The bigger questions need more attention

THE disenchantment with conventional politics and the sense of betrayal felt by millions of people around the world towards today’s almost uncontrollable — and certainly less socially conscientious — capitalism has manifested itself in many ways. The dread prospect of President Trump is one. 

That growing, festering disenchantment with the conventional way of doing things influenced Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. It is manifest too in our fractious, divided and stymied Dáil.

Globalisation, and especially the relocation of once- cherished jobs to far-away economies with lower production costs, exacerbates the problem and the sense of being abandoned felt by sections of societies. The post-collapse imposition of multibillion-euro private bank debt on the public purse, a rescue unimaginable to the millions around the world struggling with their own debt, was and continues to be, a chilling indication of where the real power lies.