Never fear, stroke politics is still here

You will be glad to have it confirmed during the week that stroke politics is still alive and well. Fine Gael and Labour promised us before the last election and while they were still in Opposition that things would be different once they were elected to power.
They were going to do away with the old-style politics as practised by Fianna Fáil down through the years. Enough of us believed them to give them a record number of seats at the general election.
We had heard it all before and no doubt we will hear it all again. You might change parties but nothing changes. Health Minister James Reilly has shown us once again that he is as adept as Fianna Fáil ministers ever were when it comes to pulling strokes. Once again, he was caught out and once again he will get away with it.
What he did on behalf of his cabinet colleagues Phil Hogan of Kilkenny and Brendan Howlin of Wexford in upgrading their two local hospitals is what politicians have been doing for generations,
Fianna Fáil has come out strongly against this latest example of stroke politics. As if Fianna Fáil would not do the same if they had the opportunity. Phil Hogan was able to turn the tables on Fianna Fáil by accusing them of trying to undermine St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny.
We deserve what we get. We bemoan the fact when we don’t get a local man appointed as a minister. We want to see a local man sitting at the cabinet table, where he will look after the interests of his local area. All politics is local, they say. Issues like Ennis Hospital, Shannon Airport and the potholes outside the gate have a far better chance of being looked after when a local man is a member of the Government.
That’s why we elect our TDs in the first place and that’s why we will always elect them. We vote them in to pull strokes on our behalf. It doesn’t matter to us whether or not our case is stronger than that of any other area. Our parish pump, of course, will always be more important than any other parish pump.
But stroke politics are not confined to Ireland. What else was British Prime Minister David Cameron doing but pulling a stroke when he announced during the week that he would hold a referendum on staying in or getting out of the European Union in five years’ time if the Tories were elected to power?
He was not acting in the interests of Europe and he certainly was not acting in Britain’s interests in making that announcement. The only interest he was serving was that of the Conservative Party, which has a large number of MPs who will always be opposed to membership of the European Union. His announcement has caused a lot of uncertainty about the future of Britain and of the EU and this cannot be good for either.
It could also lead to a new debate in this country about our own future in Europe. We cannot have any idea about our long-term future until we know if Britain, our biggest trading partner, is going to be in or out of Europe.
We joined what was then called the Common Market some 40 years ago because Britain was joining. As long as Britain was out we were out and as long as Britain was in we were in. Does that belief still hold? Did we make a big mistake by joining the Eurozone while Britain opted to stay out?
A lot of Brits do not like to be dictated to by Brussels and a lot of Irish people are also growing more resentful of the fact that we have surrendered a lot of our own independence to Europe over the years. My own strong belief is that we abused a lot of the independence we gained when we left the United Kingdom over 90 years ago.
It is the so-called faceless men in Brussels who are trying to ensure that our water is pure and that the air we breathe is clean. Left to our own devices, we pollute the air and contaminate our lakes and rivers. We fight against Europe when they issue a decree stopping farmers from over-fertilising the land. We resent it when Europe tells us that we must keep our septic tanks to a standard that will ensure that we do not pollute the ground water.
We protest against the imposition of water charges even though those charges are being introduced to ensure we have a clean water supply.
It is Europe that keeps our politicians on their toes on our behalf.
But a lot of people blame Europe for a lot of the economic problems we are stuck with and it looks as if we are going to get a raw deal from Europe in our efforts to get relief from the crippling bank debt we are burdened with.
While the Government will present whatever deal is worked out with our partners in the best light possible, it now looks as if we are only going to get the minimum from Europe in this regard.
While Enda Kenny and Michael Noonan will continue to be good little Europeans deserving the odd paternal pat on the back, Europe will think little of us when it comes to matters that really count.
There has not been much of a debate about whether or not we should stay in or get out of Europe since we joined because the vast majority of us have accepted that membership of the EU has been good for us. That belief may change over the next few years, especially if Britain opts to get out.
There are those, of course, who would always prefer to be ruled from London rather than from Brussels. But apart from the pro-British elements among us, there are also those who do not want to be told by foreigners that they can no longer cut turf from the same bog that their forefathers cut it. Neither do they want to be told how many cows they can have, especially if the Common Agricultural Policy is watered down in any way.
A lot of us prefer the old-style stroke politics that allowed everyone to do what they wanted to.