Whenever a major scandal breaks there is always at least one commentator who will write what I call a ‘We’re all to blame’ article.
Economist Cormac Lucey fits the bill on this occasion.
Writing in the Daily Mail (Saturday, March, 24) Lucey’s article is entitled.
A guilty victim, yes, but also an easy scapegoat for all our woes.
Here are the opening paragraphs.
They weren’t able to catch Al Capone for his gangland crimes, so they convicted him for tax evasion.
They weren’t able to defeat Bill Clinton politically, so his Republican opponents unleashed Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr against him.
And the Irish Establishment wasn’t able to defeat Bertie Ahern politically when he was at the peak of his power; so it has had to make do with the Mahon Tribunal after he has retired.
Now I agree with the mentioning of the gangster Al Capone and the liar Bertie Ahern in the same article but what the hell is all that about the ‘Irish Establishment’ out to get poor Bertie?
Lucey goes on to blame everybody – except poor Bertie.
Whether we are talking about the economy, building standards or ethical standards we can always blame Bertie.
It suits those being crushed under mountains of debt to blame Bertie rather than accept personal responsibility for their own errors.
As leader of the most corrupt political party in the state the liar Ahern is the man principally responsible for the collapse of the economy, low or non- existent building standards and the total removal of ethical standards from the body politic.
Lucey seems to be suggesting that the liar is actually innocent of everything that has happened in the last few decades.
Until I read this article I had always seen Cormac Lucey as a well informed, independent minded and balanced commentator on political/economic affairs.
My puzzlement was cleared later on in the article when he mentioned that he once acted as special advisor to former Tanaiste Michael McDowell.
Now I know exactly where Mr. Lucey is coming from and why he’s blind to the true nature of a liar like Ahern.
Copy to:
Cormac Lucey
I’m sorry that you were disappointed by my piece. Nowhere do I suggest that Bertie is “innocent of everything that happened”. There is no doubt that those in government at the time must accept political responsibility for what happened to the economy on their watch. But they got precious little help from “the experts” as this piece, which I wrote a year, attempts to demonstrate.
http://cormaclucey.blogspot.com/search?q=myth+that+bertie+blew+it
I would argue that Bertie didn’t deserve the adulation he enjoyed at the height of his powers. But nor does he deserve the opprobrium he “enjoys” today.
The same bodies which assured Bertie’s government that everything was OK in 2007 are today reassuring Enda’s government that our debts are sustainable. We should look behind the pantomime villains which politics throws up and examine carefully the vested interests which endure long after “the villains” have left the stage to be replaced by new pantomime figures.