Category: Body Politic

Irish cowboy town and fake regulatory agencies

It’s not often a minister for justice makes me laugh but the latest comment on police reform from Frances Fitzgerald had me in stitches.

Making excuses for her complete failure to establish a police authority the minister said that, in the meantime;

A kind of shadow board would be set up.

Ok, let me first state an absolute fact. This government will not set up a police authority. The next government; if it is spawned from the same corrupt political/administrative culture, will not set up a police authority.

The reason is simple; the establishment of a genuinely independent police authority would end the corrupt nexus between the body politic and the police force. That corrupt nexus has served the interests of politicians, their friends in the Golden Circle and senior police officers since the foundation of the state; it will remain firmly in place for so long as that culture exists.

What we will see is the establishment of a fake police authority, an authority that from the outside looks and acts as if it’s the real thing but, in reality, is a fraud.

The setting up of fake regulatory agencies is the single greatest achievement of our corrupt political system. These fake authorities are so successful that they have not only fooled ordinary citizens, they have fooled the media, the international community and even many of the politicians who established them in the first place.

The system can best be understood by comparing it to those fake Hollywood wild west towns built to make cowboy movies.

Walking down the main street everything looks real so long as nobody actually believes there’s anything of substance behind the facades.

So, for example, when a citizen opens the door marked ‘Financial Regulator’ they find themselves in a wilderness populated by drifting tumbleweeds, each one with a tag reading – secrecy laws forbids the answering of any questions.

When the door marked ‘Standards in Public Office’ is opened citizens are met by an official endlessly chanting – Political accountability? No, never heard of it. We just dig holes in the sand and fill them in again.

When the Troika arrived they already knew there was something odd about the way things were done in this town so they opened more doors than usual.

Inside the austere and impressive door to the legal system, for example, they found mountains of stolen loot surrounded by hundreds of partying solicitors and barristers. Clear out this den of iniquity they instructed the government, we’ll be back to check on it.

When they returned a year later they failed to notice that the apparent reform activity was an act performed by actors hired for the day from a nearby spaghetti western movie set. The drunken party was (and still is) continuing just over the hill.

Down at the end of the town there’s a brand new, freshly painted building with the title, Charity Regulator. Inside there’s a large office with an impressive array of filing cabinets, desks and stern looking officials.

On closer inspection however, the files are just blank paper, the desks are made of balsa wood and the officials are shop mannequins.

So what, at first glance, looks like a real regulator turns out to be nothing more than the usual cynical exercise in deception.

Because it’s new, no citizen has yet been damaged by this latest fake regulator but, in time, thousands will suffer just as countless thousands have suffered when, in desperation and trust, they opened the doors of other so-called regulators only to find themselves slowly strangled to death in an arid desert of ruthless, self-serving bureaucracy and political corruption.

Copy to:
Frances Fitzgerald

An open letter to the leader of the Green Party Eamon Ryan

We must get people re-engaged in politics.

These are the words of Green Party leader Eamon Ryan.

Here’s my reply:

Dear Mr. Ryan,

It is highly unlikely that you will understand never mind actually act on what I’m about to say. This is because, in common with most of your political colleagues, you live in a political bubble of delusion.

Created over many decades of corruption, arrogance and incompetence this bubble of delusion causes a complete blindness to what citizens are desperately looking for from the body politic/State.

What they are looking for is very simple – a political/administrative system they can trust.

But they never get what they want because the political/administrative system is corrupt beyond reform.

This is not to say that every politician/political party is corrupt. It is to say, however, that every politician/political party operates within a corrupt system particularly when wielding political power.

Every politician who enters the gates of Leinster House must make a decision, consciously or subconsciously – to challenge corruption or go along with the rotten system that has blighted the body politic for decades.

To date, most politicians have gone along with the system and by so doing have betrayed the people’s trust. The very few who challenge the system, like Roisin Shortall, are immediately and ruthlessly ejected from the club.

The system will not tolerate a threat from its most dangerous enemy – a politician with principles.

A brief look at recent political history over the last three decades proves the point.

The people trusted the Progressive Democrats because they promised accountability and reform in response to corruption within Fianna Fail.
Ultimately, the PDs betrayed the people when they abandoned their integrity and principles in exchange for power and influence.

The people rejected the PDs for their betrayal.

Dick Spring gained the trust of the people in the run up to the 1992 election on the basis that he would deal with what he called the cancer of political corruption that was doing so much damage to Ireland and its people. He immediately betrayed that trust when he went into coalition with the very cancer he had just condemned.

