November 2014 Bangs

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. A busy day post office Co-Op still some residual bangs from Fireworks night, poor terrified Kitten.

Mary’s back much better today, breakfast weight down duck for tea and her back pain is still there but decreasing.

Obituary:

Sir Sydney Chapman was a moderate Conservative MP who caught the public imagination with his campaign to ‘Plant a Tree in ’73’

5:30PM GMT 06 Nov 2014

Comments

Guardian:

1978’s ‘Carnival Against the Nazis’ in London organised jointly by the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism. Some years later, the mantra that ‘black is a political colour’ was coined. Photograph: PA

I enjoyed Aditya Chakrabortty’s thoughtful historical overview of the use of the word black (I’m Bengali and I’m black – in the same way that my parents were, 31 October). It reminded me how in the 1980s there was a mantra that “black is a political colour”, which encompassed “blacks” from Africa or the Caribbean along with “Asians”, whether from the subcontinent, Africa or the West Indies, plus Irish people who had also long experienced widespread discrimination.

Although the slogan usefully facilitated the creation of alliances against the common enemy of racism, it always struck me as a negative approach, emphasising oppositional politics along ethnic lines, rather than appealing to the positives of wider solidarity in demanding civil rights and social justice for people of all classes. While it is surely right, as Aditya says, to reaffirm notions of a shared black identity in order to reactivate the head-on struggle against racism, I hope that will be part of  a much wider realignment of politics on the progressive left.
Giles Oakley
London

Independent:

Times:

Sir, It’s hard to think of a better example of the dependency mentality that crushes entrepreneurial spirit than the letter (Nov 5) imploring public funds to train lorry drivers. Chaps, get a grip!
John Brehcist
Byfield, Northants

Sir, Paul Withrington (letter, Nov 5) is right about the American tendency to make intrusive remarks. I’m a grandfather in my 70s. At breakfast with my wife at a Long Island hotel, a middle-aged American at the next table leant over and said: “May I just say that your shirt matches your eyes perfectly?” I was speechless, but the silence was filled by my wife’s giggling. Actually, I thought she went on rather longer than was necessary.
Barry Smith
Shaftesbury, Dorset

Sir, Were Hannah Betts in Pitlochry (letter, Nov 5), or indeed in much of Scotland for most of the year, she would be wearing, as well as underclothes, a base layer, a polo shirt, a fleece, an anorak, longjohns, trousers, heavy socks and boots, and possibly overtrousers, gloves and a woolly hat. She would be safe from unwanted male attention. Hilary Brown Gairloch, Highland

Telegraph:

One reader’s ladybirds offer their predictions for upcoming winter weather

6:58AM GMT 05 Nov 2014

Comments

SIR – The University College, London, study on immigration was well researched (report, November 5), but it understates the true cost of immigration. Due to the limitations of data, it was not possible to measure marginal costs (or benefits) but only average costs. Marginal costs will be higher than average costs when there are bottlenecks in the supply of resources consumed.

Britain’s top legal figures warn that MPs must opt in to the European Arrest Warrant as there is ‘no credible alternative’.

9:40AM GMT 06 Nov 2014

Comments

Irish Times:

Sir, – Do we detect a glimpse of clear water between the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste? – Yours, etc,

JACK O’CONNELL,

Ballydehob, Co Cork.

A chara, – Socialist Party: we won’t pay. Fine Gael: we will pay. Sinn Féin: we might pay. Fianna Fáil: we will pay but not now. Labour Party: we will make up a number and pay that. – Is mise,

LOMAN Ó LOINGSIGH,

Dublin 24.

Sir, – I predict a return to the parish pumps, which would be a great benefit to candidates in elections as they would be guaranteed an audience without having to go house to house. Privatisation? No thanks. – Yours, etc,

NIALL HAYDEN,

Dundalk,

Co Louth.

Sir, – I can understand how people in Ireland are upset at the prospect of employees of a public utility receiving bonuses. At the same time they should realise that Ireland is the only country in the OECD where the end user does not pay directly for water services.

In New York state, where my wife and I live, we pay the equivalent of €300 annually for water and sewage taxes. This is comparable to the €278 which a two-adult household using 87,000 litres per year would pay under the proposed new water service charge system. There are additional reductions for lower-income families.

