Bungled budget fails on all levels

NOTHING in our recent past has raised my fear so much as this budget that condemns families on the breadline to a life of poverty, hunger and homelessness.

The whole proposal is inconsistent with our constitutional objectives and in the past the same attacks on the people of Ireland have been stubbornly opposed by true leaders such as James Connolly and Éamon de Valera.

Fianna Fáil’s name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, in Ireland, since our independence we have been the sole authors of our own destiny. As a nation we have been through many challenges and our future will be exactly what we make of it. We will continue to be the authors of our own destiny, however the script for our future, the 2011 budget, that our finance minister or his department have written, lacks any of the aspirations of our people and is written in the financial language of fear (which will inspire all the confidence for a bear market rally that will ultimately lead to a secular bear market).

“Freedom from fear” could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of the movement for human rights. To build a world without fear, we must be without fear. To build a world of justice, we must be just.

How then can we ask the most economically vulnerable in Ireland to sacrifice so much if our leaders are not ready to bare an equivalent burden? As others have suggested, the minister is playing the so-called “politics of fear” — with the constant reference to threats from international markets. Whatever the truth of these threats and the best ways of dealing with them, the “politics of fear” plays on an assumption that people cannot bear the uncertainties associated with them. Politics then becomes a question of who can better deliver an “illusion of control”.

“Illusion of control” is also a psychological concept described as a function of self-esteem, and is a person’s belief that their success probability is higher than an objective assessment would find. In a modern democratic society, democracy means electing a national leader that can relate to the aspirations of the people. That is in Abe Lincoln’s words — a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

A government that does not follow the wishes of its people — is a tyrant government. A leader of a nation should take the aspirations of the people and turn them into a reality. Ideally, a leader of a nation must be able to offer a grand vision to its people and lastly execute actions towards achieving that vision. This budget fails on all levels.

Gerard Walsh

Kilnamanagh

Dublin 24