Our Uncivil War

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From top: Mural in the car park of Dalymount Park, Dublin last week; Dan Boyle

Not for many in Ireland a “common feeling” with the rest of the World, or the people who live in it.

We do it differently.

Dan Boyle writes:

I’m a fan of the Warren Beatty movie Bulworth (1998). The main character, a US Senator, having arranged his impending death, begins to speak and act according to his real convictions. A kind of Donald Trump of the left, he finds his offensive honesty strikes a chord with the people.

For the first time in 24 years I won’t be contesting the next general election for Dáil Éireann. I want my Bulworth moment.

(pause)

IRELAND COP YOURSELF ON.

Too many of us swallowed the belief that wealth was easily attained and we deserved it. Wealth is rarely created, more usually it is appropriated. For a couple of decades, through our corporate taxation policies, and through a grandiose pyramid scheme of adding a zero to property values, we believed this would be the making of us.

It wasn’t without value. The short term cash surpluses that arrived did allow us to catch up with much needed infrastructure. The fact the some pockets were filled unnecessarily was accepted. It was the Irish way. When the blown up balloon blew up, the real surprise is why we were surprised.

We had become one of the richest countries in the World. Even after our economy was devalued by a fifth, more than most countries, we remained one of wealthiest countries in the World. How wealthy? In 2014 the World Bank lists Ireland as the tenth wealthiest nation in the World, on a nominal GDP per capita basis. The IMF (boo hiss) places us eleventh. In 2013 the United Nations lists us as seventeenth.

Ah but what about inequality you say? There we’re not even as bad as we might think. Between 2007 and 2011 the burden of economic adjustment was borne properly and disproportionately by the richer sectors of our society. Since 2011 this began to change when the poorer sections, this government determined, should carry more of that burden. But even in 2014 Ireland remained below the European Union average for inequality.

None of this matters while we are masters of constructing the myth of Irish exceptionalism. Not for us normal international standards of capital taxation or having to pay for utilities. Not for many of us any common feeling with the rest of the World, or the people who live in it. We do it differently. As long we feel good about ourselves, none of it has to make sense.

Now we are being confronted with what real misery, poverty and inequality in this world is all about. Our response? Sadly too many of us demur, thinking if we are too generous, too giving, too human, we may affect, adversely, our own well being.

Do we have problems? Many. Most caused by a sleeveen approach to governance. Who voted for this approach and those who exercise it – you did. Even if you didn’t vote your non-participation allowed for it to happen.

Who are those deemed possible replacements for our failed politics? It’s those who never want to be in government. Those who are petrified with having to make any decision that might affect this form of popularity they have never before experienced.

Whether they are the whatever you want independents, the Castleknock Socialist Collective, or the bomb no more kill no more ‘republicans’, each are in their comfort zone of telling people what they want to hear, never wanting be honest with people.

Can’t be any worse you might think. That may turn out to be true. I suspect that is less likely to happen. Whoever the torch gets handed onto, the only thing that is certain is that we will get and continue to have the politics we deserve. The politics that reflects who we are as a society.

Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD. Follow Dan on Twitter: @Sendboyle

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59 thoughts on “Our Uncivil War

  1. J

    Agree Dan. We swim in a pool of hypocrisy and amnesia. On another note ,what are your thoughts on Jeremy Corbyn?

    1. Dan Boyle

      On Corbyn given the choice that exists I’d vote for him. Closest in having political ideals. I wouldn’t have any faith in him winning elections though.

  2. Ivor

    You were idealistic. People liked that. You ran for election. You compromised. You and your party were punished. You’re bitter and you’re blaming the people who voted for you to deliver on your manifesto for your failure to implement it.

    Grow up Dan.

    1. Cluster

      Why are you making this personal?

      There are a series of (at least nominally) contentious opinions within the piece. Why not engage with those instead?

      1. Sido

        “Why not engage with those instead” – you ask. Because after a while you run out of Brasso for polishing this particular palimpsest. And start thinking its OK to turn on the **** who is constantly asking/ordering you to polish it. That’s why!

  3. erm...

