The Tories did it. California did it. But we’re stuck with this shower

THE British Tory Party is leaderless at the moment, rather like this country.

But in the not too distant future Iain Duncan Smith will be replaced, whereas this country is stuck with the disastrous Fianna Fáil-PD conglomeration until the next general election, at least.

The election of the leader of Britain's Conservative Party is a matter of more than just a passing interest to the people of this country. The new face on the poster and it seems now that it will be Michael Howard's could be prime minister after the next general election across the water.

As such, the policies he pursues will have an influence on this country, especially in regard to Northern Ireland.

Despite the current parliamentary majority that Tony Blair's New Labour enjoys at the moment, politics is a fickle game, and that could change dramatically.

Compare Labour's position before the war in Iraq with what it is now. Tony Blair, for whatever perplexing reason, hitched his star to George W Bush's gung-ho invasion of Iraq without a UN mandate and without the sanction of most of the right-thinking world.

For the debacle that it turned out to be, he is now paying his dues in the unpopularity stakes and rightly so.

The Tories, just like the people of California, are lucky in that they have an out clause which enables them to ditch a leader they are totally dissatisfied with. We don't.

California got Arnie through the recall mechanism.

The Tories got rid of Iain Duncan Smith and all it took was for 25 MPs to force a vote of confidence, which he lost by 90 votes to 75.

He needed 83, but failed to reach that target.

Can you imagine getting five Fianna Fáil TDs never mind 25 to revolt against Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and organise a coup against him? No you can't, no more than I can.

For all intents and purposes this country suffers under an autocratic regime. We do not have an effective opposition, and so democracy is in rather a parlous state here. Consequently, we have government by diktat without any consideration for the will of the people, and certainly without any concern that we have a mind of our own.

Since the Fianna FáilPD coalition got back into power, we have been bombarded with policies of startling indifference to the welfare of the people.

Having been re-elected on a fraudulent promise that there would be no cutbacks, secret or otherwise, they continue to perpetrate that fraud.

It is remarkable that in a country with so many problems the main concern for the larger part of this year has been, and still is, the introduction of the smoking ban next January.

It is even more remarkable that, given those problems, the members of our national parliament hardly sit long enough in the Dáil to get their seats warm.

Giving themselves another week's holiday shortly after returning from their excessively long three-month summer recess is symptomatic of the disdain in which they hold the public.

Signs on, a recent opinion poll showed how low politicians of all shades are held in the esteem of the electorate.

Confronting problems in a constructive way is the last thing this Government does, despite the fact that it had under its control the healthiest exchequer this state has ever seen.

The aftermath of the Celtic Tiger has left a nasty whiff. Having been told that the country was awash with money, there is very little to show for it.

Although something like 9 billion is being thrown at the health service, it remains in an appalling state. Overworked hospital staff struggle with limited resources to look after patients who have spent an unacceptably long time on the waiting lists, or on trollies.

Despite the fact that Health Minister Mícheál Martin has been told there are aspects of the recently announced Hanley Report that are impossible to implement as they stand, he insists they will be implemented.

MANY couples cannot afford to buy their own houses because the prices are out of reach, so the Government ensures they will be even more expensive next year.

On Morning Ireland during the week the Minister for Housing, Noel Ahern, seemed to be taking credit on behalf of the Government for the fact that the Permanent TSB house price index showed that prices nationally rose by just 0.5% during the month.

It seems incredibly contradictory to be claiming this is a result of Government policy, and then to introduce a measure which will make houses even more expensive. Because they plan to introduce a tax on building, the price of new houses will soar by another 10,000.

Forced by government policy, local councils will have to double or triple charges on existing development levies to scrape in another 500 million.

Apart from that, local authorities which are strapped for money because of the crazy benchmarking scheme will have to cast around for sources of revenue and the only place to look is your pocket and mine.

It will more than likely result in more expensive, or diminished, services.

The simplistic, indeed inane, approach by the Government is to shrug their collective shoulders and declare that local finances are a matter for local authorities.

They are totally indifferent to the fact that they amount to stealth taxes which will be imposed on taxpayers who are already overly put upon by existing direct and indirect taxation.

Money may be scarce for vital sectors like health and education. But still, on top of their salaries as politicians, we pay considerable sums to those members of the Oireachtas who were teachers in a previous life.

Decades ago there might have been justification for the system of allowing teachers elected to the Dáil to pay substitute teachers to keep the desk warm for them in case they lost their seats. Those days are gone and such a system should be scrapped. There is no good reason for paying 20 members of the Oireachtas the very handsome sum of 500,000 between them for the privilege of getting elected to an even more comfortable and higher-earning position.

That money would go a long way indeed toward relieving the abominable conditions too many young pupils and their full-time teachers have to put up with in dilapidated schools all over the country.

A little over a month from now, Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy will deliver his budget which we are led to believe will be a swingeing one.

Believe it.