Has our political system hit rock bottom?

A national government will never happen or not till it’s too late because it would break the fundamental rule of politics: do not deal with a crisis until the water is sloshing around the kitchen floor.

But many of us now believe that this Government is incapable of not shooting itself in its ‘feet’.

We have had an electorally-slanted budget that is now in bits. What if the national recovery strategy goes pear-shaped? There is no second chance for Paddy, who cannot run his own affairs without a nanny.

What some of us find frustrating, if not enraging, is that there will be no pragmatic social democratic party in the next Dail, no party like Labour once was, that cherishes the children of the nation.

The lead-lined parish pump is not enough in Irish politics any more. The SNP in Scotland and Podemos in Spain cannot deal with the number of young and not-so-young who want to join and get involved. In Ireland, that could have been Labour. But sadly the deaf, dumb and dully docile Labour party cannot see that all they got from Government was a Harry Lime cuckoo-clock.

Maybe as sometimes happens with toxic addictions, our political culture and those who sail in its decaying hulk have got to hit bottom before they can recover?

Over to you, youth of Ireland. Make my last days happy days.

Maurice O’Connell

Fenit Without Fenit

Tralee

Co Kerry