Three Cheers for the Old Folks !

Ireland is not (yet) a racist country, but we are the world champions in ageism.

More than half of our population is under 25, so once you get into the higher numbers, you are supposed to disappear and not spoil the show for the 'youth orchestra'.

Once you pass 40 they look at you with suspicion. What's he still doing here?

If you manage to hold on past the 50 line, the looks will become more annoying. Unbelievable - he's still about. Shouldn't he be well dead by now?

Anything after that is just a mixture of neglect, ignorance and hostility. Nobody takes any longer any notice of you once you pass 60, and at 65 they give you a free national travel pass and a free TV licence. That way they hope you'll either get lost on the buses up the country, or you may die of boredom in front of the dumb-box.

Seven years ago Fianna Fail was short of votes, so they decided to win over the 'grey power' by giving everyone over the age of 70 a free medical card.
The old folks liked that. They'd been ignored for decades, and now they felt that someone was in a sensible way looking after them.
But now the government wants to take these medical cards back, in order to save € 100 million a year. Apart from the fact that it's wrong to rob the elderly of their health care security, it's also a most idiotic political move. Only an imbecile of great incompetence and no political talent at all could come up with such an idea.

But the Irish are no fools, even though the government treats us like such. We are not playing ball with the little bully boy from Offaly and his piggy-bank carrier from Dublin!

Yesterday they tried to undo the damage with a 30-minute press conference that told us nothing but the fact that even the Taoiseach and some of his senior ministers have not a clue about this matter and how to get out of the hole they have dug for themselves and the country.

But then the people took over and completely sidelined the press conference at government buildings.

More than 5000 senior citizens, including quite a few sitting in wheelchairs or walking with Zimmerframes, crutches or sticks, assembled outside Leinster House and demonstrated against the government and the threat to their medical cards. On Monday 1800 elderly people had already voiced their anger at a meeting in Dublin, which was organised by 'Age Action', the 'trade union of the elderly'.

This is a level of activity the government never expected. And indeed such an amount of elderly people on a protest march was a novelty, never to be seen before in the Republic, or anywhere in Ireland.
The old folks did not just march, they also carried placards and shouted slogans. One of the large placards carried said: "Why don't you just shoot us? It would be cheaper!" And that sums up the general feeling of anger, fear, disappointment and distrust that the government has spread in the elderly population.

None of the senior government ministers had the guts to come out and face the demonstrators. Not only are they mean and cruel, they have also exposed themselves as spineless cowards.

Eventually a woman called Máire Hoctor was sent out. Nobody had ever heard of her before, but apparently she's one of four junior ministers in Mary Harney's Health Department, responsible for "older people". Not for old people, mind, but for "older people"... whatever that means.

But the angry pensioners were not in the mood to be lectured and patronised by a second class Fianna Fail apparatchik and told her to shut up. On Monday Hoctor's colleague John Maloney had a similar experience. He was sent to the meeting of 1800 eldery people in a Dublin church, but also was told to get lost when he tried to patronise the gathering. Selecting him as an official government representative to 'Age Action' Ireland was in fact an insult, as Maloney is junior minister for Mental Health and Disability, commonly known as 'minister for the mad and lame'.

The only mad people in this affair are the members of the government, which is a 'lame duck' administration without precedence in Ireland.

It needed the older people to come out and expose the government as the incompetent bunch of nitwits they are. Well done!

Let's have three cheers for the old folks!

They built this country, demonstrated against the Vietnam War and in support of the hunger strikes in the North, worked hard to survive and bring up children. They paid taxes all their lives and are the backbone of the state.
That they have shown once again with the meeting on Monday and the demonstration yesterday morning. Well done, indeed! I salute everyone who was there and showed great courage.

And well done also the 10,000 students who demonstrated two hours later in protest against the government and it's education policy. Next week there will be another march by angry teachers, and in the meantime the farmers have come out of the woodwork as well and contemplate a demonstration, too.

It's early days yet, but when the books will be written on our era, this day - October 22nd, 2008 - might be recognised as the first day of the second Irish Revolution.

Incompetence rules Ireland

We all are humans, and human beings make mistakes. That's normal.

Some of us make more mistakes, others less.

In the real world those who make more mistakes than they should pay the price for it.
They are demoted or even sacked, and then have plenty of time to ponder over their abilities and skills while signing on for the dole.

Only in Irish politics - and especially in Fianna Fail - those who make more mistakes than others are promoted. And the more mistakes they make, the higher up they get.

So we have an arrogant Taoiseach, who is nothing but a rude bully boy from the sticks who got into the Dail at the age of 24 and has not done a decent day's work since.

Mary Coughlan, the woman he chose as his Tanaiste, is Ireland's answer to Sarah Palin and the most clueless and useless politician one can imagine. Bad enough that she's a TD, even worse that she's been a minister for quite some time. But Tanaiste? That's a bad joke.

Looking through the Cabinet, there are not more than three or four people in it who are actually up to the extremely well paid ministerial job they are holding. The rest is a bunch of chancers and fools.

