It’s 35 years since Gubu and we haven’t changed a bit
MAY madness has begun with a bang. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the coining of that incredible Irish political phrase, Gubu – ‘grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, unprecedented’. And the first week of May proves beyond doubt that it is still as applicable today as it was in 1982. The May Day omens were not good. It began in Paris with the grotesque spectacle of left-wing groups petrol-bombing their fellow workers – gleefully cheering when a number of police officers were covered in flames. French police officers, who buried a colleague just a matter of days ago, are among the worst-paid in Europe. Why any left-wing group would regard them as legitimate targets is yet another demonstration of how twisted politics has become.
The Dáil, which has been almost mute when it comes to new legislation – apart from a campaign to legalise cannabis – comes back after a three-week break for Easter, and promptly gets down and dirty with a frenzied debate about whether a minute’s silence is preferable to the traditional prayer. Meanwhile, the headlines are dominated by crises in the Garda Síochána and nursing.
Our Taoiseach heads to Canada to be pictured with the most photogenic world leader, while the pretenders to his throne insist that Irish TV viewers should be subjected to a Fine Gael leadership debate. The fact that we have no hand, act or part in determining the outcome between these two admittedly very photogenic candidates seems to have escaped them.
This week also saw the election of Saudi Arabia to the UN Commission on the Status of Women. The fact that many countries, including Ireland, it seems, voted for a country where women are treated as slaves, with limited voting rights and a bizarre driving ban, onto a committee that is tasked with advancing women’s rights proves that the UN is beyond parody.
Gubu doesn’t even begin to explain this lunacy. If Ireland did indeed vote for this calumny, a grovelling apology is in order.
And our nearest neighbours are not immune from May madness either. The Co-op supermarket group, set up by the Rochdale pioneers over 100 years ago on the basis of fairness and free trade, announces it will sell only ‘British beef’ – with a particular emphasis on eliminating Irish meat from the supermarket shelves in the UK. That the Co-op’s website boasts about its commitment and leadership on ‘fair trade’ proves irony will never die.
And Theresa May decides to play her trump card by magicking up a new enemy in Brussels to galvanise her vote, proving she doesn’t mind that the Tories have become what she once said they were accused of being – the nasty party. In her own words outside Downing street on Wednesday: ‘Threats against Britain have been issued by European politicians and officials. All of these acts have been deliberately timed to affect the result of the general election.’
What she neglected to say was that her party will be the main beneficiary of this EU interference when it annihilates Ukip and decimates the hapless Labour Party.
Forget about what Met Éireann tells us: it is going to be one long hot summer, on the political front at least.