Thursday, June 14, 2007
The Green Greed Party in government
"Let's be clear. A deal with Fianna Fáil would be a deal with the devil. We would be spat out after 5 years, and decimated as a Party." - Ciarán Cuffe, Green party TD for Dun Laoghaire, speaking on May 28th.When I picked up the Evening Herald this morning and read Ciarán Cuffe brushing off his comments above as "more poetry than prose" I knew that the Greens had officially sold out and succumbed to the lure of power.
I quite like Ciarán and readers will note I interviewed him back in '06. Similarly I have a lot of time for departing Green Party leader Trevor Sargent and I admired him for vociferously arguing for a change of government prior to the election. I felt the Greens were an honourable sort. Now? I must say that now I am filled with a lot of disappointment. They have sold out their principles to get in government. And for what? Fianna Fáil commitments? Please. What about the Green's core policies? They blasted the PDs over the plan for hospital co-location. Now? They've signed up to a government that will return Mary Harney to the health portfolio. So in effect they've signed up to the policy. They blasted Fianna Fáil over the use of Shannon Airport by the US military and the building of a motorway through the Tara valley. Now? Well now they have totally ignored those issues and backed Bertie Ahern for another term. So much for principles. Members of the TaraWatch campaign have described the coalition deal as a sell-out of Green Party principles and policies. They're right.
Bertie all smiles as he lands another term
Today Enda Kenny delivered one of the best speeches I've ever heard him give when he blasted the Greens for having swapped principle for power and claiming the only good which will come of this will be that the Greens "saved some rainforest by cutting and pasting so much Fianna Fail manifesto into the programme for government". Later on RTE Green Party TD Paul Gogarty essentially admitted that the Green Party had had to swallow a lot of Fianna Fáil policies in order to make this deal work.
Immanuel Kant once said, "The enjoyment of power inevitably corrupts the judgment of reason, and perverts its liberty". That is what we are witnessing happening to the Greens. They have jumped into bed with the soldiers of debauchery and the regressive autocrats. The Independents who supported this vile pact will be rewarded in due course as well. Ultimately however the Irish people must accept responsibility for this sorry situation. I repeat what I said when the election results came through - you reap what you sow.
As for the Greens, the party who in their election manifestos promised to "clean up politics" have ironically gone and ensured us several more years of the same old dirty, stinking politics. Who'd have thunk it? Not me anyway.
I'll finish this piece with the words of Ciarán Cuffe, again from May 28th:
"Can you change Fiannna Fáil? No, if their only measure of success is cranes on the skyline. Bertie has got to move on from that benchmark. I worry about his moral compass."
Right now Ciarán you should be more worried about your own party's moral compass. Sadly we're going to have to follow where both of these compasses take us. I dread to think where that might be. Wherever it is, I don't think it will be to greener pastures.
# posted by United Irelander @ 8:25 PM 
© 2008 United Irelander.
