Should we laugh or cry over the clichés?

I HAVE been depressed by the following four silly remarks I hear regularly.

1 “We’ve never had it so good.” This is always said by people who are among the hundreds of thousands who are ill or the relative of somebody who is ill or unnecessarily dead, the victims or the families of the terrifying, ever-increasing crime, the victims or the families of ever-increasing road accidents, or one of the thousands struggling to pay ever-increasing bills;

2 ‘Someone has to run the country.’ This is always said, sulkily, by somebody when you have shown conclusively that most politicians are hopelessly untrained for the job anyway;

3 ‘They’re all at it’. This is usually said by somebody who seems to believe that all political corruption can be justified because somebody in another party is probably corrupt;

4 ‘Vote local’. This is said by people who have totally given up on politicians being able to run the whole country properly and have joined the mob who are hoping to get something out of it for themselves to take their minds off the worsening shambles. Great thing democracy. Does one laugh or cry?

Dick Barton

Kevin Street

Tinahely

Co Wicklow