Sick and tired of the rhetoric surrounding 'Political Reform'

NSNO

I don't know if it is just me, but is all this rhetoric surrounding 'political reform' starting to grate?

From every media imaginable, we're being bombarded by politicians, presenters, journalists and academics with constant buzzwords. Reform, reform, reform, reform. All day every day. Yet, I'm finding it all very worrying and very dangerous.

Now, don't get me wrong. I fully believe that reform is necessary in Irish politics. That was clearly proven by the results of how this country was governed during the past 13 years.

But it seems to me that every political party is getting a bye from any sort of critical analysis as long as they place their policies under the umbrella of "reform". It seems to me that the-powers-that-be in Irish public life have decided that reform, any reform, is necessary to re-legitimise the system in which they have so much invested.


It strikes me as nothing more of ill-thought out populism. I've heard numerous people from all sides of the political spectrum bitch and moan about the same things. I've heard people say that: "It's a disgrace that the Government can't cut judge's pay... why shouldn't they suffer too?" And people saying: "Abolish the Seanad, we don't need that!" And people blaming PR-STV for everything that's wrong in Irish politics.

Now, I think that it should be quite clear to more politically literate WHY judge's pay should be protected constitutionally. But that voice of reason isn't represented in the media.

Again, after 13 years of horrendous governance, people are willing to give up control of who exactly represents them to political parties in the form of a list? Why? The argument that PR-STV is responsible for our gombeenism and localism is a fallacy. Gombeenism is rife in all Irish public institutions regardless of whether or not they are elected. Localism will always be rife in politics, all politics is local, and even in a list a party's members will gravitate towards an area to concentrate on. PR-STV protects our rights by allowing us to directly elect the people we want to govern us in a proportional and democratic manner. After the complete balls our political parties made of the last 13 years, I'm not prepared to give up more of my liberty to them.

And the Seanad, well, it's clear that some reform is needed here. It is undemocratic and ineffective in its current incarnation. However, the idea that this country can be honestly run solely by the Dáil without any reform is simply ludicrous. Making the Seanad a democratically watchdog for the Government is the way forward. Give it real powers over the public accounts, public appointments and Dáil expenses and ethics. We need an upper house that can give us real supervision.


Not only have we suffered a severe collapse in our financial affairs thanks to Fianna Fáil, we have suffered a real collapse in our liberty. Who would have thought that at the tail end of a boom we would be in a situation where our Freedom of Information Act was mangled, Blasphemy was made illegal, Jury's were thrown out the window and the Minister for Finance had a ridiculous amount of power concentrated in him. Rarely a day goes by that we don't hear about our sovereignty being eroded from Republican quarters, but where are the Republicans when my LIBERTY is being eroded?

I know the reputation that this forum has. But this is not the rant of an angry libertarian. I am simply a very worried centrist who sees socially regressive policies to his left and to his right. Where is the party who will protect me from the incompetent and corrupt governance which has defined this state for most of its history?

Biggins

We do need reform - but not from the hands that appear to be unable to shake off the old ways of doing things with the assistance of endless (and meaningless) PR window dressing and their version of political musical chairs.

The constant call for reform might be annoying to some but in our case its a necessary evil - if one views such calls that way.

I'm personally standing and one of the tenements that I'm standing is so to put added pressure on those that seem unwilling to go beyond the meaningless words and no value promises in regards to reforms.

We got to start re-evaluating not just how we do things - but to whom we should be asking who should be doing it.
There is far too much rubbish in the Dail that is engrained with the methods of the old ways.
Time to blow away the cobwebs!