Let’s not chicken out, off with their heads now

Michael Clifford (Opinion, Sept 14) is a tough taskmaster. He asks of us all, the well nigh impossible ‘suspension-of-reality’ task — “let’s just be extremely charitable and accept that Enda Kenny, and those around him, are motivated by democratic ideals rather than cynicism.

Ok, that’s a tough one, but grin and bear it for a few paragraphs.” That’s a lot of grinning and bearing given the ask in question.

He soothes us, though, with a comprehensive dismantling of the fallacious vacuity that pervades the ‘lower-house’ parliamentary shenanigans, commonly known as the Dáil, and which brazenly purports to be a den of democracy. ‘Mé féin’ is the clarion cry. Clifford invokes some sauce, goose and gander culinary resonance, to dish out his decimation of the status quo. He convincingly persuades that the Dáil is barely worth the hot air it breathes, let alone the millions it guzzles in salaries, expenses and whatever you’re having yourself. He resolutely proffers its downfall, abolition and ‘oblivionating’.

Reassuringly, he boldly predicts that: “Democracy, as we know it in this country, wouldn’t suffer a whit. TDs would still be elected, although we could hold a referendum to greatly reduce the number required.”

It’s really chicken and egg stuff, without any saving sauce.

Off with their heads now!

Jim Cosgrove

Lismore

Co Waterford