In abandoning the Bertie Bowl, we have squandered a great opportunity

A POLL conducted for a Sunday newspaper last week found, not surprisingly, that four out of five people believe the Government misled the electorate about the state of the public finances before the general election.

"The people were cheated," is the new mantra of the opposition. But politicians of all party affiliations have massaged the figures, been economical with the truth and broken campaign promises and manifesto pledges for as long as anybody can care to remember.

Looking back upon the election in May, the real scandal for our democracy is not that our politicians promised us too much, but how utterly pointless the whole affair was.