Gilmore’s Labour running for cover

IF I were Eamon Gilmore, I would think twice about getting involved in trying to solve the problems in Syria or Egypt. I think I would concentrate more on the crisis in my own backyard and leave Syria and Egypt to others to solve.

 

It would be far easier to sort out the troubles in Africa and in Asia than those that have to be overcome in the Labour Party. That’s why beleagured Labour Party leaders are prone to run for cover to the Middle East.

The latest opinion poll in the Sunday Independent this week  put Labour on 8%. That’s a drop of 11 points from the 19% the party got in the general election two-and-a-half years ago.  Gilmore himself, according to the poll, has a satisfaction rate of only 16%, with almost three out of every four voters saying they are dissatisfied with his performance.

Gilmore’s answer to all that is, of course, the usual aul guff you get from politicians faced with tough questions. Labour’s fall from grace, he has argued, is due to the “tough decisions” the party has had to take in order to rescue this country from the economic mess it is in.

Those “tough decisions” have resulted in massive unemployment, emigration on a scale we have not witnessed for many long years, huge debts on people all over the State and incomes that are at their lowest levels in several years.

Those decisions that Labour leaders like to describe as “tough” ones have come down on the most needy people in our society. Allowances for people caring for the elderly living alone have been almost wiped out; spending on children with special needs has been cut to the bone and  social welfare benefits for those who need them most have been drastically reduced.  The “tough decisions” were not taken by the most vulnerable among us but imposed on them by the Labour Party and Fine Gael – and before that by Fianna Fáil and the Greens.

It is easy to take tough decisions if those tough decisions will have no effect on you but will come down heavy on people who are strangers to you. The politicians will argue that they also have taken several hits themselves over the last five years. So they have but they have not been “tough” on politicians. For politicians, the good life continues. A five or even a 10% cut in salary, expenses and special extra allowances is hardly noticed if you are earning over €100,000 a year.

If you have to feed a family on €20,000 or less a year, you are going to be seriously concerned if you have to pay more for food, for medical expenses or for running a car if your income is cut. You will probably have to put off making that vital call to the doctor or neglect to pay your road tax or even your insurance. Those are really tough decisions to take. A politician would need to experience those difficulties themselves before deciding to take the tough decisions Eamon Gilmore and other senior Labour TDs like to talk about.

Is it any wonder the Labour Party is languishing on a miserable 8%? The party was elected with a record number of TDs in order to protect people from the “tough decisions” Fianna Fáil had been taking for two or three years before the general election. The very same people the Labour Party decided since the election to make pay for all the squandering and all the corruption that had gone on here for decades.

I have always had a soft spot for Labour, the party founded by one of our greatest heroes James Connolly. But it is a Labour Party in Opposition that I like.  I don’t like Labour once they get into power. They side with the suffering classes when in Opposition but they forget about them or go against them once they get into government.

Now there is talk of plots to get rid of Gilmore as leader of the Labour Party.  There are rumblings and rumours of revolt among the backbenchers. There is talk of a quiet approach by some of the elder lemons in Labour to Gilmore to advise him that the game is up. They are going to ask him to get off the field and make way for a fresh new captain. You’d think they were talking about a hurling match.

I cannot see any new leader making any great difference, at least in the short term. Joan Burton and Brendan Howlin have been mentioned as possible people to take over from Gilmore but they have also gone along with the so-called tough decisions. Labour needs somebody with the liathróidí to stand up to Fine Gael’s austerity plans for the rest of us. They need that person before the next budget in two months’ time when further drastic cuts are threatened in health, education and social welfare spending. The people are already on their knees and any more cuts in vital areas of spending are certain to drive them over the edge.

I am sure there are a lot of people in the Labour Party who are aware of that. They must tell the people at the top that enough is enough. We cannot take any more.

When you really think of it, you must come to the conclusion that Eamon Gilmore – and the rest of us – would be far better off if he stayed in Egypt.