Madam, – We are so much at the mercy of dismal economists these days that they are ruining the English language at the same time as destroying the Irish economy. My objection is to the use of “grow” (Old English growan, Class VII Strong/Vocalic Verb) as a transitive verb.
We have had to endure yet another Fine Gael spokesman (like his Fianna Fáil predecessor) promising to get us out of the present economic pit by “growing the economy”. How is he going to do it? The economy will grow when we nurture it.
At the moment we are feeding it with the poison of unsustainable debt (take whatever figures you will), some of it self-inflicted, but billions imposed unfairly on us by our friends in the ECB.
When the European Central Bank has its headquarters in Killarney rather than in Frankfurt, I shall begin to believe in the efficacy of a bailout.
As it is, Fine Gael seem to be disciples of Mr Micawber. They waffle on as Rome burns in the hope that “something will turn up”.
They might as well go on to say with him: “Welcome poverty! Welcome misery, welcome houselessness, welcome hunger, rags, tempest and beggary!”
In my view this is too much of a welcome, even for ungrammatical politicians and economists. – Yours, etc,