Leo’s attack on media shows his arrogance
THE comments from Leo Varadkar about the media are exactly why people are sick of the established political system and such easy prey for populists.
I don’t suppose it ever occurred to him that if politicians didn’t engage in tittle-tattle, nonsense and selective leaking, and weren’t so careless with the truth in the first place, the media wouldn’t be able to report on them.
If only politicians took responsibility and fixed things when they went wrong, and used a fraction of the time and energy spent on deflecting issue to actually find solutions.
If only they were more honest about their expenses and their fundraising, lobbying and myriad vested interests they seem beholden to, the public might be more willing to trust them.
If they stopped pretending they ‘got’ someone a medical card or a planning permission etc they might be held in less contempt.
But a good start would be to stop saying one thing when they think they are among their own, and another in public.
I assume the Taoiseach made his comments in that usual sleeveen Irish way of wanting to tell the audience what they want to hear.
But he forgot, of course, that every word he says is noted and can be read back to him, as it should be.
He should be careful because an election is coming sooner or later and he is a man who has never had to properly earn any of the astounding advantages he was given in life, but he will be the main target of an election and the evidence so far indicates that the more people get to see Leo, the less they like his arrogance And the less he is fawned over, the harder he finds it to keep up the pretence that he cares about those less fortunate than himself.
It might go over well in the Handmaid’s Tale dystopian world of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan but he’ll find his local audience in Ireland a bit harder to impress with the type of cocky arrogance that was last seen at the Bishop’s Conference. We know how that turned out. DESMOND FITZGERALD,
London.
Listen to us survivors
LAST week I flew from the UK with my family to attend the unveiling of the new Bethany Mother and Baby Home memorial in Dublin.
Over 71 names were added to the 222, already on the headstone, of those who died as infants and babies and children. It was a bittersweet event. We honoured our fallen brothers and sisters who died many years ago, but there were gaps in our numbers.
Living survivors who stood beside us only a few short years ago, have passed away.
We few Protestant survivors are almost extinct; this is exactly what the State and Protestant Churches want.
Of course, the archbishops and hierarchy will claim otherwise, but actions speak louder than words. They have done little or nothing to help us and have never helped with a good heart. Every scrap from their table has been hard fought for by survivors.
The last letter, a full six years ago, was ignored and no amount of letters will help. Letters and forced half-hearted words are of no use to the last survivors.
What we need is to see the archbishops and the princes of the Protestant Churches truly fight for the last handful of survivors. Our Protestant leadership needs to collectively and publicly call on the Government to stop treating Protestants as though they are not Irish: to stop denying until we are dead. They need to call for justice – from their pulpits and on the streets!
If the archbishops and hierarchy were to do this, it would all be over very soon, as they know all too well. Archbishops we need your help and we need it now please.
DEREK LINSTER Rugby, Warwickshire.
Stop the EU gravy train
ANTHONY Manser (Mail, Tuesday) hit the nail on the head when he said that Britain has already proposed a solution that allows for a soft border, but it has been automatically rejected by Messrs Barnier & Co. Now a soft border is what the people of this island, north and south, want, I may add, so why, one may ask, would the EU reject this proposal?
The answer is simple, for a start the EU is currently in deep trouble dealing with a difficult migration issue. Besides that, when Britain’s financial gravy train ends in March 2019, an EU collapse is not beyond anyone’s imagination?
On top of that, other EU countries are beginning to show some disillusionment with the EU’s infrastructure and are making tentative inquires about finding other countries that they may wish to trade with.
It is a bad sign when any group of countries has to depend upon a jackboot policy to control its member states and when those countries have been coerced by their own politicians to join up and then found themselves swamped deeply in debt.
In conclusion, there are some British politicians, along with a cabal of unelected retirees, protecting a £300million fund for daily allowances. This says all that needs to be said about the horrors of the European Union and its desire to thwart the legal right of the British people to leave. HARRY STEPHENSON,
Kircubbin, Co. Down.