BLAGAROON

BIFFO’S PARADE RAINED

OUT, BANKS FAIL

AS POLS WAIL:

The Irish Government’s gamble on Bostonomics has turned out to be the biggest loser this country has ever had since the 19^th Century Famine. Along with Piss-pot Harney and Blank-Cheque Bertie, Biffo Cowen sold out this country to foreign capital, mostly from the United States, for the sake of a few thousand temporary jobs now already being further “outsourced” to cheaper labour locations elsewhere in the world. As the whole US Neo-Con project of uncontrolled debt-marketing collapses around their ears, their willing lap-dogs here are left floundering in the mire of the biggest financial downturn since the infamous Crash of 1929.

Níl fágtha ag Brianaigh na nDrochscéil ach caoineadh agus cuimilt láimhe faoi laethe an “Tíogair Cheiltigh”. Iadsan agus a dhlúthcháirde an lucht olagóin anois, seachas na daoine gur chaith Bertie-an-tSeic-Ghlan an masla sin leo timpeall’s bliain ó shoin. Iadsan a bhí ag géimnigh ó cheann ceann na tíre gurbh iad slánaitheoirí na heacnamaíochta agus gurbh iad Laochra an Ré Órga a bPáirtí fhéin, Fianna Fáil, agus siad ag iarraigh ar mhuintir na hÉireann glachadh le Chonradh damanta Liosbóin mí an Mheithimh imithe thart. Anois, donas an donais atá le tairiscint acu don phobail igcoitinne sa bhuiséad mí-ámharach seo cé gurbh iad fhéin udair na ghéarchéime atá buailte linn. – The Bad News Brians have nothing left but misery moans and hand-wringing over the days of the “Celtic Tiger”. They and their cronies are the whiners now, not those people who were insulted by Blank-Cheque Bertie only a year ago. They are the ones who were bellowing up and down the country, last June, that they were the saviours of the economy and that Fianna Fáil was the Party of the Golden Age, when they were trying to convince the people to accept the damnable Lisbon Treaty. Now they have only the worst to offer to the public in their miserable budget although it was they who brought us to the financial crisis we are now in.

Not one regret, not one line of apology from the cheerleaders of market fetishism and privatisation who bulldozed on, relentless, with their insane policies of making the country dependent on foreign capital while asset stripping the public utilities and allowing a massive speculative property bubble to develop which made billionaires of their Construction Industry supporters to the detriment of everyone else. Ignoring all warnings from the more sober economic commentators, they tied the Irish economy to an inevitable collapse and now they want the rest of us to pay for it.

VOLCANO ERUPTS

The landmine in Brian Lenihan’s hairshirt budget, the mean and low-down attack on the elderly by depriving the over-70’s of their free medical services card, shocked the nation and produced an unexpected reaction within Fianna Fáil. Not, we might add, based on altruistic motives or a genuine concern for social justice, but a sheer panic and primal fear of losing their seats in the forthcoming June, 2009, Local Government and European elections. As the backlash from the public descended on the FF local councillors and TD’s an unprecedented revolt began against the arrogant assumptions of their Government ministers and an undignified scramble for the airwaves to distance themselves from their Government’s Scrooge Budget ,as they tried to ingratiate themselves with an enraged public and provided the most cynical and hypocritical spectacle ever seen in Irish political life.

These are the same individuals who cheered on Blank-Cheque Bertie and Piss-pot Harney and Biffo Cowen as Finance Minister as they pushed through their now disgraced and discredited economic policies. Not one of the now vociferous backbench TD’s stood up in the Dáil to denounce this anti-social budget. Joe Behan, FF TD for Wicklow, headlined for his resignation from the party several days after the budget, cheered and applauded with the rest. Charlie O’Connor, TD for Dublin South West, who lick-arsed everything done by FF over their past ten years in government, was on RTÉ radio this morning pretending that the whole thing was a misunderstanding and would be sorted out by Biffo before he left on his official visit to China this week. “Auntie Mary”, Mary O’Rourke, the finance minister’s aunt, tried the same tack on TV on Sunday and again on radio today. If it was a “mistake” why didn’t they say so in the Dáil on Tuesday? Liars and hypocrites! It was only when they felt the heat of public anger in the days following the Budget that they began to discover that they had a social conscience.

GREEN NOT ENVIED

The most pathetic sight of the past week was the Green Party TD’s, who also all cheered and applauded Brian Lenihan last Tuesday, desperately trying to backtrack from a decision which their two Ministers in cabinet voted for and are collectively responsible for under the terms of the constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann. The Green Party sold its soul to the Fianna Fáil demon and now must pay the price. The political situation for the Government is now precarious. Biffo Cowen, his leadership severely dented with the defeat of the Lisbon Treaty last June on which he gambled his personal integrity, is now faced not only with an unprecedented revolt within his own party but with the disarray of his Coalition allies, the Greens and the so-called “independents” supporting his Government who know they are goners in the next elections if they continue to support his budget. His authority as Taoiseach is diminished and his chances of support in the Dáil reduced which means the survival of the Government is now in question. His political judgement must also be under question in that he and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan failed to realise what they were doing in making this attack on the oldest citizens of our Republic.

They now face another unprecedented event as a mass protest of senior citizens gathers outside Dáil Éireann on Wednesday, Deire Fomhair/October 22, 2008. Taxi drivers in Dublin have already offered free transport to all senior citizens to the protest and “Insomnia” Coffee Cafés have offered free tea or coffee to any senior citizen in their three shops adjacent to the Parliament buildings in Kildare Street. It’s looking more like the Fall of the Bastille for Biffo and his Aristocrats at Leinster House this week.

FearFeasa Mac Léinn

Áth Cliath/DUBLIN, 20 Deire Fomhair/October 2008.

JUST ANNOUNCED!!

Finian McGrath TD. Dublin North-Central

McGRATH WALKS ON FIANNA FÁIL/GREENS COALITION !!!

As this post was published it has been announced that Finian McGrath, TD for Dublin North-Central announced he was withdrawing his support from the Fianna Fáil/ Green Party Coalition.

This inevitably puts pressure on the other two government supporters, Michael Lowry (Tipperary North) and Jackie Healy-Rae (Kerry South) to follow suit. If they also defect from supporting the Coalition this leaves the Greens on an extremely sticky wicket as the only prop for the discredited Fianna Fáil budget. The question now is; have the Greens the nerve to defy public rage and continue to defend the Scrooge budget? Interesting times indeed!

FFML.