If anyone still doubts the need for a new beginning in the way we run our affairs, they might be induced to think again by the actions of our Tanaiste, Mary Coughlan TD, and her erstwhile social partner David Begg. These two pillars of the establishment have taken doublespeak to a level George Orwell never imagined.
Writing in the national papers the other day, ICTU's Begg effectively welcomed the "death of social partnership", proclaiming that it freed the unions to be true to their own interests without being inhibited by the need to satisfy the other partners in the process.
There was no such rejoicing from the ranks of the Irish Government, where they seemingly failed to notice the demise of social partnership, not if Ms Coughlan's antics are anything to go by. Oblivious to silly concerns about fairness and transparency, Coughlan went ahead with a classic remnant of social partnership by appointing an ICTU nominee to the Labour Court because it was their turn - a procedure that had been mothballed by her predecessor as Enterprise Minister, the much-maligned Mary Harney, who went for the outlandish innovation of appointing someone on merit.
Coupled with the disgraceful exemption of the highest-paid civil servants from their fair share of the public sector pay cuts (obviously because they are the ones who work most closely on a day-to-day basis with Government ministers, thereby having the most 'pull'), the 'former' social partners are showing us that as far as they are concerned nothing has changed, and they are simply biding their time before they can once again divide the spoils of the tax take among the privileged few.
Once again, there has to be a fundamental change in the political system to ensure Ireland is run in the interests of all her people. We can not allow the return of oligarchy, despite the best efforts of the oligarchs to make it happen at our expense.
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