    Dan’s ‘Bulworth’ moment is hardly the revelatory affair I suspect he planned it to be. The old hoary chestnut that is frequently presented at the feet of the electorate about getting the government that we deserve is popular with the rejected minorities who feel their downfall is somehow attributable to the miseducation of those who voted for the victors. Let’s not forget that Dan & his party were the victors, they were in a position to make a difference yet chose not to. They were more concerned with the plight of the indigenous badger population than the economic situation in which the country found itself, a noble cause as a standalone issue but an insignificant one at the end of the day. Dan may rail all he likes at the current status quo but let’s not forget his party’s contribution in getting us to this very point. I suspect many voters are fully aware that we get the government we deserve, which is probably why support for the Green party has all but evaporated.

    1. Dan Boyle

      I’m not indifferent to the plight of the badger but I have never rated it higher than the country’s economic well being. A pretty fatuous argument you’re making there.

      1. rory

        Hi Dan. Please excuse the length of this question, I’m finding it hard to put it into words.
        While the Greens were in government (prior to the bubble burst), did you or another member of the Greens ‘throw any shapes’ with regard the economy and what yee thought wrong with it? If yes, could you elaborate on said shapes that were thrown, and describe what yee thought wrong with the economy prior to the economic downturn.

        1. Dan Boyle

          We did too much of it internally. More worried and government cohesion. First argument we had at the negotiations were on FFs growth figures. We accepted them knowing they would have to be adjusted after the next budget. We were right. We set up the Commission of Taxation and through that we got rid of property based tax reliefs. Our influence helped to make taxes fair and diverse.
          We publicly lost the argument on how the adjustment should be made. We wanted 50/50 cuts to taxed, ended up two to one.
          On NAMA there was a quite a public process in which we secured several changes for the better in the legislation.
          90% of our time in government was spent trying to deal with the economy. It’s a fallacy that persists that we were indifferent to it.

      2. rob

        But Dan, isn’t it true that the Greens leader in Government John Gormley slept through the bank guarantee? This was the decision your government made that continues to haunt us and your leader, when told about it, preferred to turn over and sleep on.

        So when it came down to it, the Greens simply ignored the biggest issue when they were in Government. Who are you to criticise anyone else?

        1. Dan Boyle

          No it isn’t true. At 2am along with the rest of the cabinet, other than the two Brians, he was asleep. He was involved in discussion prior to the meeting, and was involved in the actual decision. Another of the myths that persist. Neither was the bank guarantee in any way the main cause of the economic collapse. If anything it was a consequence.

          1. ReproBertie

            The bank guarantee was, as you say, a consequence of the economic collapse but it was also one of the main reasons behind the USC/LPT being lumped on taxpayers. If we didn’t have to fund the dodgy bank debts then we wouldn’t have a need for the USC and LPT. It’s also a real slap in the face to see the same people that held those dodgy debts being rewarded with well paid jobs in NAMA.

            On your main point, it’s all well and good blaming the electorate for voting for these politicans but when the government and opposition are just bland copies of each other what alternative do we have?

          2. rob

            How could he be involved in the final negotiations if he was asleep? Surely as the Greens leader in government he had a duty to be around when the final decision was made.

            Also dont try to underplay the bank guarantee scheme it has inflicted huge levels of misery on the people of this country. I am fully aware that it was a result of the economic collapse but it could have been handled totally differently but hey at least John got a decent nights sleep.

          3. Dan Boyle

            The decision was made by the full cabinet and subsequently by both houses of the oireachtas. His presence there was immaterial.

          4. rob

            The Cabinet rubber-stamped the decision as did both houses of the Oireachtas, but when the negotiations were taking place, John Gormley was fast asleep. Please stop trying to bend the truth Dan, you’re not very good at it.

  4. Rafterysean

    He has a point though. We can’t face the truth. How many times have we had our heads turned by giveaway budgets. Each government waiting it’s turn to grease our palms for a few votes. I really don’t think we can be collectively trusted to do the right thing. Sure Irish water is a bloated super quango not built for purpose but how long can we go without paying properly for amenities. Well just as long as we can pay for our second holiday or an apartment in Bulgaria.

    1. erm...

      I don’t know any rational person who would suggest that saving kids from drowning in an attempt to flee their war torn country is a cause worth paying for.

