Our politicians must stop the self-pity and show leadership

WE ARE all feeling the strain. Months of lockdown, with an extremely long, phased exit, are exacting a price from us all: from our mental and physical wellbeing, and from our economic opportunities.

Yes, it is right that we should have some sympathy for our elected leaders, who are also feeling the strain. Several members of the Government spoke to the Irish Mail on Sunday this week, addressing the Covid-19 pandemic and the response to it on two fronts. Firstly, there was their own frustration at living under lockdown – one senior member of the Government cited his anguish at not being able to attend funerals. This newspaper sympathises with anyone excluded from the necessary rite of giving an appropriate farewell to the people we share our parishes and our lives with.

What is less easy to have sympathy with is the complaint by members of the Government that they are being presented with the policies and protocols designed to deal with the pandemic as a fait accompli.

From some of our legislators, there are complaints about the influence of unelected officials and civil servants, who are designing policies in which the politicians claim to have little say.

This isn’t leadership, though – it is self-pitying and self-serving. If a member of the Government feels the advice he or she is getting is wrong, they need to rigorously question it and, if they deem it necessary, to show political courage to reject it. Silently implementing advice you believe to be wrong is political cowardice.

There have been criticisms of our teachers for initially failing to agree to mark students who were due to sit the Leaving Cert, citing legal advice that they may not have sufficient indemnity from being sued. The issue was later resolved.

They are also setting up what seem like needless hurdles to a return to classes in September, an approach superficially not in the spirit of the battle the country is facing.

It certainly does not appear to match the heroic efforts of the frontline workers who keep our hospitals running and our supermarket shelves stacked with the goods we need.

In tone, though, the teachers could reasonably argue they are taking their cue from our political leaders, some of whom seem deficient in the commitment of our essential workers, who are showing up and doing what is necessary.

Perhaps the teachers are sensing the tone from a Government whose members are blaming each other and their advisers. Perhaps they sense that what is coming is what has marked this State from its foundation. At some point, there has to be a scapegoat in order for our leaders to say they did what they were advised, but the advice was flawed or downright wrong, or one sector refused to cooperate.

This is not what we expect at this time. We expect clarity and, yes, if need be, we expect confrontation. The time for blind compliance between Government and advisers, whether medical experts or civil servants, is over. Advice is just that – politicians are there to make decisions. They are there to govern.