Coalition plan critics are missing the point
All was not well before the pandemic hit, nor has it been since the economic crash in 2008, writes Jody Corcoran
THE most predictable thing about the Fianna Fail-Fine Gael coalition framework document was the uniformly sceptical reaction to its publication.
Politicians, economists and the media responded in a similar fashion, singing from the same tired, old hymn sheet: the document was a wish-list designed by the dastardly two Civil War parties to lure into their death-knell embrace an unsuspecting smaller party; to cling on to power at all costs, and it would never be implemented anyway because it was too unaffordable. Where were the costings, parroted some who would not know one end of a balance sheet from the other.
What this reaction tells us — to use the term — is that the “Establishment” has still not internalised two things: one, the causes behind the general election result here; and two, that the coronavirus pandemic will globally change many things forever.
Politicians, economists and the media are still stuck in what we can call the Theresa May “money tree” moment, circa 2017.
That year, the then UK prime minister came under fire for telling a nurse “there is no magic money tree” to fund a pay increase, which had been stuck at the same level since 2009, while living costs soared.
As we have discovered during this pandemic, there was a money tree out there after all, but what was lacking was the global political ingenuity or will to shake it.
Ah, but the bill will still have to be paid, they say. And that’s true. Well, up to a point, Lord Copper: the role of central banks everywhere and the ECB, and the still live potential for Coronabonds should not be discounted.
But there are other money trees out there to be shaken, if the “Establishment” really wants to do so: the introduction of carbon taxes and the unleashing of a new green deal economy is one way of paying for it; the imposition of corporation taxes agreed at OECD level is another, and the enthusiasm for that feels more real after this pandemic.
And doubtless there are many untouched money trees in the various offshore tax havens around the globe, as international media investigations have revealed in the recent
years.
But the real point lost on Mrs May and politicians, economists and the media here, who rounded on the new framework document, is that all was not well before the pandemic hit; nor has it been, in fact, since the economic crash in 2008 when that nurse in the UK and our “heroes” here last received a pay rise.
That point being lost, it is implicit in the criticism of the framework document that many within the “Establishment” believe the economy and all that flows from it eventually — sooner rather than later they hope — will not just recover, but go back to the way it was before Covid-19.
But there will be no going back…
For coronavirus has starkly revealed the fragile state of the world economy since the crash in 2008; and has exposed, for example, the many small businesses that were clinging on, and confirmed that many people were living hand to mouth, week to week, at risk of losing the roof over their head at any time.
And that is no longer sustainable…
The difference this time, since 2008, is that countries across the globe are in recovery mode together, and it is in all their interests that their economies recover and do so quickly, but more than that — and this is critical — that they do so in a more sustainable and balanced manner into the future.
And for that to happen, younger voters will need to make their voices heard as never before.
The uneven recovery since the 2008 crash, in terms of an urban-rural divide, and inequality of outcomes for different cohorts and groups, particularly for younger people, is what gave rise to the seismic general election result here last February, from which Sinn Fein benefited.
In attempting to form a new government, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have gone it alone without Sinn Fein, and ultimately may come to regret that. We’ll know in five years.
What is evident, though, is how much the Civil
War parties have taken from Sinn Fein, or least ways, from the outcome of the election. Change was coming anyway, Covid-19 or not.
As a result, a singletier health system is on the horizon, a living wage on the agenda, climate action policies will be implemented with or without the Greens, a referendum on land ownership is on the cards and even the question of a united Ireland has been taken into the light and away from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
And still the triumvirate of broken record politicians, economists and media are stuck in the past.
This is all aspiration stuff, they scoff in cynicism. To which the answer can only be: and what is wrong with a bit of aspiration in these our darkest days?
So, well done Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, I say. And as for the rest of you, it’s time to get on board. The future train is about to leave the station.
‘Younger voters need to make their voices heard as never before’