Madam, – For those who are prepared to engage with politicians canvassing at the door during the election campaign, permit me to recommend a simple but effective “political waffle filter”.
This consists of a single A4 sheet, one for each politician, outlining a list of your national and local requirements in detail. Leave a space of five or six lines between each item.
Rather than listen to the usual party spin, insist immediately that they address each of your topics and write briefly their response under each item, positive or negative.
If their response is positive insist that they indicate an implementation date.
Most importantly, ask them to sign and date each item.
Having successfully used this in previous elections, I can guarantee that this simple system will help you to decide on your own pre-election priorities. Most importantly, it will force each prospective politician to be coherent and precise. They will effectively have to sign a covenant, which can be reviewed and presented to them later, at appropriate intervals.
As an example, my own priorities will be: 1. Policy on reform of Oireachtas and local government. 2. Policy on IMF/EU/ECB bailout costs and ECB culpability in reckless lending to Irish banks. 3. Policy on present Government decisions on Anglo and bank bailout, and on defaulting/renegotiating bank debts. 4. Policy and recommendations for existing and future salaries, perks and pensions for politicians, the judiciary and senior public servants. 5. Policy on review and recommendations of all professional fees, particularly legal and medical fees. 6. Policy on accountability and sanctions for politicians and senior civil servants for negligence leading to destruction of our society and economy.
The politician who best answers the above to my satisfaction will get my vote. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Walking through Sundays Well, Cork city on Monday, I fell into step and got speaking for a time to a pleasant, elderly gentleman who was walking in the same direction. As I approached my parked car I wished him a good evening, he crossed the street and I proceeded to drive away. When checking my rear view mirror, I was dismayed to see the same respectable gentleman scavenge through a wheelie bin, pull out some bread packaging and proceed to consume the remnants of a sliced pan.
The breadline for many in this State has clearly reached a new low. This week, as the individuals who allegedly lead our country were competing enthusiastically for the Fianna Fáil party leadership role, I ponder the saying “It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey”. In the case of Fianna Fáil, I beg to differ.
I couldn’t care less about their latest leadership journey as long as the destination for this party is political oblivion. Fine Gael and Labour in opposition have done nothing to convince me that in power they will do better by the ordinary citizens of this State. I for one will vote for a genuine political alternative only. I would encourage others to do likewise. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – For an old leftie like me, the most dispiriting aspect of the emerging election campaign is the zest with which those on the left are attacking each other while Fine Gael sails serenely towards a glorious blue horizon.
There is no point going into “who started it” as this would only exacerbate the row. Labour, Sinn Féin and the United Left Alliance can continue to indulge their appetite for infighting or refocus on the real enemy.
A truce may be frustrating for some, especially those who see easy meat by poaching each others’ voters, but even they should remember that cannibalism is not a very viable, or indeed appetising, menu in the long term. The German Left found that out the hard way in the 1930s. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The contention of Angelina Cox (January 21st) that the under-representation of women among election candidates is a serious challenge to democracy is frankly absurd. There are far too many genuine problems with our system of electing national politicians for us to entertain such notions as “gender disenfranchisement”, based on the bizarre idea that women need to have female TDs to be properly represented.
If it were the case that there were legal or procedural barriers preventing women from standing in elections and from getting elected then there would be a genuine problem, but there are no such barriers. Nor do we have any cultural inhibitions against women being elected as TDs, or as senior ministers, party leaders or President for that matter. Perhaps we have fewer female candidates simply because fewer women choose to get involved in politics? And this is certainly nothing to do with prejudice within political parties, since most independent candidates are also male.
Gender quotas would simply mean that political parties would be forced to chose female candidates from a small pool of interested women, which would do nothing to increase the calibre of the candidates that voters must choose from; and surely it is the poor calibre of many candidates that is a more serious challenge to our democracy?
The idea that women need to be represented by women TDs is surely unacceptable and discriminatory. Do men need to be represented by men? Should I, as a salaried employee, avoid voting for candidates who are farmers or businesspeople? Should we all check the religious or ethnic backgrounds of candidates to make sure that we don’t inadvertently find ourselves represented by someone who is not one of us?
