..The rest of the Story

If memories of what Thatcher or for McMillan are not at the forefront of peoples mind here in Ireland, these this nefarious pair will do.

Over a decade after Thatcher’s trouncing of the concept of society, PD ideologue and Minister Michael McDowell reminded us what it is all about.

"An economy like ours demands inequality" - Michael McDowell (May2004)

Inequality is necessary.  People must compete with each other.  There have to be winners and losers.  Whilst it just sounds crude, McDowell was only stating pointing out what lay behind the economic policies successive governments.  The packaging of these policies naturally omitted the ‘truth’ as slipped out be McDowell.  That there were enough people in the Trades Unions, progressive political parties, voluntary and community groups to fight against these policies has saved us from completely aping the US model.

So, given a surplus in the Irish economy, is there any evidence to the contrary.  The final quote in this series from PD Minister and ex Tanaiste Mary Harney tells us that they acknowledge that money was available.

“…the country is awash with Money”  Tanaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney 2005.

With an economy moving along in terms that would please a neo-liberal, why not use some of that excess money, awashing the place as it was, to help create a harmonious and equitable society by spending on the provision of services for all?  Because, those curently running the system does not want it so.  The money has now gone.  Its Ebb has flowed.  It certainly didn’t flow to the poor or disadvantaged.  Quite a lot flowed into the pockets of the already wealthy in terms of tax breaks and the spiriting away of huge dividends for the larger shareholders.  We now know that senior Bankers and their wives got a huge slice of it.

Taken together, these four short quotes help illustrate the thinking, if not the strategy, of the forces of neo-liberalism and political Conservatism.  The narrative of the past 30 years has been dominated by this thinking.  Until recent times, this narrative has been allowed to be presented as positive; there has been an attempt to say that all boats have risen in the swell of the deregulated and increasingly privatised economy.  In simple terms, private equals good, public equals bad.  The Unions are always the bad guys in an industrial dispute.  Entrepreneurs of a certain kind, like celebrities, are to be looked up to.

Together with electoral challenges, the need to support embattled communities and the defending of civil liberties won over many decades,  the Left need to ensure that the narrative of the past 30years is placed in context.  The writing of this chapter cannot be surrendered to the champions of  the right.