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I'd begun to think over the last two elections that FG had thawed a little in its attitude towards the working class and was developing a sense of social conscience - it's years in the wilderness possibly teaching it some humility and that the country is not made up exclusively of the squire class that it has traditionally represented. Not so.
The staunchly Fine Gael supporting 'Irish Examiner' is a good barometer most days of the direction FG policy is going in. Since the crisis broke it has reverted to type, unfortunately, and has published a series of editorials, features and columns damning the public sector, the unions and the workers they represent. It's coverage of strikes and other public protest has been muted for the main part and usually disapproving. Today's editorial spells out the contempt in which Fine Gael sees the public sector - though the party itself is not mentioned, nobody in Munster is under any illusion on whose behalf it speaks. FG is a party that has never had any real regard or respect for the poorer sections of society - viewing them in effect as a class of serfs whose existence should be one of subservience to the so-called 'wealth creators'. It views with rage and suspicion every concession to a decent standard of living for the men and women who work hard to keep this country running in a civilised way.
For Fine Gael the economic crisis has brought on an orgy of excitement about the possibility of eviscerating the public sector - and which reveals their stubbornly patrician outlook in all its condescension . FG is daily goading the government to extreme measures against workers who have nothing to do with what destroyed this country - rampant and unchecked speculation on the financial and property markets which our government did nothing to control.
The Examiner editorial writer responsible for the following piece must be living in a rarified atmosphere of insulated protection from the reality. He or she has contrived to define the current crisis as a contest between two groups of put upon workers: private sector workers and public sector workers. The latter must make every and any sacrifice to supplement the tragedies that have befallen the former. And out of the middle of this unbelievably irresponsible depiction of the situation escape ALL of the villains of the piece with only a glancing reference to what they should be doing: politicians, property developers, bankers, dealers and other obscenely wealthy people - the entire class of people who can and should be paying for what has happened. It seems that the togetherness to which the Examiner calls for is only to apply to the lower paid.
Irish Examiner | Irish News | News from Ireland
The madness is rampant. We have virtually no guarantees in place that the bailouts will be used wisely or for the benefit of the country as a whole. Meanwhile, in an effort to shave a relatively minor 2 billion from the public sector pay bill, hundreds of thousands of us are to be plunged further into poverty and/or unemployment. The disproportionate nature of this situation is an outrage against all decent and fair thinking people. Of course there will be the usual slew of vicious little narks who post on this site, baying for the blood of the public sector as just so much economic cannon fodder, but we know who you are - primarily Fine Gaelers. Take heed of this warning: much though Fianna Fail are despised and for many a good reason too, one of the reasons they go on getting elected is that somewhere in the midst of their incompetence and greed there still beats some feint semblance of heart on behalf of ordinary people. It's a gossamer thread of hope on which to hang our fate but better than the slammed trap door that will greet us if Fine Gael are ever let near the control panel.
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Originally Posted by blacbloc
