Time for a herculean clean-up of operations
At this stage many of us have already failed to keep to the resolutions we made just a few short days ago. At a personal level any failure on our part to actually stick to our resolutions, generally speaking, just affects us.
Unfortunately, that is not the case at national level. We have just wriggled out of the control of the troika. We have allegedly recovered our sovereignty. There is now going to be no one to blame but ourselves. There is no one’s skirt to hide behind if things do not work out. There may well be no one to bail us out. And even if there is it will come at a very high price.
We cannot screw it up. Failure at this point would simply exacerbate all of the problems of the past six years and bring us to a lower place than we have ever been. We would have little hope of getting out of it in any foreseeable future. We must avoid it at all costs.
Pressure of all sorts will be brought on the Government over the coming weeks and months as those with power, business, unions and other vested interests naturally seek to take advantage for their own particular constituency. Those seeking such increases will be doing us no favours but coming up to the local elections and the 2016 general election the Government will be sorely tempted to relax the purse strings to woo voters.
They will do so at their peril. Unfortunately, this time it will not be just a loss of seats on the gravy train but will be a major loss for all of us. This time we will be required to dig deeper than we ever thought possible, to buy our way out of our problems.
What happened over the last few years might well seem like happy days. And it’s not simply a case of Government keeping its nerve. We must all be part of the solution.
Unfortunately, that is where a large part of the dilemma we face lies. We have little confidence in politicians and government. We have virtually none in the banks and big business. Experience has taught us only too often that things are not always as they seem.
From unapproved top-ups, to questionable land rezoning, to major decisions taken that benefit the few to the detriment of the many, to telephone number bonuses for bankers who helped destroy the economy, to lists being prepared by banks of politically exposed debtors, to a total lack of responsibility and accountability, certain sectors are seen by many as a cesspit of unearned privilege.
Hence the horrific level of cynicism that we feel for many of those in public life, politics, business and even the clergy. It is an issue that must be urgently addressed.
Like the Augean stables we have seen a massive build-up of very malodorous waste material. We need a Hercules to clean the stables out and it must be done now without further delay. It sits there festering unattended but is there for all to see. When we feel positive it rears its ugly head and reminds us of what has been going on and we ask ourselves ‘what’s the point?’
So Government must be good to its word. It must commission an urgent and wide-ranging banking inquiry and it must be one that will hold people to account. We need a government of the people for the people not one that appears to ignore the will of the people.
We must comprehensively deal with the issue of the widespread contagion of bending the rules, of top-up payments to those already well remunerated, whether they be hospital consultants, hospital managers or academics. We need rules that apply to all and not just to some. There must be no ‘golden circles’. We can no longer live in a one-way street where government takes and we give.