The people rejected Dick Spring for his betrayal.

In opposition, the Green Party gained the trust of the people by promising to reform politics, to challenge corruption. Once in power however, the party abandoned the responsibilities of power/government and instead focused entirely on getting its own green agenda enacted. The party looked the other way as political corruption continued to wreak havoc on the lives of Irish citizens.

Here’s John Gormley in response to political corruption:

We’re not the moral watchdog of any political party…we look after our probity and our standards…we cannot be responsible for events that took place before our entry into government.

The people rejected the Green Party for its betrayal.

The Labour Party (again) and Fine Gael gained the trust, of a by now desperate people, in the run up to the 2011 election by promising to take immediate action to counter political corruption, by promising to urgently introduce the political reform the people have been desperately seeking for more than thirty years. But once again the body politic betrayed the people.

The people will reject this government for its betrayal.

But, on this occasion, there is a difference in the people’s response. They have finally rejected the system itself that has betrayed them. Our country is now in a transition period that will ultimately see the end of the old regime and the beginning of a new type of politics.

Recent polls have clearly demonstrated that the people have lost all faith in the political system as currently constituted. This fact is most clearly seen in the form of hundreds of thousands of citizens on the streets in protest against oppressive taxes. These people are not on the streets primarily to protest against taxes, they are, effectively, in rebellion against the political/administrative system that has betrayed them for decades.

Your comment that the people must re-engage with politics is symptomatic of a political mindset that is in the process of passing into history. I would invite you to wake up and look around you.

A significant percentage of the people are in open rebellion against the political system that you represent, they have taken to the streets in rebellion, they have begun voting in their droves for Sinn Fein and independents for just one principal reason – they no longer trust you, your party or the political system that you represent.

Not since 1916 have the Irish people been so politically energised, not since 1916 have the people been so radically politicised, not since 1916 has the ruling power been so blind to what’s been happening on the streets and in the minds of the people.

Not since 1916 has the governing power been so disengaged from politics and the people.

Yours sincerely
Anthony Sheridan

Copy to:
Eamon Ryan

Kelly’s bluff and bluster will not save his ‘legacy’ or his government

Do you want to see a government minister in panic? Do you want to watch as a government minister sees his beloved ‘legacy’ slip away right before his eyes?

Have a look here as Environment Minister Alan Kelly attempts to threaten Irish citizens with bluster and hot air if they refuse to pay their water bills.

Then, a few days later the same minister announces the latest extension of the deadline for people to sign up to Irish Water. Is that the 5th or 6th deadline?

Kelly’s panic is a direct result of the massive turnout at last week’s protetst. The Minister and his government are beginning to see the abyss that’s opening up beneath their feet. They’re beginning to realise that the rebellion against their arrogance and shady dealings is stronger than ever, that a significant percentage of the people have lost their fear of repressive government/politics.

And make no mistake, there will be major consequences, not just for Alan Kelly, not just for this government but for the whole rotten political regime that has betrayed democracy and the Irish people, when Irish Water is finally consigned to history.

That’s why the political system is becoming ever more undemocratic, ever more repressive in its response to the challenge from ordinary citizens.

Enda Kenny was right when he said it wasn’t about water. It’s about his job, it’s about his government but most of all, it’s about finally removing the corrupt political cancer that has infected Irish democracy for decades.

Gardai caught between serving the people and the State

Journalist Gavin Sheridan sent me this utube video.Published on Mar 23, 2015

At a repossession court sitting today in Castlebar, members of Integrity Ireland and the National Land League of Ireland objected to proceedings going ahead. Mayo County Registrar Fintan Murphy then abandoned the court and with the aid of An Garda Siochana, managed to switch courts and deny access to the public. Here’s what followed..

Here’s my interpretation of the incident.

What we are seeing here is ordinary people making a confident, well organised challenge against the State.

It is crystal clear that a large section of the people of Ireland have lost faith in the State and its institutions and are prepared, in growing numbers, to stand up and be counted. The Gardai involved in this incident are obviously nervous about the situation they have been placed in, they can give no credible answers to the reasonable questions put to them by the protesters.

This is not surprising because our police force never before had to deal with a challenge from highly motivated, well informed citizens who are determined to exercise their rights. Until recent times the Gardai enjoyed huge respect and cooperation from the general population but that respect and cooperation is no longer guaranteed.

Again, this is not surprising. All senior police officers are appointed by politicians, the political system is riven with the disease of corruption so it naturally follows that the Gardai, in common with practically all other institution of the state, have also become infected with the disease.

