Labour Party needs to come clean if it wants to survive in government

THE big question facing the Labour Party is when to stop telling lies. When to come out and tell the people that we are a small capitalist economy plugged into the international capitalist economy which gives us a high standard of living but sometimes forces us to keep commitments to international agencies, such as the EU, with whom we sometimes disagree.

For most of its history the Irish Labour Party has co-existed with this open, market economy, but has aimed to use the tax system to level the inequalities inherent in capitalism. That’s what I want the left to do. I’ve accepted that countries will trade with each other and individuals will have as much creative freedom as possible and that there should be banks who can lend money.

But I’m the sort of leftie who wants a progressive tax system redistributing aggressively to fund social services. And because I want humans to have a future on this planet I want our laws and our taxes to work aggressively against its destruction.