Another Five Years… The Sheep Have Spoken

AS A COLLEAGUE of mine has been saying all day today “The people have spoken“, and I suppose he is right. The people of Ireland turned out in droves last Thursday to vote and they made it clear that they were shit scared of change. Any change. What a great sight it was to see democracy in action with such a large turnout at the polling stations… but then what a tragedy to see the resulting numbers crawl in over the weekend.

The gangsta party are back in business, and back in the Dail for another five years.

Another five years of corruption, greed, dodgy property deals and backhanders. Just look at the list of corruption charges levelled against these gangsta party members since 2002. Amazing isn’t it? And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Yet they got re-elected. Hell, Ireland even made it on to the Transparency International Global Corruption Report in 2005, and have remained there as far as I know. And let’s not forget the seemingly endless list of insane property deals and backhanders. Is there any green space left in this country not already on a planning application for some apartments or commercial building? Someone is getting rich, but it ain’t the PAYE workers.

Another five years of chronic Health Services. It’s more dangerous now to go to a hospital than it is to stay at home. There aren’t enough beds so you are just as likely to die in a corridor waiting for one to come free. It’s cheaper to outsource the service and bring in talent from abroad, so half the doctors and nurses don’t speak English particularly well and haven’t the time to see you anyway. It’s times like this sign language comes in handy, like pointing to your broken leg or fractured pelvis and making sounds of an animal in pain; that usually works. The reorganisation of the health boards into a Health Services Executive has been a farce and is more expensive than the original model. It’s so bad that if it were an animal you would have it put down, to put it out of its pain.

Another five years of traffic jams, chaos on the roads, retarded thinking and operation free fuckflow.There is no such thing as an average journey any more in Ireland, it’s impossible to predict. Taxi drivers can’t even make their predicted calls. Roads are clogged up due to unimaginative planning and short sighted deals. The average infrastructure project in Ireland runs 85% over cost and time. 85% for fucks sake. Nothing happens on time, ever. It’s been this way for years. We don’t even have a joined-up public infrastructure, let alone roads that make sense. It’s a complete mess because the approach to sorting this mess out needs to be comprehensive, coherent and most of all strategic, but the gangstas are too insterested in revenue for that. Speed cameras are placed in cash cow areas, painted grey to ‘help’ you see them and used to enforce incredibly stupid speed limits on perfectly good roads. Now they tell us they will outsource the placement of additional cameras and roaming units to generate even more revenue. It’s got nothing to so with safety, it’s all about revenue.

Another five years of business prevention, at least when it comes to broadband and the Internet. Eircom still have a monopoly on the last mile of copper and as a result enable anti-competitive practices to take place where the consumer is the one getting fucked every time. Ireland has a lousy broadband adoption track record as a result, which in turn makes it harder and more expensive for Small to Medium Enterprises to go online. It’s a vicious circle and it won’t change until the Government gives the regulator the authority to change things, to take on Eircom and actually change things… oh but wait, the people don’t want change do they?

Another five years of crime completely out of control. The cops are fighting a loosing battle and continue to be under-resourced in terms of people and equipment. The courts have a sodding revolving door policy and scumbags roam the city streets doing pretty much whatever they want. Rape is up, Murder is up, Abuse is up… hell random violence is the new entertainment for these bastards and we are the targets. The prisons are full, but life inside ain’t exactly hard for the fuckers – with their plasma TVs, mobile phones etc. It’s completely insane. Completely and predictably insane.

Another five years of pointless and costly tribunals. There has been so much corruption that some bright spark decided to spend hundreds of millions on tribunals to ‘investigate’ the allegations, not that it’s any good because the tribunals have no criminal authority at all. So basically even if they do find some evidence of misappropriation or fraud, they can’t do shit about it other than publish it. The only people coming out of the tribunals smiling are the barristers and solicitors, who are raking in the cash at a mad rate. And even when some gangsta politician is found to have been a bad boy he still gets re-elected.

I could go on and on (too late I hear you scream!) but it’s just pointless. The list is endless. The problems are legion, but I was hoping for a fresh set of faces in Government to address them. A fresh approach. A new way of thinking, of tackling the same old issues that have been there like a big fuck-off elephant in the corner of the room which no one wants to go near. A change. Oh yes, a change… but of course the sheep of Ireland have spoken. There shall be no change. The gangstas are back. There is nothing to see here, look the other way.

It’s not bitterness. It’s dissappointment.

Another five years of gangsta politics. Oh fuck!

GRRRRRRR!