Information Act that was to blame. Nobody wanted to commit to paper anything that might come back to haunt them.

There could be serious ‘hassle’, he was told, if an FOI request revealed a difference of opinion between a minister and a civil servant.

One minister, we’re told, ‘had a lot of concern’ about the Freedom of Information Act after one such revelation.

It is deeply disturbing that civil servants can casually dismiss their disgraceful actions/inactions because of a fear of ‘hassle’ from a minister.

It is deeply disturbing that a minister (and, of course, he/she is not alone in this) expresses concern at the prospect of citizens becoming properly informed by way of an FOI.

It is deeply disturbing that any meeting of ministers and their senior public servants could be conducted without any notes/record being taken never mind the major, life impacting decisions taken during the financial crisis.

To put it bluntly, only those in charge of the most perverse, corrupt, diseased banana republic would think it acceptable to make such decisions while consciously deciding to keep no record in case they were made to account for their betrayal.

As far as I am aware, and I hope to check on this further in the coming year, there is a legal requirement for civil servants to record all minutes of all government/ministerial meetings.

Journalist Clifford ends his article:

The jury is still out on whether this whole thing will amount to a hill of beans.

Wrong again:

The jury is in, every informed person knows what happened, knows that the current inquiry is a disgraceful farce, knows that it won’t even amount to a hill of beans.

The people, in recent elections, polls and protests, have given their verdict – Guilty.

They have delivered their sentence – The abolition of our corrupt political/administrative system.

All that remains is for the sentence to be carried out and, hopefully, that will be sooner rather than later.

Copy to:
Michael Clifford
Department of Finance
All political parties

Perjury law: Only applies to the peasants

Go away and give careful consideration to the manner in which you are giving evidence said the judge to Marie Farrell.

And in case there was any doubt whatsoever in Ms. Farrell’s mind the judge added:

There are very severe penal sanctions for people who commit perjury.

And the judge is right, there are severe penal sanctions for those who lie under oath but, and it’s a very important but…the severe penalties only apply to the little people, to the peasantry.

Politicians, bankers, government officials, and other members of the ruling class do not have to worry about such niceties when it comes to giving evidence under oath.

For decades we have watched such people, time after time, lie under oath without even a warning from a judge.

For example, it is almost certain that Bertie Ahern lied under oath to the Mahon Tribunal.

Much of the explanation provided by Mr. Ahern as to the source of the substantial funds identified and inquired into in the course of the tribunal’s public hearings was deemed by the tribunal to be untrue.

In a functional democracy Mr. Ahern would, at the very least, be put under immediate investigation. In Ireland the DPP and the Garda Commissioner are still sitting on the tribunal report a full two years after the final report.

Why is this? Well, again judge Mahon gives us a hint.

It (corruption) continued because nobody was prepared to do enough to stop it. This is perhaps inevitable when corruption ceases to become an isolated event and becomes so entrenched that it is transformed into an acknowledged way of doing business. Specifically, because corruption affected every level of Irish political life, those with the power to stop it were frequently implicated in it.

So we can ask the question – what are the chances that the current Garda Commissioner will act on the Mahon Tribunal Report.

Well, let’s put it this way. Politicians promoted Commissioner O’Sullivan and as a recent tribunal concluded – loyalty comes before duty in our police force so Bertie has nothing to worry about but Marie Farrell should watch her step.