Bruton can’t continue to ignore the reality of people’s lives

Is he naïve? Stupid? Unthinking? Callous? Some combination of all of those qualities?

Or is he some kind of visionary, a prophet determined to speak truth to power?

Actually, John Bruton is none of the above. For all sorts of reasons though, he’s a million miles removed from the ordinary struggles of people’s lives. And that removal from other people’s realities has produced a leading public figure who seems incapable of genuinely understanding how most of the world around him lives. He has arrived at the point where it really is impossible to take him seriously any more. And that, in its own way, is a bit of a mini-tragedy.