Since joining the EU, Ireland has made considerable progress in upgrading the infrastructure for water and wastewater treatment and distribution. However, there is still a need for additional modernisation of the system. In March 2007 there was an outbreak of the parasitic disease cryptosporidiosis in Galway which was traced to the public water supply. This is a very insidious intestinal infection which in the city of Milwaukee in 1993 was responsible for illness in approximately 400,000 people and it is believed that it may have caused around 100 deaths of people with suppressed immune systems. There is also a major problem of leakage in parts of the Irish water distribution system which could account for up to 41 per cent loss from the point of distribution to the point of use.

In the world we all live in today, there is no such thing as a free lunch. – Yours, etc,

PATRICK O’KEEFE,

New York.

Sir, – If the stated aim is conservation of an expensive and finite resource, the solution is simple. Grant every citizen a very generous water allowance and make the profligate pay for the balance they use. When an average consumption model for Irish households can be determined the allowances may, over time, be amended. A capped charge is inequitable. Where is the reward in being environmentally responsible if there is no penalty for waste? – Yours, etc,

CAROLINE TINDAL,

Kilcoole, Co Wicklow.

Sir , – If the Government continues to reduce the amount people have to pay for their water and continues to extend out the period when a flat charge will apply, there is every likelihood that there will be insufficient money accrued to pay the staff at Irish Water their bonuses, never mind funding the required improvements to the infrastructure and fixing of the leaks. This is a very worrying development and I respectfully suggest that consultants be engaged to examine the problem. – Yours, etc,

HUGH PIERCE,

Celbridge, Co Kildare.

Sir, – How is it possible for this Government to be so wilfully heedless? The objections to water charges are threefold: the likelihood of water as a public resource being privatised in the future; the lack of transparency regarding charges, including repair costs; and the bonus culture of entitlement evidenced by Irish Water. Last year the Government foostered, fumbled and obfuscated on the issue of property tax and learned nothing from the experience.

It is unlikely that those who protest so vigorously over this issue will be palmed off with cheap promises of temporary lower charges, which are no sooner uttered by Government than they are disputed from those same sources. Nor with the “I’m worth it” culture. Nor with empty assurances that privatisation is prohibited by legislation since the electorate is all too aware of just how quickly new legislation can be railroaded through the Dáil when it suits.

The pent-up anger people feel from being the whipping boy of the recent economic crisis is now being brought to bear on this one issue and our political leaders would do well to pay heed. The “do as you’re told while we do as we like” politics exhibited time and again by this Government may well be its undoing. – Yours, etc,

PATRICIA MULKEEN,

Sligo.

Sir, – If politicians don’t pay their water charges, how are they going to wash their hands of this mess they got us into? – Yours, etc,

KEVIN DEVITTE,

Westport,

Co Mayo.

Sir, – The late great writer and columnist John Healy used to characterise Irish political leadership as being of the “here goes the mob; I am their leader, therefore I must follow” kind. Joan Burton is continuing in a long tradition. – Yours, etc,

PADDY CORLEY,

Ennis, Co Clare.

A chara, – Does the Government have any idea of the misery it is causing with all this uncertainty over what people are going to have to pay for water, particularly among the elderly?

Simple compassion demands that this stops now. Our elected leaders need to do their jobs and tell us at once what our water charges are going to be; or, if that is as difficult as their actions make it out to be, draw a line under the thing and say that the whole issue of paying for water is being set to one side until it is in a position to do so with clarity and authority. The current farce whereby we’re told different amounts by different sources day after day is cruel and unnecessary and must end. – Is mise,

Rev PATRICK G BURKE,

Castlecomer,

Co Kilkenny.

Sir, – Eoghan Murphy is to be commended for breaking the code of omertà among Fine Gael TDs regarding the dearth of political reform since the party came to power (“Fine Gael promised political reform, but the Government hasn’t delivered”, Opinion & Analysis, November 5th). The Government swept into power with a mandate for real political reform. The referendum on abolition of the white elephant that is the Seanad was a farce, and in any event the abolition of the Seanad would have amounted to little more than the removal of the wing mirrors on a car which has serious engine trouble.

In practice, the Dáil has very little power because it is answerable to the executive (it’s supposed to be the other way around); the guillotining of Bills; and strict enforcement of the whip system. What’s worse is that the executive is largely controlled by an elite inner circle of Enda Kenny, Joan Burton, Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin ( the Economic Management Council).

The Dáil is supposed to be a legislature and is supposed to hold the executive to account. In reality it is a bloated rubber-stamp chamber, under the thumb of an all-powerful executive. It needs to be reformed as a matter of urgency. – Yours, etc,

ROB SADLIER,

Rathfarnham,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – As someone who has long been a critic of the over-rigid party whip system, I found Eoghan Murphy’s piece to be compelling and a welcome breath of fresh air.

