Irish populist revolt cannot be far away
THERE is a seething silent majority out there who are hurting and have yet to stand up and shout: ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not taking it any more.’ They are the so-called squeezed middle, those families caught between the well-paid professionals above and those below who are cushioned by social welfare.
Their parents were described as ‘home-owning working class’ 30 years ago and they were the backbone of the country. With careful budgeting, planning and sacrifices they could own a house, educate their children and even take a summer holiday in Spain.
But their children are destined to be the first generation in a century to be noticeably poorer than their parents. Now only the most privileged can afford to buy a home and many home-owning working class folk are employed casually, marginalised in perpetual insecurity.
Housing choices for them are minimal: either living with parents or renting.
A young couple with children could easily have to pay rent of €2,000 a month. So saving for a mortgage is all but impossible. Failure to provide circumstances where buying a modest home is possible, is without doubt the biggest failure of seven years of Fine Gael-led governments.
A lot of fanfare accompanied the launch of the Government’s drive to make more houses available two years ago. Last week a report showed that more people need houses now than when the campaign began.
Why, you would wonder, has the Irish squeezed middle’s disaffection not morphed into a populist movement to unseat the political elite who have presided over this failure? Central European and US voters are striking back at a metropolitan elite that impoverished them but Irish bankers escaped with impunity from the crash they caused more than a decade ago. The people who crashed the Irish economy are mostly the same people in charge of the banks and institutions now and earning sixand seven-figure salaries.
Populism ignores borders and its anti-immigrant nationalism in central European EU states attracted a protest vote similar to what elected Donald Trump to the White House.
Intercontinental resentment of the old order begs a local question: When will the Irish squeezed middle’s protest votes count in Irish elections? Our politicians ignore at their peril the muted anger of a generation who feel their legitimate expectations were betrayed. The squeezed middle has not yet found a champion for their cause – or a suitable political channel for their anger.
DISILLUSIONED voters in the US voted for Donald Trump because he articulated their revulsion of the metropolitan liberal elite epitomised by Hillary Clinton. Disenfranchised Americans ignored Trump’s ignorance to rejoice when he castigated the Clintons and mocked Republican bluebloods like the Bushes.
President Obama had lofty ideals but he left a vacuum at the heart of America and it was filled by poor, angry people hell-bent on change.
And their choice is a billionaire property developer with bad manners and worse hair who speaks their language.
Leo Varadkar has championed lofty liberal ideas but left a vacuum where there should be a housing policy. Politicians have explained to me that many more people have houses than people who need them and therefore the homeless crisis is politically manageable.
Now that is just the sort of cynicism that may just inspire the squeezed middle to stand up and shout: ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not taking any more.’