This is not just my opinion, the endless scandals of recent years prove the point beyond question.

The catastrophe of 2008 not only brought the economy down but, more importantly, it exposed the rot that lies at the heart of how our country is misgoverned.

Ordinary Gardai like those involved in this incident are caught between protecting the rights of ordinary citizens and obeying orders that serve the interests of a dysfunctional, failed state.

Lucinda Creighton’s choice: Inside or outside the gates of Leinster House

Lucinda Creighton’s new party, Renua, will ultimately fail in its mission to reform our corrupt political system.

The principal reason she will fail is that she is an insider herself. Her party is launching its laudable campaign for desperately needed reform from inside a system that will not tolerate any serious challenge to its corrupt culture.

In common with most other politicians, Creighton is aware that serious reform is needed if the political system is to serve Ireland and its people in the same manner as functional democracies do.

What she’s not aware of is just how diseased the whole regime has become. She naively believes that the system that has systematically abused power for decades will willingly divest itself of that power in the interests of democratic reform, it will not happen.

The Progressive Democrats, the Green Party and Labour all had similar ambitions for reform but as soon as they entered the political sewer that is Leinster House, they all succumbed to the benefits to be had by cooperating with the system.

The system maintains, for the moment, an iron grip on how things are done, how decisions are made and who benefits from those decisions. We only have to listen to the daily news for confirmation of that fact.

The only way the power of the corrupt regime can be successfully challenged is from an outside force, a force that is in no way associated with or in league with its corrupt culture.

Sinn Fein could have been that force after the last election if the party’s leadership had the vision to take the necessary radical action.

They could have stood outside the gates of Leinster House, surrounded by the disempowered/betrayed citizens, and demanded immediate political reform before any re-engagement with the political process.

An alliance of independent TDs could have done the same.

Such action, I firmly believe, would have had an immediate and dramatic impact on the power of the corrupt regime that has destroyed our country.

A large section of the electorate rebelled against the State over the property tax. That rebellion was suppressed by the power of Revenue. A much larger section of the electorate has rebelled against the water tax and have, in the process, become radically politicised.

There is no putting this genie back in the bottle. I believe the power of the current corrupt regime is coming to an end.

The people are outside the gates of Leinster House demanding real democratic reform.

Lucinda Creighton and her fellow TDs will soon be forced to make a decision:

Abandon Leinster House and join the people outside the gates or remain inside in a last ditch defence of the old corrupt regime.

Copy to:
Lucinda Creighton

Economist Dan O’Brien: A seriously confused man

Economist Dan O’Brien is a seriously confused man.

On the one hand he believes Ireland is heading toward a state of ungovernability because of a very serious lack of trust in institutions like government, business, media and NGOs.

There is no other country among the 27 covered in the world-wide survey in which people have less trust in their nation’s politics and civil society institutions.

On the other hand O’Brien is adamant that such institutions are no worse than similar institutions in other countries.

While Irish media, NGOs and businesses have all been guilty of wrongdoing – and it is easy to find examples where each has undermined trust – I simply do not believe that they are all to be distrusted more than their counterparts in almost every other country.

O’Brien was responding to the findings of a world-wide poll taken by a public relations firm late last year which – he concludes;

Suggests that something is seriously awry in Irish society. And not just among those who feel excluded.

And this is where O’Brien is confused.

On the one hand Ireland is no worse than any other country while on the other there is something seriously awry in how our country is governed.

If O’Brien follows the logic of his own thinking then all 27 countries polled are suffering from serious flaws in how they are governed. This, I’m sure he would agree, is not the case.

So why is Ireland different, what is seriously awry in how we are governed?

The answer is as simple as it is stark – Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state.

Like all countries Ireland has always suffered from a degree of corruption but this all changed in 1979 when the criminal politician Haughey came to power. His corrupting influence infected every level of Irish society but in particular, his corrupt activities transformed the political and financial sectors into little more than co-operating mafia outfits.

It is these two corrupt pillars of Irish society that are directly responsible for the catastrophe that occurred in 2008. Nothing whatsoever has changed since then. The same corrupt political system is still in power, the same financial sector is as corrupt as ever and the same so called regulatory agencies continue to look on with approval.

The Irish people have lost trust in the political system because that system has betrayed them time after time. This is not just opinion, the facts speak for themselves.

In the run up to the 1992 general election the leader of the Labour Party Dick Spring adopted a very strong anti-corruption stance going so far as to accurately describe Haughey as a cancer on the body politic. But once elected, Spring promptly betrayed the trust of the people by abandoning his principles and joining forces with the cancerous Haughey.

