Don’t make us go to the polls again this winter
HAVING a Christmas election is great as it will mean our political class will be working like beavers in self-preservation, the one task at which they all get 100%.
An election unwanted and unlikely to markedly change Dáil arithmetic is about to happen because of Tweedledum and his twin brother Tweedledee.
The blame game will be spun again and again.
Leo Varadkar does not wish to be seen as weak, allowing Fianna Fáil to dictate to Fine Gael while Micheál Martin, cautious and even cowardly on earlier divisive issues, now knows it is ‘last chance saloon time’ – as an election now stymies the Taoiseach and increasing Fine Gael popularity, and negates the real threat of Sinn Féin minus the divisive leadership of Gerry Adams.
Neither Fine Gael nor Fianna Fáil, represented excellently by Varadkar and Martin, give two thraneens about Ireland Inc.
Brexit, budget legislation, housing and ‘whatever’ will be used by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to ‘blacken’ each other.
Indeed, both political leaders are concerned first and last with electoral success.
Even the cats, never mind the dogs, in the street know that with proportional representation there is, in 2017, little chance of a dramatic change in Dáil arithmetic.
Thus another ‘hung parliament’ is likely as long as Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ignore unity and both reject Sinn Féin. JOHN P KELLY, Clontarf, Dublin.
...HERE we are facing into weeks of very difficult negotiations concerning Brexit.
So, what do these people that claim to be in politics for the good of their country do?
These self-serving bounders that frequently accost us on the streets and at our homes at election time making outlandish promises – which they rarely keep – have a stupid, selfish, nest-feathering spat that can only precipitate a pre-Christmas general election, leaving the country rudderless at a momentously precarious time in our national history.
Are these people ‘our friends’ or opportunists who couldn’t care less for the well-being of the poor, unfortunate people they rhetorically claim to represent?
I exhort each and every individual and political party wallowing in this self-indulgent quagmire to, just for once in your miserable public lives, do the right thing – put the interests of your country ahead of whatever it is that ails you all.
We, the electorate, are watching very carefully – and, make no mistake about it, your actions are speaking louder than your weasel words.
EUGENE CASSIDY, Co. Cavan.
...WITH momentum building for another general election, Fine Gael and its flunkies darkly mutter about political opportunism.
But it’s the political process itself – specifically the illusion of an independent democracy which exists in name only – that’s the real disgrace. Assuming there’s another political hiatus, the country can survive perfectly well with no Government given a functioning civil service. Belgium and Spain managed business as normal without central government: in Spain’s case for 300 days, for Belgium a record 541 days.
The mounting political crisis offers the electorate a glorious opportunity to strike a devastating blow to the domestic political system.
The electoral weapon of mass destruction comprises but one word: boycott. VICTOR KUSS, Killiney, Co. Dublin.
Road to rehabilitation
THE Rehab Group has decided to ‘rebrand’ at an estimated cost of €40,000 (Irish Daily Mail, Friday).
The group, established in 1949, has decided that the word ‘rehab’ is now associated with drug addiction and alcoholism. What ‘Rehab’ means to me is enormous salaries, expenses and consultancy fees.
The ‘rebrand’ is a cynical effort to change our minds about its history and image and fool the public into making donations.
A rose by any other name will have the same smell. PHILOMENA KENNEDY,
Galway city.
Plastic peril
I AM fed up with having to take responsibility for the plastic contamination of the environment.
Consumers do not have a choice as to how the goods we buy are packaged, but are held responsible for how these non-biodegradable items are disposed of.
The people who are responsible are the manufacturers and retailers.
Plastic bags should be replaced with paper bags; plastic milk and juice containers with glass bottles; and plastic takeaway food trays with cardboard.
M. HALLAM, Bolton.
Wrong Time
IT appears that US president Donald Trump doesn’t want to be Time magazine’s ‘person of the year’ for 2017.
Time magazine has, in hindsight, occasionally got it wrong with Haile Selassie, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Ruhollah Khomeini being some of the title-holders who are no longer held in so positive a regard.
This is probably not the peer group that most people would want to be a member of anyway! DENNIS FITZGERALD,
Melbourne, Australia.