Monday, June 08, 2009
THIS morning battered, bruised, rejected, angry and facing a new and reduced reality, Fianna Fáil will feel like so many of those whose lives have been changed completely by that party’s appalling economic mismanagement and magisterial indulgences.
Some party figures are running a pathetic rearguard action offering delusional blather – in public at least – about this being a protest vote because of the "hard decisions we’ve had to make because of global economic circumstances." It is unimaginable that even they believe that. Can they, as they consider their worst election in 70 years, really believe that this humiliation, this resounding rejection, is because of events outside of their control?
Certainly international events played a part, but the anger, the visceral venom, behind last Friday’s scathing assessment was to do with broken promises, a litany of botched budgets, an undeniable impression that ordinary families and workers are to pay – with their jobs, and sometimes their pensions too – for the recklessness of our unfettered, untouchable developers, bankers and failed regulators. It had to do with the realisation, reached after years of exposure, that far too many of the constant Cabinet are not up to the job.
It had to do with the fact that nearly 500,000 people will be out of work before Christmas. It had to do with the fact that families who embraced sacrifice to educate children wonder if they, the best educated generation of Irish people ever, will get a job of any kind, or when they will be able to begin independent, dignified lives.
The thrashing had to do with the disconnect that comes when a party is too seduced, lies too comfortably in the deep, reassuring ottomans of power.
Fianna Fáil’s humiliation did not come because we cannot stomach hard decisions, it came because they have lost the faith and trust of an electorate crying out for real leadership and real change – or just change.
Timing may have been a factor too. The votes came just over two weeks after the Ryan report which shamed us all and reminded us that the past is not a perfect template for the future. That report may, in time, be seen as the moment we finally realised we had to demand more of those who assume authority if we wish to be numbered among civilised societies. The dreadful, sweetheart deal agreed by Ahern and Woods with Catholic congregations reminded us of the unattractive, shabby, old pals’ Ireland and deepened the resolve of those determined to reject Fianna Fáil.
This revolutionary change was best illustrated by the brutal dismissal of Bertie Ahern’s brother Maurice, who got 12.5% of the vote in one of the Dublin by elections. In the last election "the most popular Taoiseach ever" led Fianna Fáil to secure 44.5% of the vote in the same constituency. No dig out there then.
Fianna Fáil were not the only party decimated and the Greens cannot but be disheartened. They, like all the earlier supporting acts, are paying the price for propping up Fianna Fáil. John Gormley and his colleagues are learning the realities, the fickleness, of political loyalties the hard way, but their core issues – environmental responsibility and sustainable development – are far, far too important to be allowed slip from the agenda. More than anyone else outside of Fianna Fáil the Greens will decide when the next election will be held and in the interim they have very difficult questions to ask themselves.
That date cannot be too far away as, like Gordon Brown’s Labour party, Fianna Fáil have lost the moral authority needed to rule a democracy. Last week it was a certainty that Fianna Fáil would introduce the next budget and the second Lisbon referendum. That certainty has been reduced to little more than a probability by last Friday’s Waterloo.
Fine Gael and Labour were the primary beneficiaries but they should not celebrate too energetically just yet. Our situation borders on catastrophic no matter who is in government. Politicians of all hues are on thin ice, and only those who recognise that most of us care a lot more for the wellbeing of this country than we do for the internecine punch ‘n’ judy that passes for political life in this country will they have any chance of replacing Fianna Fáil.
Though the past is not the perfect template for the future its lessons are undeniable. If the faith we all wish to have in our political system is to be restored we need viable options. To that end Fine Gael and Labour need to work together and publish a programme that represents reality and equity, one that represents a viable alternative to the delusion, prevarication, indulgence, arrogance and incompetence that has betrayed so many people in Fianna Fáil and done so much harm to this country in the last few years.
A lot done indeed, but so very much more to undo.
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