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Sunday 6 November 2011

This bespeaks crippling arrogance

When the Irish Public voted in Micheal D Higgens as our President, I did not make a post speculating on what this could mean for the country, I opted to stay silent and see what would happen. I had not expected the poet would win it, nor did I expect his party to do well in the By-Elections. (my money was on Gallagher winning it, but it just goes to show you the Irish can be strange voters, opting instead to vote for the quiet man).

However, of course, I did not have to wait long for something to happen that betrays the second largest party in government's true intentions.

The last government, Fianna Fail, and today's Government, Fianna Gael-Labour, have very little difference between them in terms of how they act in government, and I already moaned about what I saw as a betrayal of its electorate that Fianna Gael handed over 'desireable' ministries to Labour as part of the co-alition even if it had been something of a campaign promise to cut back on, (public sector anyone?), their casual breaking of campaign promises and, of Course, Eamon Gilmore and Shatter's treatment of people opposing the Referenda which would have given the Oireachtas much more power then it should rightfully have betrays a hellish sense of statist elitism which goes beyond the usual political class' disdain for virtually everyone in the country.

But oh of course they're not done yet, feeling foolishly secure after their candidate had won the presidential Election, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore goes right ahead and announces the Closure of the Irish Embassy at the Holy See, and that the Irish Ambassador, well there and Tehran, Eamon Gilmore is giving a not too subtle hint as to what he thinks about the Holy See by this move.

I could go into a list of the reasons why closing the embassy is a politically foolish thing to do, and a historical insult given how the Holy See was the first to establish full diplomatic relations with Ireland back when we were still a dominion of the Empire. But we all know that this move is not motivated by political expedience, as hateful a cause as that can be, but rather by the utterly worse cause of symbolism. Eamon Gilmore is trying to further foment hostility in the Irish government, and the Irish public if it can get away with it, against the Holy See, and I don't think I have to explain why, they are Socialists, they answer should come easily enough.

This bespeaks crippling arrogance, Labour's position is not so secure it can try to pull diplomatic coups like this, nor can it tirade against the public when they dont get their way all the time on referenda, and expect not to have consequences for it. Higgins didn't win the election so much as Gallagher lost it, and they didn't gain seats in the previous Dail elections so much as Fianna Fail lost them, Labour's position is not so secure that it can continue acting this way without facing nasty surprises in the future, I do not expect the publicity stunt of closing the Holy See embassy to be what ticks the Irish Public off, but it will certainly help compound the overall effect. The Socialists will be facing a nasty surprise come the next elections if they carry on this way, hopefully one that obliterates their party's political foothold.

9 comments:

  1. Unspeakable indeed. What can you say to that?

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  2. I think you're right. This wasn't driven by simple financial concerns. This was an ideologically-motivated political decision by the Labour leadership. A leadership that (like EVERY single socialist and communist party that has ever secured power "for the ordinary working people") is drawn largely from the well-educated end of the middle class spectrum.

    Champagne socialist doesn't even begin to describe these imposters and hypocrites.

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  3. You are right.

    Following your line of thought. Labour and Fine Gael did not win the election, it was simply Fianna Fail who lost!

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  4. Sorry to ask an off-topic question, but I've been wondering.
    What kind of monarchy do you envision for Ireland? Who would be King, Emperor, or whatever Irish title applies?

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  5. @ A.Nicot, at the moment I do not support any one particular candidate for the Throne, but I have heard of any number of candidates such as a certain prince of House hohenzollern-Romanov being crowned king, the Duke of Bavaria of House Stuart-Wittlesbach being crowned king of a Jacobite Ireland, (not fond of this one, it would require us to be a territory of a 'British' Crown), no other Jacobite candidates as yet as well as any number of supporters for the Various Irish Chiefs of the name of which I think we have 14 for a reasonably healthy aristocracy, plus the last few feudal knighthoods in Europe/World and a couple of baronies here in the North should we be incorporated. I am more in favour of electing a High King from the council of the Chieftans myself. The Proper title would be High King or Ard Ri, the title of Emperor would be a style in line with the tradition set by Brian Boru.
    Also on an unrelated note, what happened to your blog posts? They seem to have disappeared.

    @Caroline, Aye The Irish public is very very VERY complacent and the only reason we have the government we have is because we just wanted Fianna Fail out. An all too common story in the majority of Republics and Democracies.

    @Mac an Ri, Champagine Socialists is certainly right. As the son of a working class mother and Father who gave me as many advantages as they could through their work, the idea of socialists parties abusing the trust and anguish of the working class angers me to no end! They enrage and foment class divisions and differences to tear apart and destroy societies.

    @Chris, you cant say much, indeed.

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  6. off topic, but you may be interested in this.

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  7. Concerning my posts-
    I am doing a cleanup and preparing some more political kinds of posts. I figured if people wanted an encyclopedia, they'd use Wikipedia (as I was writing something on Waterloo, which was rather fitting). So I've essentially set 40 planned posts for the next month or two (I may do two posts a week instead of a daily one)
    But I ramble.

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  8. sorry for going off topic again, but I've got lots of stuff on the Spanish monarchy's relationship with the Irish here. While I am not a monarchist, if you are trying to promote monarchy in an Irish context, I suggest you attempt to detoxify the concept first. Monarchy is associated here with Britain but if you want to alter that perception, what better way to do it than point out the help that successive Spanish monarchs gave the Irish in their struggle against English/British conquest? (You are right to reject Jacobitism as it is also seen as a 'British' ideology.) Give it a think anyway.

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  9. Sorry for pestering you yet again, but you might like this.

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