Time to stop the constant self-pity

Sir — Is anybody else sick and tired of reading articles, or listening to people being interviewed on radio and television, bemoaning the lack of integrity and honesty of our politicians, and doing the “we poor people deserve better than these greedy, dishonest charlatans” routine?

We don’t. We have, in one of the favourite words of this age, choice. We choose to put Fianna Fail, Fine Gael or, in this current Government, the Greens, into power, even though we know exactly what will happen when we do.

Maybe, just maybe, if the “poor, undeserving of this” people tried voting for somebody who isn’t Fianna Fail, Fine

Gael, Greens, Sinn Fein, Labour, etc, we might have a different attitude to the governance of this country. It seems choice only matters when it comes to referendums and not to whom we elect. At the end of the day, it’s a democracy we live in so if anyone is to blame it’s the “poor people”. Let’s not feel too sorry for ourselves.

Pat Duffy,

Limerick city