Punch-and-Judy politics - It’s time for unity not vaudeville

EVEN at a time of spectacular figures and equally spectacular downfalls, Fianna Fáil’s foot soldiers, the squadrons of ard fheis hall-packers and the leaders of deputations of the disaffected off “to see the minister” would have been shocked by the deep anger reflected in the latest political opinion poll.

Backbenchers would have been shaken from their mildly pensive slumbers; some might have quietly checked their pension entitlements to see if they could afford not to return to the crowded, noisy classrooms they left behind all those distant years ago.

Even in a time of unprecedented figures any poll that puts Fine Gael (32%) 10 points ahead of Fianna Fáil (22%) is truly remarkable. Rubbing salt, lots and lots of salt, into the wound, Eamon Gilmore’s Labour Party (24%) got a higher approval rating than the Government. But then, as we are told, these are different times.

In a piece of amateur-night crystal-ball gazing Taoiseach Brian Cowen predicted in recent days that “they would not be thanked” for taking hard decisions needed to save the country. He could not have imagined how right he was or how ungrateful we would be.

However, Mr Cowen and his colleagues, or the profligate ancien régime they were not so long ago, might have been thanked for taking the odd hard decision a few years ago, decisions that might have averted some of the chaos destroying this country.

Because these are indeed different times, it would be foolish of Fine Gael or Labour to rejoice too loudly. Whoever had to govern and sustain a democracy, as realities that have endured for generations crash every day, would have suffered a fate similar to Fianna Fáil.

Much as we might wish it to be true, there is not a single political party, or even a coalition of two or three, with the capacity to immediately convince a battered, disillusioned, defrauded, patronised, lied to, increasingly angry, unemployed, beggared and frightened electorate that they could do any better in today’s circumstances.

A little over a decade ago, the Catholic Church lost the absolute, steel-in-the-glove authority it had built up over centuries. This power was lost because that church would not confront paedophilia amongst its priests or the gross hypocrisy of its philandering clerics. It shrugged off the challenges preferring to imagine their institution impregnable. They did not acknowledge changed circumstances and are still paying the price.

A decade or so later, our political system is at a similar crossroads. The vaudeville knockabouts that pass for political debate are indulgences from another time and are as relevant to today’s catastrophe as Ben Hur’s chariot racing. Punch-and-Judy politics will not lead us out of this and we need to accept that or face ruination. The Irish Times/MRBI poll confirms a most important change though: our Government has lost the mandate needed to be as radical as our circumstances demand.

Mr Cowen has always emphasised the great value he places on loyalty and unless he immediately involves the best brains and imaginations from each and every party, replacing the stolid and inadequate time-servers he suggests are fit to be ministers in his cabinet, he will have to tell us who he is loyal to — his political cronies or the country.

This is a national emergency, we need a national government — and sooner rather than later.