This morning Brian Cowen called a snap press conference "to explain changes to the rules about medical cards".
He appeared shortly before 10 o'clock at government buildings in Dublin, with Green Party leader John Gormley at his right, and Mary Harney at his left.

Never was there a more unholy trinity in Ireland than those three, trying to pull the wool over the people's eyes. But even though our politicians are fools, the people are not. So the attempt to shut the stable door after the horse had bolted was an utter failure, as you might have expected in the first place.

The current government is simply incompetent and not up to the job. They brought the budget forward to deal with the crisis, and by delivering a messy, over-bureaucratic and totally unfair budget, they created an even bigger crisis.
Now they want to talk their way out of that, and what do they do? They insult the intelligence of the majority of Irish people. And behind their backs they have at the same time the next plan ready to screw us ever more and more.

Can you still trust those clowns?

I can not, and in all fairness, I never did and have criticised the present regime for all the eleven years they have ruled us so far. I'm not in any party, and most of them are pretty useless anyway. But I'm Irish, proud of it, and take a very keen interest in the matters of my country.

The way I see it, the members of the current government are breaking their oaths of office they have to say when they are appointed by the President. They are supposed to serve Ireland and her people, defend the country and its interests, and perform their duties to the best of their abilities. On all three elements of the oath the current government is falling short.

At this stage I would not go as far as calling what they do treason, but it comes pretty close to that at times.

None of the three government parties are now led by the person who was party leader during the last general election in 2007. So the people the electorate voted for are no longer in charge, even though most of them are still in politics and in the Dail.

After all what happened in recent weeks and months, I think there is only one fair action for a government in such a deep shitehole: Call a general election! Let the people decide who they want to lead them through the crisis and out of it. Anything else is neither wise nor democratic.

Failing Fianna Fail is heading for China

Taoiseach Brian Cowen was due to leave for China today, heading a large delegation of politicians and businessmen from Ireland.

But the crisis he and his Finance Minister Brian Lenihan caused with the 2009 Budget made him to stay home for another while. And at lunchtime he appeared on This Week, a Sunday current affairs programme on RTE Radio 1, trying to defend his policies and the budget.

He did a bad job, defending the indefensible, and demonstrated once again that he does not derseve the title Taoiseach, which is the Irish word for leader.

Meanwhile the delegation left for China without Cowen and is now headed by his Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe.

It is rumoured that the happy Corkman and former teacher will not only negotiate with the Chinese about trade issues, which is the main purpose of the trip. O'Keeffe may also explore if China is willing to give political asylum to leading Fianna Fail politicians in case they are losing power in Ireland, a possibility ever more likely now.

Shooting from the Lip

Willie O'Dea, TD, Ireland's Minister for Defence,
has now got a new job, defending the indefensible fiscal
atrocities inflicted on the Irish people by the 2009 Budget.
While Finance Minister Brian Lenihan is hiding behind a
'huge workload' in his department, Willie is sent out into the
media as new government spokesman, shooting from the lip
and thus adding insult to the injuries Fianna Fail is inflicting
on us. Often seen as the comedian in the Cabinet, Willie O'Dea
is anything but funny when he tries to tell us that we all have
to bear the extra taxes a wasteful and ignorant government
is settling us with now, ten years after they squandered all the
wealth of the 'Celtic Tiger'. We won't forget this, Willie!

Lenihan robs the Poor and spares the Rich

What do you expect from a lawyer?
- To be taken to the cleaners.

And what do you expect from a lawyer who is Minister for Finance?
- To be taken to the cleaners even more.

So today's Budget should not really surprise you.

We are in recession and the economy is shrinking, thanks to ten years of clueless government that was too busy with filling its own pockets and those of their millionaire cronies. They simply had no time to look after the people and the country, or prepare for the rainy days that inevitably come in Ireland after a period of sunshine.

But now that it not just rains, but pours, Brian Lenihan - a Dublin lawyer, TD and Minister for Finance - has to deliver the bad news to everybody, except Fianna Fail's millionaire cronies of course.
They are getting away with the loot from the 'Celtic Tiger' scot free, laughing all the way to the bank, if they can still find one that is trustworthy.

So, after the government, that was still swimming in extra billions only two years ago, has lost all credibility and squandered all the money, we - the people of Ireland - will have to pay for it.

Well, that's only fair, isn't it? After all, we elected the scoundrels, and kept electing them, since we were too blind, too drunk or both to see what was happening around us.

We all will pay more income tax, which is fine with me. In a crisis we all have to pull together and make a contribution. But what is not correct is that we all have to pay 1% extra, while those with an annual income over € 100,000 pay only 2% extra. They could easily afford 3% or even 5% as a contribution. Or Lenihan could have made a sliding scale: 1% for everyone; 2% for those with more than € 100,000; 3% for those over € 200,000; 4% for those with € 300,000 or more; and 5% for those over € 500,000.
But no, the rich and super-rich are still untouchable in Ireland, at least as long as Fianna Fail is in government.

