Community and country must be the top priority
WELL, it’s been endless: procrastination, recrimination and rumination not to mention talks about talks about talks. And now it’s the final countdown and the day of reckoning is almost hand. A new government is possibly upon us.
Well, it had better be because a weary populace is in no humour at all for more of the posturing, preening and grandstanding the politicians like to go on with. Of course it could all have been avoided. Leo Varadkar’s ratings have shot up and it’s not solely because he is seen to have handled the virus crisis well. It is mainly that he was so visible, the very visibility that was so lacking during the course of the last government. All we were hearing was silence, soundbites and rumours.
Let’s hope they have all learned something: talk to people and keep them in the loop. Explain things properly. There is also the small matter of the pandemic.
When Leo delivered his speech to the nation those few months ago, we had no idea where we were going, but the fear one felt was in direct proportion to one’s age.
Now the panic is over and I fear it’s business as usual, not just with the politicians, but with the general public as well; a lot of attitude and not much gratitude. It’s time for compromises within the parties, time for the reality check and time for all of us to prioritise country and community.
JOAN GRENNAN, Sligo.
Political Wonderland
THE more I think about government formation probabilities in Ireland, 130-plus days after a general election in February, the more my mind is brought to think of the possibilities of rotating taoisigh offering new opportunities for political spinning, the likes of which we have never seen before in our republic.
Will we have rotating taoisigh and spinning tánaistes – it’s all very Alice In Wonderland, with the Mad Hatters and hurlers on the ditches throwing their oar in whilst the Queen of Hearts yells ‘off with his head’ and ‘off with their heads’ from the Opposition benches on the sidelines.
Maybe the new coalition government born out of the ending of the Civil War politics and an attempt to Green the political landscape in this Covidean epoch will tame the viral Jabberwocky of our times.
Curious political times lie ahead, which will only become curiouser and curiouser.
PAUL HORAN, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin.
Well said, Brenda
SUCH an excellent article from Brenda Power (Mail, Tuesday). All of my life l have been weight aware and l believe we are responsible for our own weight gain.
As for Jenni Murray blaming her mother for her weight problems, it’s about time she said goodbye to her mother and hello to herself. Just to quote the last paragraph in Brenda’s brilliant article: ‘There is a big difference between giving a young child the message that their weight is not their fault – because in childhood it really isn’t – and in telling them that there is nothing they can do about it. The solutions are in their parents’ hands right now; let’s hope they don’t just reach for the excuses.’ Well said, Brenda! MAUREEN FULLAM,
Lucan, Co. Dublin.
On the other hand...
I FELT compelled to write after reading the Brenda Power column in Tuesday’s newspaper. I was disappointed to read Ms Power’s comments regarding obesity and the overweight, but not surprised as she has previously spoken about this on RTÉ.
As someone who has put on weight through medication, antipsychotics for resistant depression, and yes I like my food, I really have an issue with the way she talks about people like me.
I have just as much value as a slim or thin person and deserve to enjoy my life regardless of my size or shape. I don’t think Ms Power would have felt the need to criticise someone who is thin.
I am positive that anyone who read her comments won’t feel miraculously like losing weight but will in turn feel so bad about themselves that it will have a negative impact on them.
People who are fat know they are fat, they really don’t need the likes of Ms Power’s input.
Name supplied.
Climate hysteria’s back
THERE appears to be a second wave of climate hysteria doing the rounds in the past week. It was grand for a while there with a curve to flatten.
This perceived ‘issue’ will always be way down the list on the vital priority aims of the whole planet.
Humans are first and last concerned with health and our economic welfare rather than with wishy-washy, latter-day hippyish idle bleating about how we are destroying the world.
Sensible people who have to do real work for a living are not in the least bit interested in the paranoid nonsense which is part and parcel of pseudo-science.
We do not care if the planet dies in four billion or in a million years’ time. Life is too important and beautiful to be worrying about something which is meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
We’ll be fine, so just try to have some fun and carry on regardless. ROBERT SULLIVAN,
Bantry, Co. Cork.