      As for Irish Water, I think the issue is that it’s likely that someone is going to make a massive amount of money from it. Not me, who has happily signed up to pay to maintain the service, but possibly some other already massively wealthy individual who may have a track record of obtaining licences for these type of things in an underhanded fashion.

  5. Ivor

    In many, if not most, constituencies up until relatively recently (in election cycle terms), the ONLY choices were FF, FG or Labour. If there were others running, you only heard about them when you read the ballot paper because they didn’t have teams out campaigning for them. Heck, even Labour had pretty rubbish campaigns in many constituencies up until recently. For many, the Greens were the alternative, but they ended up supporting FF in their destructive practices.

    Tell me Dan – and I say this as somebody who voted for the Green option when available – who should I have voted for? You’d have condemned me if I hadn’t voted and yet you seem to suggest that I voted incorrectly at the same time.

  6. Mike Baldwin

    Reading Dan’s articles is invariably an exercise in tedium; appalling syntax, overly verbose, lacking fluidity. Maybe hire a writer from Bullworth to help you be more pointed….painful as always.

  7. Sido

    I get sick of people telling me how ******** rich I am.
    For one thing the people telling me are most usually richer than me. And for another its usually a prelude to an attempt to blag even more money off me.

    The Sido millions are my business, and my business alone.

    Replies to my my British Virgin Islands address please!

  8. Owen C

    Ok, so when it comes to domestic government policy, cries of “oh we’re so inequal in our society etc etc”. But when it comes to foreign policy, “actually we’re not inequal, we can afford it”? Right, cake and eating it spring to mind.

    1. Dan Boyle

      Relatively this is a rich country. That this saying that everyone in this country is rich. I certainly ain’t.

      1. fluffybiscuits

        Relatively rich has nothing to do with it. Its about the standard of living that everyone deserves and should be entitled to. I make do and I get by without some comforts, Im not the worst off but really any barometer should be ensuring people have the basic necessities and are not in the poverty trap.

        1. Dan Boyle

          And our poverty is also relative. Finding it difficulty to get by is the height of luxury for many on this planet.

    1. Dan Boyle

      Hey we’re all former something. If you mean I didn’t keep to the template of head down and lips sealed, that was certainly true.

      1. fluffybiscuits

        Green party was a member of govt that allowed reckless spending unless of course we all partied in that time

        PS My apologies that comment above about being a former senator was a little bit sneery, I didnt intend it that way!

        1. Dan Boyle

          Except we weren’t. The first budget certainly after that no. We should have looked for a freeze on spending in December 2007. It was less of an increase than the previous

          1. Dan Boyle

            Another argument we lost. We wanted increased capital expenditure, but we were successful in protecting spending on education.

  9. SB

    My take on the Greens in government is that they were pragmatic and knew they couldn’t call the shots seeing as they were the (very) junior member, but instead they pushed through a lot of things close to their own hearts that wouldn’t otherwise have happened. A good example is the Bike to Work scheme and the boom in people taking up cycling. In the grand scheme of things it may not rank highly but they weren’t about to be allowed to dictate everything to the larger party.

    The bank guarantee and not burning the bondholders might be a different matter but it seems from the evidence so far that only one person was making that decision – even Fianna Fail cabinet members didn’t get to decide on that, it would appear.

    I don’t understand why the Greens were so completely condemned and decimated in the subsequent elections and yet the electorate seem to be about to vote Fianna Fail back into power.

    1. SomeoneElse

      Didn’t they also make significant changes to Planning legislation which were more in lines with their Green policies.

      I completely agree with you by the way. They got into bed with FF and managed to push through some green policies, they could have played it safe and remained a shouty party from the opposition bench, but they made a brave decision and paid a big price for that.
      If you voted for them in 07, would have you voted for them to NOT try to get into government? What’s the point in that? Or did you honestly expect them to win an outright majority?

      Although one thing I would certainly criticise them for was their about turn on the Corrib Gas debacle.

      1. Dan Boyle

        You’re right on what you say but one quibble. We didn’t about turn on Corrib. We failed to achieve. There is a subtle difference.

    1. Dan Boyle

      Wouldn’t agree. Not everyone certainly but there has been a tacit acceptance of corruption throughout Irish society.

