A chara, – The Government is being rather naive in trying to avoid a referendum on the EU austerity treaty.
If we were to have a vote of the people, not only would it be more democratic, but it would be a powerful lever in getting what months of “tough negotiations” have failed to obtain so far: a necessary reduction on all those billions that we are spending to bail out the gambling debts of German and French banks. – Is mise,
Sir, – We elect politicians to make judgments in the public interest on issues of national importance. Deferring decisions on such issues back to the electorate is a dereliction of their statutory duty.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin’s concern for the public’s democratic rights is admirable – but does this mean that when Fianna Fáil is back in power we will have a referendum on such things as putting a cent on the pint? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I think we should have a referendum on whether or not we should have a referendum. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Now Micheál Martin is calling for our voice to be heard while Eamon Gilmore and Enda Kenny claim no ratification of the new treaty is needed.
Could it be that our Dáil is actually a theatre and the TDs are merely actors reading prepared scripts according to their casting? In that case, claims the Dáil is a farce could be said to be true. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The French occupation of the Ruhr between 1923 and 1925, to punish the Germans for defaulting on their reparation payments resulting from the first World War, is perhaps worth re-examining in the light of current events in Europe.
The French “fiscal compact” of the day placed considerable pressure on a struggling Germany. The British, being quite decent chaps, argued for a lowering of interest payments. But our French friends were having none of it. The consequence of the occupation was to cause the Weimar government to encourage a general strike to protest, which sparked the greatest and most destructive period of hyperinflation in history. Anyone remember how that ended? The French franc also collapsed in 1924, as a consequence of relying too much on German war payments.
Have these people learnt nothing from history? The double bind about living through “great” events is that humanity has a habit of not being in a position to impose its historical lessons until considerable time has passed; then, valuable lessons are ignored as they slip from the collective folk memory.
Surely the lesson of the early 1920s is that insular economic policy, coupled with an aggressive foreign policy, only ends in chaos?
Are we already locked into a fatal, downward spiral in Europe? The portent is not good, is it? I refuse to accept that it’s too late for Europe to avoid the coming crisis.
Only by establishing a “Bretton Woods” type conference, to redraw the rules of capital, will we avoid the depression on the horizon. The fiscal compact is not a cure but an economic cyanide capsule. Only by re-grading current “banking-to-sovereign” European debt as a form of wealth distribution, and by establishing new rules to avoid vast private wealth becoming the life-blood of modern democracies through bond issues, will we escape the darkness already descending over Europe. – Yours, etc,