Because Enda Kenny’s address to the nation was little more than the usual collection of meaningless platitudes it is easy to analyse.
Point One: As a nation we are living beyond our means (Borrowed from the criminal politician Haughey).
Point Two: You, ordinary citizens, are not to blame. (But you will pay the price for the political and financial corruption that has destroyed the country).
Point Three: We must ensure this never happens again. (This is standard waffle which is usually followed up with – we must move on, the past is another country; anger is not a policy etc., etc.).
The key point in the Taoiseach’s speech was, however – who he blamed for the catastrophe?
If, as he had already stated, the Irish people weren’t to blame – then who?
Let me be clear – Ireland supports stronger economic governance throughout Europe, and particularly in the Eurozone.
In fact, the Irish people are paying the price now for the absence of such rules in the past.
So there you have it. It is now almost universally believed within Ireland that Europe is the cause of our complete failure as a state.
No mention of political corruption, no mention of financial corruption and no mention of bureaucratic corruption.
And why would there be any mention of the real causes of our failure as a state?
After all, to do so would mean having to leave the bubble of denial and enter the brutal realty of what we really are as a nation.
….and now we will have to endure the predictable responses from Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the Left Alliance. Thank providence for the “off” button!
As an old song from the 1930’s puts it:-
It’s the same the whole world over,
It’s the poor what gets the blame,
It’s the rich what gets the pleasure,
Isn’t it a blooming shame?