Alternatively we could consider voting for candidates on their personal merits, perhaps looking at their experience and skills, or even their policies and values and principles. It would also be a startling change from voting for a candidate, male or female, simply because he lives round the corner or because she knew our father well. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – A friend of mine who has lived in Southern Africa who the best part of 50 years received an e-mail from Brian Cowen on Saturday thanking him for his support. In view of the coming election is it to be presumed that legislation is to be enacted by the Oireachtas to allow expatriates to vote? Fianna Fáil must be getting desperate. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I believe it is time for a change, a new government. Having always voted Fianna Fáil, for the first time, I have found myself considering voting for the opposition. So, I went to the Fine Gael website to see what its policies are. However, all I could find on it was a countdown to election day (45 days, two hours, 30 minutes and 15 seconds the last time I checked), but not one policy! Not one! For the past two years we have heard Fine Gael say that it was time for a change, and that it was the party to provide it. Yet, with days to go to the biggest election in the nation’s history, it seems it hasn’t had time in those two years to prepare policies setting out that alternative. This is beyond incredible. Obama promised “change” America could believe in. However, Fine Gael, it seems, cannot even proffer an policy to peruse! And so I find myself reading Labour’s policy pages. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – We’ll soon be asked to cast our votes in an election, but for what? On the highway of Irish life, politicians focus only on day-to-day crises, essentially filling potholes. No statesman has emerged to signpost a vision of where our highway is leading, if anywhere. Are we working to build a better society? Do we know what a successful Ireland really means? Any mediocre government can survive by doing its best to manage crises in quiet times. But at this most challenging time in our history Ireland needs a government which can deliver on three crucial actions: 1. Agree an overarching vision for a more meaningful society, a mission statement which will influence all strategies and actions over the life of the government. 2. Make an unbreakable promise to agree and implement the profound changes called for in Ireland’s political and electoral environment. 3. Appoint a senior minister with full and transparent responsibility for implementing the actions generated by 1 and 2 above.
We might ask ourselves: is there any point in voting for a party or politician whose manifesto does not include these most necessary actions? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Rónán Murray (January 24th) is quite right. It’s time we stopped the ghosts of our grandfathers dictating whether we vote Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. A political dance with two right feet will always lead to a fall but, as any topologist will tell you, an object with three legs can stand on the most uneven surface. Ireland desperately needs (has always needed) three major parties – right, left, and centre – and the abyss into which we are now plunging might be just the place to re-form them.
I have heard right-leaning voters musing on the possibility of voting Labour and Sinn Féin – for two reasons: the ECB and the IMF will stop them doing any real harm, and nothing short of that will scare Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael enough to put their history behind them and do the Right thing. I would welcome arguments to the contrary before those siren voices have me in thrall. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – With all this talk of an election, political reform and renewing our Republic, what are needed, in my opinion as a philosopher, are centre-right policies that ensure: 1. Fiscal rectitude (ones that will be pro-enterprise and reward). 2. Small government (“that government is best which governs least”, in Thomas Jefferson’s words). 3. A low-tax economy. 4. Law and order in our society (John Locke: “where there is no law there is no freedom”). 5. Constitutional reform (including the retention of a reformed Senate). 6. The strengthening of our sovereignty within the European Union (patriotism rather than narrow nationalism). 7. The rights of children – born and unborn. 8. The protection of minorities from “the tyranny of the majority”, in Alexis de Tocqueville’s words. 9. The tearing up of the Croke Park deal. 10. The introduction of philosophy into our secondary-schools.
I am not a member of any political party but the one that will carry out at least some of these initiatives and restore a sense of purpose and pride, meaningful and motivational politics, as well as confidence and clarity, will get my vote. At the moment I am looking to Fine Gael as well as to the National Forum for a lead. The question is: will they step up to the mark? One can only hope and pray. – Yours,etc,
Madam, – The case to allow those living abroad to vote has been excellently made by Peter Geoghegan (Opinion, January 24th). The fact that the initial election date was falling on a Friday and thus enabling students to vote has also been subject to much positive commentary. However, students living away from home and studying at colleges within the State have the right to a postal ballot.
Students pursuing studies as part of their Irish courses outside the State do not have that entitlement. I am one of thousands of Irish students affected by this discriminatory process. Enfranchising those within this category does not have the same procedural problems as extending it to the emigrant population as a whole, as we are readily identifiable and the majority are registered within the Erasmus framework. I fail to see sense in the distinction that gives a preference to those studying in Dublin compared to Belfast or further afield when so much has been made about the importance of making my demographic more politically active. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Roisin Lawless asks “Is it fair that the Green Party should now suffer for having spent the past three years in Government with Fianna Fáil?” (January 26th). I would like to ask Ms Lawless if it is fair that the Irish people suffered, as a consequence of a Government comprising the Greens and Fianna Fáil, for the past three years?
These questions are rhetorical yet their answers are one and the same. Fair? Perhaps not, but as George Bernard Shaw once said “Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed by no better than we deserve”. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Following a week of “misunderstandings”, can we please clarify the following with all political parties and candidates: “No junk mail” refers to all election literature. – Yours, etc,