In his response to Mr Murphy’s article, Andrew Greaney (November 6th) notes that the whip “is not totalitarian: adhering to it is a choice” and that Mr Murphy can “jettison” his party membership if he ever feels that the position taken on any particular issue by his party leadership is at odds with his own.

Yet is it not patently ridiculous that voting against one’s party leadership on just one issue means that one is expelled from that party? What other non-military organisation operates on this basis?

But the present whip system still denies independence of thought and judgment and subjugates conviction to the need for blind obedience to the dictates of party elders. We have every right to expect the exercise of independent thinking and conviction from those we place our sacred trust in at the ballot box. And they shouldn’t be automatically expelled from their political party for doing so.

As the rise of Independents from across the political spectrum would at least in part suggest, the Irish people are awake more than they ever have been before to the pernicious effect of the whip system on Irish democracy. Those party politicians who bemoan the rise of Independents would do well to examine their own internal operations. Such an examination would reveal a gross imbalance of power between the party’s leadership and its individual elected officials. The whip system is the clearest manifestation of this power imbalance. – Yours, etc,

LARRY DONNELLY,

School of Law,

NUI Galway.

Sir, – Your newspaper’s revelations regarding the European Central Bank letter of November 19th, 2010, confirm the worst suspicions of many (“ECB threat to cut off banking funds revealed”, Front Page, November 6th). As a small, peripheral state, we carry no weight in the EU, despite political claims. If the EU says jump, our political leaders do so. No matter what suffering must be imposed on the people, the “political elite” will not let the EU project be derailed.

Perhaps we can look on the ECB letter as a wake-up call? – Yours, etc,

GILES FOX,

Kilmacud,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Before the hysteria starts, it needs to be pointed out that the tone or content of the European Central Bank letter, while meeting the usual Irish default need to blame someone else, isn’t the point.

The point is that Brian Lenihan and the Cowen government gave in to the threat. When people argue that they had no choice, that myth needs to be nipped in the bud.

Just as the claim that the Kenny government had no choice either is a myth.

If the Irish taxpayer had only been required to fund the loss of tax revenue and increasing welfare costs, and not the banking debt too, then the recession would not have been so severe, the Irish pension system would not have been gutted, fewer people’s lives would have been ruined, fewer would been forced to emigrate and the brief window of opportunity to reform the country might not have been squandered.

The sad reality for Ireland is that, when it came down to it, Brian Lenihan put the needs of his party above the needs of his country and he put the wants of the establishment above the needs of the Irish people.

The ECB was perfectly entitled to make whatever demands it wanted but the Irish government was not obliged to accept them.

So before we rush off with our pitchforks to attack the ECB, the political class and members of the government, both past and present, need a reality check. – Yours, etc,

DESMOND FitzGERALD,

Canary Wharf,

London.

Sir, – The tone of the ECB letter that was sent to Brian Lenihan is hardly surprising. What is surprising is the ECB going beyond its mandate of monetary policy to interfere in the fiscal policy of a sovereign nation. This is evident in the letter: “The request [for a bailout] shall include the commitment to undertake decisive actions in the areas of fiscal consolidation, structural reforms and financial sector restructuring”. It went further with an insistence that the Irish government raid its own National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF): “The plan for the restructuring of the Irish financial sector shall include . . . existing cash reserves (NPRF) of the Irish government”. This fund was wisely set up to alleviate the inevitable pensions crisis that is coming down the line. At the ECB’s insistence, we have robbed Peter to pay Paul. – Yours, etc,

JOHN BELLEW,

Dunleer,

Co Louth.

Sir, – “With kind regards”? – Yours, etc,

PATRICK O’BYRNE,

Phibsborough,

Dublin 7.

Sir, – The Minister for Health intends to provide doctors with the “option” of charging a “nominal co-payment” – supposedly “as a way of discouraging inappropriate attendances” (“Under-6s and over-70s using free GP care may face ‘nominal fee’”, November 4th). Does he really think that I attend my doctor for social purposes? Is it really such a pleasure to sit in a waiting room with people, trying to avoid eye contact, or coughing and spluttering! There are, I am sure, people who visit their doctor because it is their only social contact; does the Minister now wish to tax their isolation?

Neither am I comforted by the report that the “co-payment” would be set at €5. There can be little doubt but that the €5 “co-payment” will increase until the medical card is of little or no real value.