Instead the over 70-year-olds will be robbed of their medical card, which Fianna Fail gave them seven years ago to buy the grey vote. This - so Lenihan says - will save € 100 million a year. It's a very bad joke. While we are bailing out the corrupt and incompetent banks with up to € 400 billion of state (= taxpayers' money) guarantee, we now have to scrap the barrel for an extra € 100 million from the old age pensioners.

This is not only scandalous, it is declaring war on the old and sick! Almost a kind of state-educed fiscal euthenasia.

There is a lot more, but I won't bore you with the details, as you can read them all in tomorrow's newspapers. As usual cigarettes, wine and petrol will get dearer, and the farmers and millionaires will keep their perks.

Thanks a lot, Brian! You had the chance to make a real mark with your first budget, and you had the opportunity to be seen as a man who cares and can handle money well. Sadly you missed the golden opportunity to unite the people and make the rich pay their share to the national recovery funds. You have not. Instead you prefare to run down the same lane all your shabby predecessors - from Haughey over Bertie to Biffo - have chosen: rob the poor, the old and the young, squeeze the hard-working middle classes, but leave your fat cat cronies in joy and luxury.

It might take another while, but after this budget - on top of all the other bad decisions Fianna Fail made over the past ten years - you will have your come-uppence in good time. Anyone who will still vote Fianna Fail in future deserves to be stripped and robbed of everything and left by the wayside. That's also the place where you will find yourself, after the Irish voters are finished with you and your ilk.

Fifth Incarnation of the Prince of Darkness

When government ministers in Ireland make a mess of things, nothing happens to them. They just carry on as usual. Such is our green Banana Republic (without bananas).

When the same happens in Britain, the minister who misbehaved, mislead parliament or was found with his pants down in one way or another has to resign, and usually quite quickly.

To Peter Mandelson this happened not once, but twice. And he is still one of the most hated men in the UK and in his own party.
Some might say this is strange, and that the British Labour Party is ungrateful to a man who was for years part of the team that made it electable again, after nearly 18 years in opposition. But in politics thanks is the last thing anyone should expect, regardless what he does.

Mandelson is a very bright man, there is no doubt about it. But he is also devious and a true schemer if there ever was one. Since his appointment as Labour's director of communications in 1985 he has done plenty to earn his nickname "The Prince of Darkness".

Together with Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Alistair Campbell (Blair's devious press secretary and communications director) Mandelson was part of the quartet that changed the Labour Party and turned it into "New Labour".
He was also the first of the many Labour "spin doctors". In fact he was the father of all spin and creator of the black art of political shape-shifting which brought "New Labour" to power in 1997 and is still widely practised throughout the British government.

His ministerial career looked at first very promising. After Blair's election victory, Mandelson became his special troubleshooter as "Minister without Portfolio" in the Cabinet Office.
A year later he was promoted to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, but soon after he was forced to resign. Newspapers discovered and published details of a dodgy deal he did a few years earlier when buying a house way above his income level.

For ten months he was in "the wilderness" (as UK politicians call a state of disgrace), but nine years ago, in October 1999, Tony Blair brought him back as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. This time he lasted 16 months, during which he oversaw the creation of the power-sharing agreement between unionists and nationalists. But he was never very popular with either side. There was great suspicion about him and his intensions, not least after he began the job with a strange gaffe. In his very first speech he referred to himself as the "Secretary of State for Ireland." Not the kind of thing Irish people like to hear, especially not if they are nationalists.

In January 2001 Peter Mandelson had to resign again over an interference at the Home Office, where he had intervened on behalf of the billionaire Hinduja brothers, Indian businessmen who had obtained British citizenship with his help. It did not help that the brothers were investigated by the Indian government over an arms selling scandal.

In the 2001 general election he retained his seat, but stayed on the backbenches and kept fairly quiet. It came as a bit of a surprise to many when Tony Blair gave him a forth incarnation in the Autumn of 2004 - just four years ago - and appointed him as the British EU Commissioner. He was given the Trade portfolio and soon made himself a lot of new enemies throughout Europe and around the world over his attitudes in the World Trade negotiations.

Especially angry were the Irish farmers, who even staged one of their rare mass protests over Mandelson's policies in Dublin earlier this year.

After four years in Brussels it was an even bigger surprise that Gordon Brown, Blairs successor as British Prime Minister, called him back into the Cabinet in his recent reshuffle.
Mandelson is once again heading the Department of Trade & Industry, now renamed Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and is also President of the Board of Trade.

But since Mandelson is no longer an MP and Labour does not want to risk yet another by-election - having lost the recent ones spectacularly and facing another one soon in Scotland - Mandelson was made a Lord instead. This is the first time for ages that a Secretary of State sits in the House of Lords instead of the House of Commons. And for Mandelson - now The Right Hon. Baron Mandelson of Foy and Hartlepool (which is his former constituency) - it is the fifth political incarnation.

They say that cats have nine lives. I wonder how many the "Prince of Darkness" has...