where's me country?

This government is sick and our democracy disabled

6.22.2005

There are a number of stories in today’s IT that are worth drawing attention to for those who don’t read it. The first is again regarding the ongoing difficulty of Lewis o Carolan and his family. Yesterday Bertie refused to make funding available for his specific care in Wales, if there is one thing this government is going to avoid doing like the plague in regard to disability legislation and treatment of the disabled, it is setting precedent. There can be only one reason for intransigence on the part of the government to the plight of societies most vulnerable, that is cash.
This government has in its Health ministry a minister who abhors the raising of tax to fund care for those who require to protection of the state. This situation means that the state of the health services is never debated in an atmosphere of payment and maintenance of standards of care. If the O’Carolan family are wrong to look for top quality care for their son then I am moving abroad. The attitude of the establishment in this country has grown sick and hubristic with power.
This leads me into the other article I wished to bring to your attention. Vincent Browne’s response to the TASC Democracy Audit which I mentioned earlier is likely to get many people hot and bothered. However for any dislike of leftie thinking, the fact is that he is correct in his assertion that the people responding to this article are responding in aspiration and the will they display is seriously detached from the reality of our democracy. Genuine government is pie in the sky, and the potential enshrining of social rights is never going to happen while the government are unaccountable to the people.
Again I think we are all going to be forced to stand up to government and reassert our sovereignty in the face of overwhelming political disinterest and abuse of power. The government feels neither shame nor any sense of accountability in winning a fight with a 14-year old autistic boy over the semantics of the constitutional obligation the state has to care for him. And we lift not one eyebrow.
The veneer of public service is visibly gone form our present government and lets face it the opposition are unlikely to offer much improvement. The only way to ensure that the government acts in our interest is to hold all the aces and simply elections are not that effective. If our TDs cannot influence government but rarely then we have no chance. It’s a simple proposition, are our politicians glorified middle-manager and the state a national corporation or are they the effective representation of our interests in the face of predatory practice by those who wish to exploit our workers?
Following the response of government to disbility legislation and to the plight of the elderly in Leas Cross, following the reneging on a promise for 200 more full medical cards and a responsive health system that meets the needs of the population, following the tales of corruption in the institutions of state, I am forced to believe that again we have allowed “accepted common knowledge” to crowd out the truth. Our vast wealth has not been tempered with any social progress nor has it made us a better or more inclusive society. we are narrowly focussed on profit and nothing done about people.
We need reform, much reform and any hope this country has of realising the aspiration of equality and fairness will not be achieved until a process of democratic renewal is put in place.
RR

This entry was posted on 6.22.2005 at 6/22/2005 02:41:00 p.m.. There are . If you want, you can leave your own response by clicking here. You may also send this post to a friend of yours via email, or bookmark it for yourself by using icons below;