Why is the Minister allowing this “optional” fee, if the money is not going to the HSE? Do the doctors need an increase in their income? Perhaps they do, but when did medical card holders (and those approaching the qualifying age) last get an increase in pay? The Minister should be asked to “come clean” and admit this is yet another tax, in addition to property tax and water charges, both of which must be paid from the same diminishing income of the old and infirm. – Yours, etc,

JOHN McENEANEY,

Celbridge, Co Kildare.

Sir, – We have learned that hundreds of companies, including many Irish ones, have been avoiding tax via a loophole in Luxembourg (“Glanbia’s €1bn Luxembourg move to cut its Irish tax bill”, Front Page, November 6th). This scheme was operated when the present president of the European Commission was prime minister of Luxembourg. If all this tax was paid in Ireland then perhaps we would not need the penal tax regime we now have. As usual the “little people” pay their taxes here and the large companies don’t. – Yours, etc,

SHAUN McCANN,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – One of the great strengths of Frank McNally’s column is its wide variety of subject and tone. He can be brilliantly funny but also deal sensitively with serious subjects. An example of the latter is his column on the wearing of the poppy (“An Irishman’s Diary”, November 6th), which should be the last word on this annual controversy. – Yours, etc,

BILL REDMOND,

Edinburgh.

Sir, – Jacinta McLoughlin (November 4th) asks should there not be a health warning attached to the Dublin marathon? I would like to point her in the direction of the comprehensive guide on the marathon website under “Medical Advice”, where the advice given is “If you don’t feel up to it, don’t do it”. I know from personal experience that some runners may simply do their best in order not to let themselves, their families or their chosen charity down. – Yours, etc,

PETER CONNAUGHTON,

Wexford.

Sir, – The emergency departments may well have seen extra casualties in the aftermath of the Dublin marathon, but that rather misses the point. I would suggest that a far more mundane reason why our hospitals are overburdened is a result of too many of us avoiding exercise and neglecting our health in the first place. – Yours, etc,

MICK McMULLIN,

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Perhaps letters regarding the marathon have now run their course? – Yours, etc,

TOM GILSENAN,

Beaumont,

Sir, – I have the solution to all our nation’s troubles. All we need to do is have the people who write letters to The Irish Times run the country. They appear to know absolutely everything about how our little state should be organised. What’s more, we won’t need offices or cars or ancillary staff or advisers as they already know it all without having to leave the comfort of their own sofa. No elections would be needed as these people don’t need to be answerable to anyone for their decisions, except of course to the other experts who write to The Irish Times. – Yours, etc,

IAN LINDSAY,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Surely if Dublin City Council is concerned about noise disturbing people in the city centre (and elsewhere) it should tackle the issue of rattling manhole covers that blight people’s working and domestic lives.

There appears to be absolutely no system in place to ensure a speedy repair, no matter how loud these covers become and, of course, no consequences for the utilities that own them.

Meanwhile readers might wish to know that Irish Water has taken over responsibility for the manhole covers that were previously the responsibility of Dublin City Council! – Yours, etc,

SEAN FINN,

Kilmainham,

Irish Independent:

There has long been a lack of acuity in this country, especially of the financial kind in the conduct of public affairs. Look at the legacy of Charles Haughey and the shambolic, embarrassing way Bertie Ahern managed his affairs and you’ll appreciate why it will be a long time before we are seen in the same light as Switzerland as models of punctiliousness.

That said, when financial disaster struck, it was the ‘little people’ who were called upon, not the captains of commerce or generals in government.

It was the poor bloody infantry – the PAYE sector – that was forced into the breach.

Thus, the taxpayer got it between the eyes. Bankers, vulture capitalists and every other three-card-trick loan arranger happy to feed the insatiable lust for more amongst the gilded power-brokers and deal-makers who sent us hurtling over a cliff, have managed to walk away from the ensuing carnage.

The collateral damage was felt by the entire workforce of Ireland. And now we know why.

There was a bully at the door demanding a pound of flesh, and bone marrow to boot. He was based in Frankfurt and his name was Jean-Claude Trichet.

The ECB threatened our finance minister that if he did not put the ordinary Joe and Josephine Soap of Ireland on the rack of austerity, the ECB would abandon us.

The banks and the euro were at stake and Paddy must step up. Or else. A set of demands was made. This was not prudent financial advice, this was a cold-bloded ultimatum to the Irish people.

