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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
4 — village july 2009
Lately Village has tended to pass over
mainstream politics in favour of a broader
focus. It is in reversing this tendency for the
current election edition that we have been re-
minded of its explanation. Our politicians are
just so confused, just SO uninteresting (Elec-
tion special, pp-). It is now the working
assumption for Village that FF have no ideas,
have shown themselves to be incompetent and
are broadly corruptible except when scared
by the electorate; FG are equally uncomforta-
ble with imaginative ideas, are less competent
and are only slightly less corruptible; Labour
have still not cast off their aura of staleness;
the Greens are not as green as the science they
believe in requires them to be; Sinn Fein are
not clearly enough on the Left and appear to
be waiting for their moment to sell out; and
our independent TDs are charlatans.
Civil War politics has been a dead end and
has left us with two basically indistinguisha-
ble parties as the main government and oppo-
sition. It is a myth for example that Fine Gael
spotted the downside of our lax regulatory
regime and would have closed down banking
excesses in good time. Only two years ago
they (and all the other parties including the
Greens) projected similar economic growth
rates to those the outgoing government was
making. Village likes the idea that at one time
you could tell an FFer from an FGer just from
the way he might look at you. You certainly
cannot now. They both serve the interests of
the propertied classes. And they have both,
latterly and ironically, let down even that in-
terest. The party is over. Fianna Fáil, and its
thoroughgoing and systemic incompetence, is
responsible for half of our loss of GDP. Seven
and a half per cent of the projected downturn
in GDP is due to the actions of that party, NOT
the international situation. If you miss your
share of the seven and a half per cent you are
probably in a special rage with FF. You are,
indeed, probably going to vote FG. If on the
other hand you think that the boom and bust
game, driven by conventional short-term eco-
nomics was a cul de sac, you may be looking
further afield. Village certainly will be.
One of the most intriguing things about
politics is what motivates people to get in-
volved, not in general, but in the particu-
lar way they do. Village thinks politicians
should be drawn from ranks of people who
show less interest in money and power than
our current bunch of anti-popular losers. Vil-
lage thinks citizens with a talent for the po-
sition for which they seek election should be
favoured over those with the usual panache for
bluff and parochialism. Village would prefer
horses for courses. Citizens with the legisla-
tive and networking skills to be MEPs need
quite different skills from the pot-hole-and-
speed-bump-resolution and rezoning wisdom
required of a good local councillor. MEPs
should be equipped to navigate the differenc-
es between consultation, co-decision, and co-
operation in the European Parliament (see p
). We need politicians who are enthusiastic
and imaginative about the possibilities of the
body to which they are seeking election. Not
the all-purpose wheel-me-out hack-blusterers
we seem to get (see p ).
Beyond this, candidates should have strong
political views that they want to put into effect,
they should lay out their stalls and on that ba-
sis ask people to vote for them. They should not
change their policies just because people do not
vote for them. They should wait for them to come
around because their politics, and not something
more popular, is what they believe in; and they
are not hypocrites or power-creeps. Politics is
not consumerism. Simple.
And as to policies Village demands much
greater coherence. Guff and waffle just won’t
do now we’ve seen the need for seriousness.
It really was silly to elect people like Charlie
who was corrupt, and Bertie who had no vi-
sion bar consensus among those who had his
ear (see p). It’s time to eject the time-servers
and elect our best and sharpest. In this re-
gard Mr George Lee looks like he might be a
harbinger of a sort. But more than coherence
and seriousness there is a need for a mature
agenda and platform. Village does not think
the agenda is or ever should have been lais-
sez-faire boom (see p ) – followed by bust. It
thinks the agenda is equality, the environment
and quality of life. Environmental, social and
economic agendas should be promoted equal-
ly. It is out of a merging of these agendas that a
national consensus and optimism may rise.
This sounds like high-minded hooey. It is
not. It imports an agenda that should not be
controversial but is radically different to cur-
rent politics. The environmental agenda focus-
es on good planning, the environment (which
should be protected for its own sake), the com-
munity, and the long term. Together with the
social agenda it culti-
vates quality of life. The
social agenda also pro-
motes equality, includ-
ing through the multiple
forms of social expendi-
ture. Economics is an ef-
ficient means to an end
in pursuit of the other
agendas, which unlike
economics, actually are
ends in themselves. The
economic agenda needs
to be less hubristic than
it has been for a gener-
ation - especially since
nearly all commentators
got it so wrong that dignity demands their si-
lence. It is legitimate, probably desirable, to use
economics and market mechanisms to environ-
mental and social ends. We should harness eco-
nomics - markets, competition, capital, proper-
ty, trade, and the like – while recognising they
are not goods in themselves. They should serve
social and environmental purposes.
What is needed now is politicians who are
fit to serve those purposes. And probably a
new party for those politicians.
“Village thinks citizens with a
talent for the position for which
they seek election should be
favoured over those with the
usual panache for bluff and
parochialism.”
