The old political stories don’t cut it today

There’s no truth more powerful than the truth people uncover for themselves, writes Gene Kerrigan

WHAT’S politics about? Well, say the pundits, we have two political camps. On the one hand, we have Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour. These parties are run by “responsible”, “sensible” people who believe in prudent government spending.

These people “want to govern”, they’re not afraid of making “tough decisions”. They’re not right wing, they’re certainly not “loony left”. They’re “pragmatic”. They provide costings for their policies.

On the other hand, we’re told, we have some wild TDs. These TDs and those who voted them in are not too bright and are easily moved to “outrage”.

These politicians, mostly left-wing TDs and councillors, are “populist”. They want to do only what is “popular”, they like to whip up “outrage”. They won’t make “tough decisions”. They’re slow to “cost” their policies. They “don’t want to pay for anything”. They “don’t want to govern”. And they don’t wear “proper” clothes in the Dail.

This is not my caricature of how politics is presented, it’s the daily norm.

Somewhere in the middle of all this is Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein’s smart people were able to correct Michael Noonan’s figures — but, on the other hand, well, y’know yourself, it’s only been 23 years since the IRA ceasefire.

SF might eventually fulfil the “responsible” historic role of propping up FF or FG in coalition. Or they might break to the left (breaking bad, so to speak).

These are the assumptions that underlie most of what passes for political analysis today.

Most of the chat we hear broadcast, most analysis we read, has to fit into this template, or it’s not taken seriously. Anything outside this view of politics is not regarded as a legitimate part of the national conversation —it’s “populist”.

There are a number of things wrong with this way of seeing things. By far the most important is that it’s wildly at odds with what most of us have seen happen over the past 15 years.

During the boom, we remember getting letters from the banks, again and again, offering us cheap loans, seeking to expand our credit card limits, almost on a monthly basis. And most of us ignored them — but we wondered what else was going on and why “responsible” politicians were letting this happen.

We saw the politicians cheering on the banks and the speculators and we wondered was this OK — but the experts said it was, and the media made high society heroes of them all.

Runaway populism. But we’re not supposed to say that, now.

Anyone questioning all this was not alone dismissed as economically ignorant, they were unpatriotic, “talking down the country”.

All of this was presided over by the “responsible” parties.

And when the bust came, we saw the “responsible” parties bet more than €400bn on the solidity of the banks, the greatest act of fiscal recklessness in the history of the State.

Mainstream economics said austerity doesn’t work in a recession, but the EU had other ideas.

They sent Commissioner Olli Rehn over to tell Michael Noonan about Harvard economists Reinhart and Rogoff. Rehn lauded these two for scientifically proving that austerity was necessary.

By the time it was discovered that Reinhart and Rogoff got the stats wrong, austerity had already extended the recession unnecessarily.

Our “responsible” analysts mostly forget to mention any of this.

We watched the politicians bow and scrape to EU aristocrats, we saw a foreign leader patronisingly tickle our Taoiseach’s neck for the cameras.

We heard the “responsible” politicians claim they had achieved “burden sharing”, then we heard them saying they never even bothered to seek it, because it wasn’t important anyway.

We heard pet economists tell us that tens of billions given to bankers was no big deal, it was getting the deficit down to 3pc that mattered. Olli Rehn said so.

And we watched as they hid their tongues in their cheeks.

Tens of billions given to bankers. Our politicians fighting to prevent the EU making Apple pay the €13bn in taxes it owes us. Yet, the quaint notion persists that social service policies must be meticulously “costed” to the last cent.

Today, “responsible” parties preside over rampant homelessness. At the same time, with populist glee, they cheer as property prices rocket.

There was a time when political discussion was largely controlled by a small media officer corps. But, today, social media has changed things. An example. The Troika periodically sent people over to pat us on the head. They had press conferences. They weren’t used to taking actual questions — they were here to tell us to keep taking the austerity tablets.

Then, Vincent Browne asked a question of one of them, Klaus Masuch of the ECB — why were we being forced to pay tens of billions to bail out a defunct bank? Weren’t we being made pay to save the European banks?

Masuch dodged the question, filled time with waffle. Browne asked again. And Masuch not alone didn’t answer — it was clear that he was aghast at being expected to explain himself.

Henceforth, the Troika didn’t bother with such press conferences.

It’s on video. There are a number of versions on the internet — I counted just the obvious ones and stopped at almost 1.2m views.

Why did this gather such heavy traffic? It’s slow, it’s not funny, Vincent is being subtle but persistent — yet massive numbers of people sought it out and understood what was being done to us, in a way that no mere media report could tell us. We saw it happen. Social media is awash with grudges, obsessions, paranoia, misunderstandings and lies. But never have so many discovered truth for themselves.

Before the 2011 election, Labour sought a mandate against water charges; after it got into office, its TDs fought to impose water charges.

The media shrugged — this naked opportunism wasn’t a story. On social media, the duplicity was laid bare.

The water privatisation plans were online — we saw them; they were taken down. The media shrugged.

Whenever people find the truth themselves, those who have ignored it lose credibility.

Today, a politician sucks up to us and an hour later there are ten Twitter links showing him taking the opposite position last year.

Bizarrely, the political establishment continues as though the media context hasn’t changed. A few weeks ago, the Taoiseach made a false charge against Paul Murphy TD, in the Dail. Anyone paying the slightest attention knew it was false — the “responsible” establishment reported the charge as though it was legitimate.

Large numbers of people see this.

They can call up the video in seconds, and in another few seconds the evidence disproving it.

Within a day, these truths can circulate to vast numbers.

The “populist” TDs have changed the story on the Garda whistleblowers, on Nama and the vulture capitalists. And such matters are central to our society.

Maurice McCabe is a hero today. For too long — until Clare Daly and Mick Wallace got mouthy — the “responsible” parties wished he’d just go away.

To this day the “responsible” parties are afraid to look at the truth of Nama and the vultures feeding off it. They’ve instead moved to limit the Dail speaking rights of the minorities and to take that time for themselves.

The lazy analysis, the story ignored, still works. And the old story repeated, of “responsible” parties and “populist” eejits.

But it’s on the wrong side of history.

‘Whenever people find the truth themselves, those who have ignored it lose credibility’