THE Government’s army of spin have been busy over the past week. They have been trying to convince us that the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) plan is: the only way to restore bank credit to the wider economy; there is no alternative and they know what they are doing.

MIDDLE-INCOME Ireland is set to receive the bills for a decade of excessive Government spending. Significantly less take home pay will be a reality from May 1 for ordinary workers.

Over the past two weeks the Government has spun the message that previous fiscal targets are to be relaxed. An exchequer annual deficit of 9.5% or €17.5bn could stretch to 12%. We are now embarking along the same road as the 1980s

UNEMPLOYMENT has reached 354,000 and is rising at the rate of 1,000 per day. Brian Cowen told the Dáil it could exceed 450,000 by year end. All his estimates to date have been overly optimistic. The reality is that we face the prospect of more than half a million jobless.

LAST week I returned to the classroom as a pupil for the first time in 30 years. I am seeking to obtain a diploma as a chartered director at the IMI. The first module was strategic business direction. The lecturer was Prof Patrick McNamee who is a top MBA teacher at the University of Ulster and an international consultant.

DESPITE attempts to sanitise and whitewash the full horrors of Anglo Irish Bank in the annual report, the truth is being exposed. This is the worst financial scandal in the history of our State. It is now time to compare and contrast this sorry saga with the worst financial scandal in the USA — Enron Corporation.

BRACE yourself. The annual report of Anglo Irish Bank will be published tomorrow. The full extent of the toxicity of this former plc and its nefarious practices from October ’07 to the end of September’08 will be exposed.

IN the early stages of this recession, politicians assured us we were not returning to the 1980s. Now we are facing something much, much worse. How bad will it get? How long will it last?

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese is donating a number of ball gowns to a charity auction. This alerted me to the prospect of life after her presidency when it ends in 2011.

Brian Cowen’s government is predicated on the primacy of partnership. We have delayed taking the sharp correctional measures required because the pillars of partnership were in denial about economic reality. What a costly delay. Our national debt is set to pole-vault from €30bn to €70bn in the space of two years.