Predictable, Pavlovian and pathetic - Conflict over rent proposals

IT was just all too predictable. 

The suggestion that we were, at last, to benefit from a grown-up idea called “new politics” must be filed in that ever-expanding category — fake news. The row, and despite last evening’s apparent deal who knows how it might end, over how to better manage the rental sector in the short term shows how little has changed. The visceral, inherited divisions — and the shameless opportunism — so all-pervasive in our body politic roar as loudly as ever.

Is it any wonder stasis prevails? Is it any wonder the status quo is unassailable? Is it any wonder that most people with even the wit of a dim flea would keep the proverbial barge pole between themselves and the suggestion that they might become involved in politics? The fact that the Dáil, already in full turkey-and-ham mode, will close shop today until some faraway date in January confirms that despite all of the new-found collegiality the old order remains unshaken.