Back with a lesson in democracy, it’s Farage
I DON’T know about you, but I am delighted to see man of the people Nigel Farage coming back to British politics to ensure the referendum/democratic will of the electorate is carried out at this point.
This cannot be too difficult to understand, yet the insidious nature of the EU has been hard at work to thwart and destroy UK democracy insofar as it is allowed to in this regard.
It will not happen that unelected civil servants and dictators in Brussels and Berlin will get their way and frighten the British people into submission. Theresa May has been somewhat weakened by events in her domestic politics, but this in no way weakens the UK in its previous voting determination.
Mr Farage will kick-start the stalled process in favour of Britain and give renewed vigour and patriotism to the good hearts in Britain. Everyone, including sections of media and the undemocratic EU, which Éire backs to the hilt, are about to learn that democracy still flickers from a spark to a flame, and is alive and well, waiting to see our vote results count for something more than a contrived dispute by the ‘losing’ side.
The hierarchy within the EU are hell-bent on national politics counting for naught. The bottom line is that the EU doesn’t care about the UK leaving its so-called union – so long as it can destroy the economy of Britain in its wicked process of ostracisation and total exclusion. EU ‘tactics’ only serve to alienate other countries of their bloc, also. Think again: Britain is well used to going it alone and prospering. Welcome back, Nigel. ROBERT SULLIVAN, Bantry, Co. Cork.
Myopic appointment
I AM deeply concerned that there is so little public examination of the proposed appointment of Drew Harris as the next Garda Commissioner.
I have no issue with his personal talents – I know very little about him, but I am sure he is a fine individual. But, as an officer in the RUC and, latterly, the PSNI, he would have taken an oath in perpetuity under the UK’s Official Secrets Acts. As Garda Commissioner, he will be obliged to take an oath under our Official Secrets Act. This would place him in the anomalous and potentially invidious position of swearing an allegiance in perpetuity to two sovereign states – in the service of both, even though their interests might be contrary or adverse, viz perhaps a no-deal Brexit, say.
For this reason, I think his appointment would be both myopic and dangerous. Is there a titter of wit at all in the Cabinet to proceed with this? Our forebears, conversely, had such vision, transmitted down to us over the generations in the seanfhocal, ‘Ní féidir leis an ngobadán an dá thrá a fhreastal’ (‘The sandpiper cannot attend to both shores’). It seems the wisdom of the ages is left outside the door in Merrion Street.
CLLR JOE CONWAY, Tramore, Co. Waterford. I AM surprised that a busy Government minister had the authority, from the Irish taxpayer, to embroil himself in paying homage to a so-called hero on Sunday.
I suggest that if the brave Michael Collins were alive today he would be named on an international arrest warrant, and face trial in the Hague. To my mind he was one of the greatest tyrants Ireland ever reared. Prior to the 1921 Treaty he created murder and mayhem.
After the Treaty he majored in hunting and condemning the Irish who disagreed with his bullying. How much longer must we wait until his followers apologise for the man’s outrages?
Minister Michael Creed was disingenuous in using that Béal na Bláth pedestal for a spot of ‘kick the Pope’. While the Pontiff has many questions he must answer, our Government has treated Irish woman appallingly over the years and has never apologised to these citizens.
Remember it was not the Pope who enacted the 2012 Pensions Act; it was all the members of the Oireachtas – not one objected.
This outrage has the intended and real effect of depriving mostly women of their full earned contributory pension and impoverishing them in their old age.
Many of the disenfranchised are the same women who were ‘political’ victims of the enforced marriage bar.
Mr Creed and his cronies have nothing to say on this disgusting behaviour. It is time for Irish politicians to stop hiding in the long shadow of the Pope.
DENIS O’HIGGINS, Monaghan.
Little incentive to work
THIS country has turned into a welfare state to such an extent that people are not encouraged to look for work.
The Government is considering raising PRSI contributions to pay the welfare bill, and the Opposition parties are calling for more money to be given to all welfare recipients. I don’t mind OAPs getting a bit extra. But there are too many people on welfare of some kind and the hard-pressed workers are going to be screwed again.
Many of those workers have not got a rise in over ten years and are struggling to make ends meet.
It’s about time those workers were looked after. If not, the workers should stand up and be counted.