Government for the many, by the many

A REAL lesson needs to be learnt from the recent financial crisis. Things didn’t just change, they changed utterly.

But, straight away, we’re back trying the same old measures. The same people openly remain in charge. I’m not referring to Fine Gael and Labour, but the wealthy entrepreneurs and political donors who exert power over our society. They’ll save us, they say. But the reality is that they’ve only ever been in it for themselves.

So that’s been tried and it failed. Trying it again is just learned stupidity.

There is an alternative to empowering the few and that is empowering the many, or true democracy.

Unquestionably, the last time Ireland was a true democracy, and most of the people felt empowered, was when they were represented by my namesake Daniel O’Connell.

People felt empowered by O’Connell’s monthly penny Catholic rent, and that was a long way from the modern-day ‘Galway tents’ situation.

Funding political parties by the many, rather than the few, is crucial for the sense of contentment for people at this difficult time.

Resorting to the wealthy donors or even the trade unions is to undermine the voters and to delegate political power to unelected elites.

A different version of society would emerge if the many were in charge as they are supposed to be, and politicians were able to make decisions through the lens of the electorate, not the controlling billionaires.

Two million people were in serious poverty in the early 1840s when Daniel O’Connell was regularly gathering hundreds of thousands people to hear him speak on the Repeal of the Union. Ireland is the only country with this great precedent.

In our modern age, only the Pope has had that kind of pulling power, with people again expressing the joy of being part of something good. So, I say, bring back democracy.

John O’Connell

Derry