‘Patriot’ politicians are guilty of desertion

HOW in God’s name can the Government go on summer recess in the middle of a recession?

The very people who have been telling us we must do our patriotic duty at times like this are now leaving the battlefield at the height of our struggle to beat economic annihilation.

Have they any conscience? Ordinary people are trapped in a hopeless situation that the powers-that-be have created and our patriotic politicians’ answer is to go on holiday.

In summer ‘07, when the Shannon stopover issue threatened massive unemployment in the mid-west, Fianna Fáil and Co were in recess.

In summer ‘08, when the oil companies were gouging profits before the recession plunged many Irish businesses into early recession, the Government was in recess again.

In winter ‘08, when Cowen and Co officially admitted there was indeed a recession, they immediately closed the Dáil and went on Christmas recess.

So much for bloody patriotism. In wartime, when soldiers deserted the battlefield to save their own skins they were tried as deserters, a crime which often carried the death penalty.

Our politicians have left the fray in the height of battle and they are leaving the ordinary people to do their work for them – business people who won’t have holidays because they are flat out trying to keep themselves and their employees in jobs, people who have been reduced to a three-day week to ensure employment for themselves and put basic foodstuffs on the table in their insanely overvalued houses, people who worked through the Celtic Tiger era without knowing the difference and who now have to pay for the extravagance and greed of others.

The Government has gone AWOL and it should be punished accordingly.

Their wages should be stopped and they should be recalled to arms by the president. Patriots would stay and fight and live or die until the conflict was resolved.

They would not go on holiday.

Tom Fitzgerald

Four Roads

Askeaton

Co Limerick