Keep smiling through the crisis

COMMENT

We are all expected to do our patriotic duty and not be always negative when discussing the economy. Political commentators should be positive rather than spreading the gospel of doom and gloom. Or so we are told.

 

 

However, I was always told to tell the truth no matter what the consequences. In making a comment, I try and tell the truth as far as I can see it.

I suppose we must accept that Government ministers will always want to paint bright pictures about the economy while they are in power. If they start telling us we are doomed we will be really driven to despair. You are as likely to get a door-to-door salesman telling you the snake oil he is trying to sell you is useless.

So think of your travelling salesman the next time you hear a Government minister tell you we have turned the corner. One is just as likely to be telling you the truth as is the other. You are as well off to ignore whatever spin the Government will put on any situation.

The same goes for the Opposition. They want to paint as gloomy a picture as they can. Things will not be settled until they get back into power. That’s what Fine Gael and Labour told us a few years ago and it’s what Fianna Fáil and the other parties not in Government are telling us now.

You know there are three types of untruth: there are lies, damn lies and statistics. Statistics are the worst of all, whether they come from the official sources or wherever. You are better off to believe your own eyes. What you see happening around you is far more relevant than all the official figures coming from Government agencies.

They will tell you now that employment figures are up and that unemployment is down. But just call into your local dole office and you will see more people signing on than ever before. At the same time you will notice that a lot of the young men and women who left college over the past few years with top qualifications are no longer around. They are working in Australia or Canada. Your local GAA club is at wits’ end trying to put a team together.

This is the reality behind all those fantasy figures we have been getting from Government sources over the past few weeks. Go down to your local pub and you will find you have nobody to talk to apart from the barman. That’s if the pub is open at all and you have the money in your pocket to buy a pint.

We all know these things and yet the Government keeps trying to pull the wool over our eyes by telling us there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I do believe there is light at the end of the tunnel but I have no idea how long the tunnel is or how far more we have to travel before the light appears. We are certainly not there yet and as far as I am aware there is even more austerity around the bend. We have the new property tax coming up in the summer.  That is going to double next year.

Then there are the new water charges. There is also the septic tank issue that will not go away either.

When, or if, we come through this dark tunnel of austerity we will still have to pay all those extra charges. Not forgetting either that we are facing the prospect of yet another austere budget towards the end of the year.

Fine Gael and Labour are pinning their hopes on holding the coalition together while they weather the storm and be able to give away some “goodies” by the time the general election comes around in about three years’ time. That is wishful thinking. We are still going to be paying the property tax along with the water charges and whatever other levies they can think up to drive us out of our minds over the next few years. Those things are here to stay and no amount of wishful thinking can wish them away.

Yes, they can both lose a hell of a lot of seats and still have enough to form the next government. But I have a feeling that things are going to get worse rather than better for both parties.

Fianna Fáil is creeping up on Fine Gael. Opinion polls are showing a trend of Fianna Fáil in the low 20s and climbing while Fine Gael has dropped below 30% and descending. The longer we have to wait for a general election the more hope there is for Fianna Fáil as the anger felt for that party recedes as time heals most wounds. At the same time Sinn Féin is consistently well ahead of the Labour Party in all opinion polls.

We have the abortion debate coming up and, while it might distract some people’s minds from the dreadful state of the economy for a while, it is an issue the Government cannot win. There are two very extreme groups on this question. There are the “pro-life” people who do not want abortion under any circumstances. I include the Catholic bishops in that group. Then there is the “pro-choice” group who include people who want abortion on demand.

But in the middle there is, what I believe, a majority of the people in this State who do not support abortion but who accept that in some circumstances, such as the threat of suicide or in cases of rape and incest, abortion might be an option. However, it looks as if the Government will not even go that far but will bring in legislation allowing abortion when there is a risk to the life of the mother, including the risk of suicide.

Very few women in unwanted pregnancy situations are going to undergo the ordeal of trying to persuade a team of professional psychiatrists and other consultants that they will commit suicide if they have to go the full term of their pregnancy. What they will do and what they have been doing in their thousands every year is they will take the train to Belfast or Ryanair to London where they can have their abortion without too much stress.

Anyway, that’s a debate for later. We will have to see what the Government is going to come up with. But the Government is as divided on the issue as are the rest of us.

I am sorry that I cannot do my patriotic duty and tell you we are on the road to recovery. The best I can say is that we will survive. But not all of us.