Central banks do not have powers to order sovereign states around like children, and to dip their hands into the wallets of independent nations.

Yet as the Trichet letter reveals, the ECB made Brian Lenihan – and by extension the Irish people – an offer they couldn’t refuse.

They stuck a gun to all our heads. So, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, and Tanaiste Joan Burton, now that you have evidence of this threat against our people, what are you going to do about it?

Will you continue to bludgeon us with more hardship, water charges, universal social charges, pension levies, etc, or will you finally stand up for the people you represent?

It is time to tell the Frankfurt chiefs to get their boots off our necks.

To borrow the words of a former Irish Triple Crown champion: Where is your f***ing pride?

Ed Toal

Galway city

IMF praise lost in translation

“The way the Irish have played this is very clever, they have got everyone to pull together.” So said Ms Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in an interview with the ‘Financial Times’ on September 13, 2014.

According to the report, she warmly praised Enda Kenny and the Irish Government for the “clever” way they have implemented tough cuts and taxes, while keeping the public onside, also saying that she was very impressed with how Irish politicians have managed to implement reforms, while maintaining social cohesion.

I suspect something was lost in translation and what she really meant was that the Irish politicians were too “clever by half” and that everyone was indeed pulling together – but diametrically opposed to the Government.

Maybe, being French and just like her protege Michael Noonan, she would regard unprecedented mass demonstrations as mere minor political irritations of no great consequence?

John Leahy

Wilton Road, Cork

Latin America shows us the way

While John Waters (Irish Independent, November 5, 2014) paints a clear picture of the Hobson’s choice we are faced with in politics, hopefully our options are not as bleak as he suggests.

We can look to the example of Latin America, which, with its mix of left-leaning leaders, is the only region in the world where inequality has decreased in the last decade.

This subcontinent has been at the mercy of the IMF and ‘free trade’ polices since the 1970s. Politicians there are now battling to prise their countries from the exploitative grip of the multinational corporations and the international finance sector.

With nationalisation of natural resources, progressive taxation policies, increased spending on health and education and increases in the minimum wage, these countries have begun re-distributing wealth in what has historically been the most unequal part of the globe.

Brave and principled politicians are needed to face down the disproportionate power of global private finance that has resulted in the indiscriminate looting of domestic economies and impoverishment of citizens through austerity, erosion of labour rights and regressive taxation. Latin America shows us that it is possible.

Maeve Halpin

Ranelagh, Dublin 6

Coalition holed below waterline

It would appear the Government is holed below the waterline.

Ted O’Keeffe

Ranelagh, Dublin 6

If politicians don’t pay their water charges, how are they going to wash their hands of this mess they have got us into?

Kevin Devitte

Westport, Co Mayo

You published my letter illustrating that there was no shortage of raw water (Irish Independent, November 5, 2014). The only question was that of harvesting, treatment and distribution. This being so, metering serves no purpose.

This would suggest a fixed charge for water. But this would not have regard to ability to pay. What about taking the charge out of general government income? The Government may have a problem with this, as it insists that there must be a specific water charge to fund a national water authority. There is also its desire to keep the financing of the authority off balance sheet.

The best solution might therefore be to express the charge as a function of the property tax and to collect it with that tax on behalf of the authority. If the Government were to adopt that system, explain it with a certain humility and admit they got it wrong, they might even bring most of the people with them.

Above all, they must get it right this time or forget the whole idea.

John F Jordan

Killiney, Co Dublin

Endless war

In my time I have known survivors, and many victims, of all the wars of the 20th century.

I find it unutterably sad that young men and women still think that there is something noble in fighting, and dying, for one’s country.

Why can intelligent people still not see through the poisonous fog stirred up by the old Latin poet, who from his safe nest, coined the immortal motto, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”. Bulls***! War actually condones murder and suicide. And for what? Never, since the dawn of history, has war done anything except make a bad situation infinitely worse.

And we think we are civilised! We think this is democracy! The only way to stop war is by controlling the tools of war. At once, vested interests raise their ugly heads. We fill young people’s heads with the fog of fame, and we weep salt tears when they come back in bags, And all for what? For more war.

Sean McElgunn

Address with Editor

Clean thoughts?

From the snippet I heard did a woman on Sean O’Rourke’s radio show on October 5 say that the sight of a man hoovering “raises desire in a woman’s brain”? Mind you, I may not be totally accurate in my recall – I was busily hoovering at the time.

Tom Gilsenan

Beaumont, Dublin 9

Irish Independent

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