      1. Clampers Outside!

        Some of us believe in things like ‘integrity’ Dan.

        The corruption you speak of, from what I can see, is in the upper echelons of business and politics, something most of us never even come within a whisker of.
        And a greater number of us kept in the dark about it unless some useless Tribunal is set up so that the govt doesn’t have to do a proper legal / court proceeding that would result in jail.

        That acceptance, is not an acceptance of the many, but an acceptance of the few, the few with the power.

  10. Clampers Outside!

    “Most caused by a sleeveen approach to governance. Who voted for this approach and those who exercise it – you did. Even if you didn’t vote your non-participation allowed for it to happen.”

    So, the disgruntled should litteraly start a revolution, violence everyone, prison time for all caught. What Dan were the people to do?
    We voted for you, you are one of those sleeveens in governance were you not… seeing as you’re painting all with a wide brush you must put yourself in that pot.

    I did vote Dan, I voted against successive FF governments, and you went into govt with one of them, which makes you more culpable than I Dan, more culpable than others like me too, does it not.

    This “you did” Dan sounds more like a guilty conscience trying to share a burden of blame you feel you must carry. We did not “all party” as that stupid saying goes, many of us were prudent.

    1. Dan Boyle

      The corruption is throughout our society. Those who want and often get what they shouldn’t be entitled. Those who want to jump queues ahead of the more deserving. They find common ground with political parties who reward that behaviour.
      The choice is to be in government or not. The who with is irrelevant, both FFand FG are as a piece.
      I’m glad I tried and feel no remorse for having done so.

    2. SomeoneElse

      Clampers, you seem to forget that FF didn’t need the Greens to form a government in 07, they could have just about done it with the Independants and the one or two PDs.

      They’re the Green party, they had an opportunity to get in Government and push Green policies, which they did in some areas.
      I thought it was good decision at the time.
      And if we hadn’t decided for the 7 years previously that just selling houses to each other was a sound economic platform, there might not have been a need for a bailout, and the Greens might have achieved more.

  11. Kevin M

    The top 10% in this country control more then 53% of the wealth.

    Perhaps, if what Dan says is true, the E.U as a whole is an unequal entity and should be abandoned?

    Ireland during the Tiger was THE ‘Mule with the Spinning Wheel’ only more grotesque. Fuelled by a ravenous media selling its soul to developers,property companies etc and cheered on by a government who left it completely off the leash. There was more money than sense and everyone was told ” get on the ladder now before it’s pulled up”. No one yelled stop, no one said it would end.

    Your Government had more regulations for Health and safety within the Dáil then ye did for the banks and financial institutions. The regulator playing golf with bankers? what the hell were ye thinking? There were alarm bells ringing in the states for months before Lehman’s, did ye not think to see where the source of this German/French money was coming from?

    As to the water charges, The current trend is for remunicipalistation, it’s saving the city of Paris €35 million a year. Water charges are archaic, have caused catastrophe across the globe and in this country have nothing to do with conservation. The Energy regulator and Irish Water themselves have said that only 6% of the water supply will be saved through conservation. This is about greed. The Shock Doctrine in full effect – bewildered by the mammoth amount of debt we have been lumped with, this government has raced through LPT/USC and brought forth water charges which will bring water poverty into this country, all the while handing out hundreds of millions to donors and jobs for the boys.

    Your Party had hand, act and part in this mess. You don’t get to lash out at people fighting for fairness and their families, you don’t get to be angry, you haven’t earned it. You need to go out and speak to these people and see the lives they are living. See the mass medication of the masses, see the the fight completely gone from people on the doorsteps. Even in the 80’s there was hope for a better Ireland, that the next generation would have it better than they did, now there is none and that was started by your government and rubber stamped, viciously, by this one.

    So save us your anger. It is more hot wind.

  12. Dan Boyle

    Im not angry Kevin frustrated yes. You seem to have a better handle on that. This is the current situation on inequality in Ireland. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/ireland-at-risk-of-reaching-us-levels-of-income-inequality-says-study-1.2105125
    Strangely enough was more equal when we were in government.
    What I see lacking in our society is consistency and a proper sense of proportion. On those grounds I absolutely reject your hand, act or part remark.

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