We’re being led by people who think they know their onions

We’ve had two examples this week and they illustrate the point beautifully.

In one case, competition is being used as a witchdoctor's mantra to hide the real agenda of privatisation. In the other, it's an excuse for doing nothing. Quackery, apparently, is still very attractive.

Now, don't get me wrong. Competition is a good thing and monopolies, generally speaking, aren't. But unfettered competition in the world we live in can have many unintended (or unthought- about) consequences, simply because it has become a witchdoctor's mantra. My dictionary defines competition as "to strive for superiority". That can only mean that competition produces winners and losers. In the economic sense, some win by providing better goods and services, some by providing cheaper goods and services. Businesses adapt to competition by improving their skills, in some cases, or by reducing their cost base in others. Competition, in that sense, has kept some Irish firms at the top of the marketplace but it has also been responsible for many of the job losses we have seen in recent times.