Politicians must give pledge on total reform

THEY say that if you want to make God laugh you must first show him your plans. As an economy we were riding high. Our success knew no limit. We were, in the minds of many, masters of all we surveyed. As other European economies trickled along with negligible or minimal growth, ours boomed, or appeared to be booming.

We now know that it was all an illusion and the only ones, so far, who appear to be suffering, are those who did not benefit remotely as much as the select few. We have entered into an extended period of austerity. This will affect everybody in this economy but it will affect those most who are least able to deal with it.

On Monday night we saw on both Prime Time and The Frontline exactly how those who played a major part in bringing us to this sorry state are dealing with the impact of the recession and the accompanying austerity measures.