It’s touching to witness the childish hope demonstrated by Marc Coleman in today’s Sunday Independent. Writing about the visit last week of EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Competitiveness, Guenther Verheugen and European Central Bank President, Jean Claude Trichet, Coleman gushed:
“Both were listened by an eager, if not scared, audience that was hungry for inspiration. That audience wasn’t disappointed. And neither was I. I discovered that in this time of crisis Ireland does, thank God, still have friends on the European stage.”
Coleman has completely missed the point. These men were in Ireland on a public relations exercise to convince the world that the situation in Ireland is not as critical as it actually is. They were also here to encourage Irish authorities to make decisions, get off their collective butts and deal with the crisis. The last thing the EU wants is for one of its members to go the way of Iceland.
But Coleman and the Government are much more comfortable in the land of denial. Trichet and Verheugen told them that Red tape for small businesses is going to be cut and the European car industry is to receive encouragement.
Well, that’s it, all is well, the crisis is over. No decisions required.
There will be no further plans to screw Joe public until after the June elections.
Expect a big turnout. expect the tumbrils active for any councillor who has a whiff of Fianna Fail about him.If the real plans for taxation-which are being hinted at- were announced now, very very few of their people in local government would survive.
Forget about the elections. We have moved well beyond a situation where ad campaign elections can save us. Democracy is a failed and utterly unworkable concept in this state.