Similarly the Progressive Democrats, a party that came into existence in response to Haughey’s corruption, also abandoned their integrity and principles in exchange for power and influence. Once again the people were betrayed.

Then we had the Green Party, full of laudable principles while in opposition but once in government they too abandoned their political integrity in exchange for the benefits of power.

The complete absence of political courage, vision or integrity within the body politic led to the evolvement of a culture where financial institutions, property developers, the legal system and practically every other individual, group or organisation with access to political favour were allowed to indulge in serious criminal activity with total impunity.

The inevitable catastrophe came to pass in 2008 when the whole system collapsed under the sheer weight of its own putrid rottenness.

The 2011 election was the last desperate attempt by the Irish electorate to elect a decent, accountable government but once again their desperate pleas for honest and courageous political leadership was thrown back in their faces.

Rampant political corruption is the reason Irish citizens have lost trust in the political system. Rampant political corruption lies at the heart of all our problems.

Mr. O’Brien is confused because he simply cannot bring himself to believe that reality.

Sadly, for Irish citizens such denial from influential opinion makers will only serve to protect and encourage the corrupt and prolong Ireland’s agony.

Copy to:
Dan O’Brien

Minister for Justice: If only she practiced what she preaches

Here’s what Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald had to say to new Garda recruits in Templemore today.

Courage is called for without any physical threat. Courage can be called for in the middle of a quite normal day. The courage to say ‘No’ if you believe the instruction is wrong.

The courage to cry halt to a practice that may have been going on forever, but that should stop right there and then.

If only the Minister had the courage to cry a halt to a practice that has been going on forever – the corrupt nexus between the body politic and the Gardai.

Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett is a goner

Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett is finished; he will be forced to resign. His behaviour since taking up office has been incompetent and biased.

Bias in favour of the party that hands out this plum job is the default position of all appointees to the office.

The current ‘crisis’ involving the Ceann Comhairle is just the latest example of infighting among our corrupt body politic, a further example that the corrupt political system is beginning to fall apart.

The sooner the better.

Elaine Byrne: Misreading the political mood

Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett was on Today with Sean O’Rourke desperately trying to explain the latest scandal involving his office.

Corruption expert Elaine Byrne tweeted the following in response.

Sympathy for the creeping attempt at politicising the position of Ceann Comhairle but manner of response does himself no favours.

This misses the underlying reason for this and other more recent incidents involving the Ceann Comhairle’s office.

The reality is as follows:

The first republic came to a shuddering and ignoble end on 29 September 2008 when the current political regime lost control of the nation’s economy.

Since then, the regime, which is irredeemably corrupt, has been desperately struggling to reclaim its full power and control.

This latest pathetic spat between the various groups that make up that corrupt regime is just the latest indication that they are failing, that the entire system is crumbling.

Meanwhile, the significant numbers of ordinary citizens who have been politically radicalized as a result of the oppressive measures taken by the corrupt regime to maintain its power are patiently, for the moment, waiting in the wings.

Creighton's new party: Bizarre and a little sad

Totally bizarre and a little sad is how I would describe Lucinda Creighton’s launch of Ireland’s latest political party.

There she was with an unknown local politician on her right and a very well known person on her left who may, or then again, may not stand for election.

The nation was told that up to 100 people have been working since last April on planning the new party yet all they could manage in terms of policy was four bullet points of principle which any party could attach to their manifesto.

Yes, there may be more to come before the party is launched – again – in eight months time but by then the moment will have been lost, it will be old news.

It will just be another political party trying to find a niche in an ever crowding space and certainly not the revolutionary movement that’s required to bring real change.

Here’s why I think Creighton’s attempt to fill the political vacuum being created by the disintegration of the old corrupt regime will, ultimately, fail.

She was politically born and reared in the culture of that corrupt regime. All her contacts, friends and colleagues are members of the ruling elite that created and fully support that corrupt regime.

In common with a growing number of her fellow elites she has become aware that there’s something dangerous stirring in the undergrowth where ordinary citizens live out their lives voting for and paying taxes to the ruling class in return for a few crumbs from the table.

The fatal flaw in her efforts is that she’s an insider trying to reconfigure the rotten system by making a few cosmetic changes so that it can continue to enjoy the benefits of power.

In common with all her fellow elites she’s completely unaware that it’s far, far too late for tinkering with the system.

It’s time to get rid of it altogether and I see no member of the insider elite with the vision and courage to do that job.

The power that will destroy our corrupt political/administrative system will come from outside and, hopefully, that will happen sooner rather than later.