Sir, - I'll start screaming if I hear another politician on the airwaves claiming another (pyrrhic) victory at the recent by-election polls. Are they all stupid or what?
Out of a total electorate of 72,155, Fianna Fail got 6,050 or 8.38 per cent, Labour got 5,637 or 7.81 per cent, Fine Gael got 4,037 or 5.59 per cent and Sinn Fein received the grand total of 1,686 or 2.34 per cent. These voters represent only a small hard core of political activists; the general public are sick of them. Only 28.12 per cent of the registered electorate bothered to vote and no doubt the politicians will set up another "working party" to find out why.
I'll save them the hassle and tell them. It's because they are all considered to be either corrupt or moral cowards who see nothing and do nothing, who have appalling "lapses of memory", who "climb up every tree" when they only have to ask a simple question, who have vast sums written off by banks and building societies (who, surprise, surprise, have been ripping off the general public and the Revenue), who get "perks" from semi-State bodies because their pals have been appointed (by the politicians!) to the board, who give themselves unvouched and untaxed expenses, who sign blank cheques with taxpayers' money but never even check the stubs, who receive vast sums of money for "personal political campaigns" in brown envelopes but never open the envelopes or even thank their benefactors. Of course "no favours are ever asked or given". Do they think we are stupid or what?
They won't hold elections on the obvious day, Sunday, because they have "consulted" the "main" churches who "wouldn't like it". Why weren't the electorate consulted? They give £20 million to the GAA (fair enough) but allow the nurses to go out on strike (over £20 million!), and now want to build a £300 million "white elephant" stadium in the Taoiseach's back yard!
I saw some of them skulking in the background at the funeral of Jack Lynch - one of the few honest politicians we ever had - whom these petty politicians stabbed in the back because he wouldn't "play ball". And instead they chose Barabbas, le petit gurrier. - Yours, etc.,
Barry McHugh, Stoney Road, Dublin 14.