The age of fear, some signs of hope.

The coffers are empty. The kingdom is bankrupt. Emergencies have broken out everywhere. The state demands more taxes so the citizens, regardless of what burdens they already carry, must pay more, and more, again and again. Their burdens will increase until they can carry no more and then the state will pile still more on them.

These words would serve as a reasonable description of conditions at many times in ancient history, in the age of Savanarola, during the black death, at times of shortage or war or during the great breakdown of European civilisation in the 20th century.

Who would have imagined we would find ourselves here again? Surely this is some nightmare, some fantasy that will pass in a little while?

No.

We find ourselves suddenly cast back into a dark and unexpected age of fear. The language of the age of optimism, just ended, is of no use now. Thoughts of prosperity or hope are behind us. We must turn our minds to survival.

Most public thinking has been devoted to one question; how did it come to this? This is of some interest but offers little more than historical perspective. The really important question is; how do we get ourselves out of this mess?

Happily I can report there are many things to be done. Most of them are far removed from the agendas of the Eurocrats or the politicians and business elite who got us into this mess. Indeed I believe one of the keys to recovery is a widespread clear-out of all the old guard in business, politics, journalism and finance. We are facing great new challenges. The world has changed and there are many new opportunities, if we can grasp them. We need new people, new ideas, new policies and new directions.

I will return to this subject.

America's war on tourism

Mayor Bloomberg paid a visit to the west of Ireland last week to drum up business for the city that never sleeps. Tourism business, that is. The West of Ireland has been sending people to America in large numbers for centuries but there are fewer wistful immigrants drooling over their pints in the bars on second avenue of late. There are some hardy tourists taking advantage of the favourable exchange rate but not enough for Mayor Bloomberg’s liking. He wants us to travel to the Big Apple and he’s so concerned about declining visitor numbers he’s made a special trip across the Atlantic to shout about it.
America has experienced a “17 percent decline in travel from overseas” according to the Discover America Partnership (source International Herald Tribune). Meanwhile New York is losing its position as the world’s financial centre to London. Mayor Bloomberg has been talking about that too, trying to reverse the unfavourable trend. Tourism and financial services are two of the world’s fastest growing industries. The US used to hold a position of unrivalled strength in these markets but it has gone into a sharp decline in the past few years. Why?
Many reasons are advanced from 9/11 and too much regulation to the war in Iraq but for me there is a much more simple reason. We are accustomed to President Bush’s inept delivery and misuse of language but I could have sworn I heard him declare “war on global tourism”. Some people believe he meant “terrorism” but I’m not so sure. Mr Bush definitely has tourism in his sights and this is one war he might actually stand a chance of winning. The experience of arriving in the United States has become so unpleasant that many travellers are taking their business elsewhere.
I always associated the notion of having one’s fingerprints taken as a sign of criminal activity or at least reasonable suspicion. I never had my finger-print taken until a few months ago on my latest trip to the USA. My children were also fingerprinted and all our details are now stored on some vast file along with a multitude of other "suspected" criminals and terrorists. Mr Bush holds tourists and terrorists in equal contempt. As for me, I am no terrorist. I have nothing to hide and I object to being treated as if the authorities had good reason to suspect me for wrong-doing. I found the experience unpleasant, made much worse by the long wait for the ritual humiliation and the cold unpleasant demeanour of the US officials.
I object to having my fingerprints taken. I object to my children having their fingerprints taken. I object to our financial and physical details being stored on some monstrous data-base for purposes I can only guess at but at least I have nothing to hide. Imagine how it must feel for someone from an Arab or Muslim country or from one of America’s traditional adversaries, Russians or Chinese, for example. Is it any wonder business people from the newly-emerging economies in these countries prefer London to New York?
Americans can declare war on global tourism if they like but they have no right to expect people from the rest of the world to put up with it. Mayor Bloomberg should make a trip to Washington rather than Knock if he wants to encourage more visitors. He should have a word with George “war on tourism” Bush and try to get him to see sense (some chance). I like many other people won’t be making many more trips to the states until America decides its global war on tourism is over.

Dublin parking rip-off

€60 per hour to park in suburban Dublin? Amazing as it might seem that was the going rate in Ranelagh on Friday 19th January. In case you think I’m exaggerating, look at the photo. I paid €2 at 14.58. The ticket expiry time was 15.00. That’s two minutes parking for two euros. I asked a passing guard about it. He found it amusing but could do nothing. He suggested leaving a note on the windscreen, which I did. He said if I was clamped they’d probably come and remove it, once I explained. I couldn’t afford to wait around to be wheel-clamped and then de-clamped (maybe) so I cut my meeting short and left. Most of the parking bays on the road were unoccupied. I wonder why? Have any of the local businesses noticed the effects of this draconian parking regime? Does anybody care?

Boycott Aer Lingus' anti business travel policy

Aer Lingus has declared war on business travellers. They’ve introduced new hand-baggage restrictions which make it virtually impossible to avoid checking-in your bag. So what, you might ask? Forget the added cost for a minute, there’s the sheer inconvenience of having to wait in some draughty baggage hall at both ends of your journey while the baggage mis-handlers delay/damage/steal your possessions (delete as appropriate).

Lots of airlines charge for checked-in baggage. That’s not the issue. The problem is the ridiculously low weight restrictions Aer Lingus has imposed. A quick comparison of various airlines ( including airlines serving European routes outside Ireland) shows Aer Lingus now has the most restrictive hand-baggage weight limits in Europe. What sort of customer service is this?

Imagine you’re frequent traveller on business to London, Paris or Brussels for a few nights, a common event. You pack your bag with some overnight things, a few changes of clothes, some files, a laptop and a few other items. It requires experience and skill to keep this all down to about 8-9 kilos. Believe me. I know. I’ve been doing it for years. Like most frequent business travellers, I use a wheelie bag smaller than the permitted dimensions so as to avoid having to wait at the baggage carousel when I arrive. Ryanair allows a single piece of hand-luggage up to 10 Kilos. BMI and British Airways impose the standard size limit but have no formal weight restriction for hand-luggage ( a common practice among European scheduled carriers and low-cost airlines alike). Aer Lingus has imposed a draconian limit of 6Kilos above which baggage must be checked-in and paid for, regardless of size.

I have not been able to find another European airline with such a restrictive weight allowance and most come nowhere near it!

Even if you accept the added expense there is the inconvenience of having to wait in the baggage hall at both ends of your journey and the worry that fragile and important items such as laptops i-pods etc might be damaged or pilfered. I recently had the experience of having a case emerge literally “shredded” off a trans-Atlantic flight so this is a very real concern.

Business travellers are generally pretty tired of the constant searches and harassment, the delays and inefficiency which are now part of the travelling experience. Now we are to have more delay and more expense courtesy of Aer Lingus. I think not. It’s time business travellers fought back. There’s no point in complaining to the airline. They couldn’t care less. Hit them where it hurts. Boycott Aer Lingus until they remove these crazy anti-business restrictions on carry-on luggage.

Tell them where to stuff their draconian limits and take your business elsewhere. Even if only a small percentage of frequent travellers switch their business to less customer-unfriendly organisations we can send Aer Lingus a powerful message. Stuff your hand baggage limits and stuff your airline while you’re at it!

Irish Democracy R.I.P.

I was beginning to warm to Enda Kenny. He has a gentlemanly air of integrity, rare in politics, not just in Ireland. He already had one hand on the keys of office when Bertie stood beside Charlie Haughey’s grave and gave a tearful impression of wanting to jump in after his old boss and mentor. Wise old Fianna Fail heads are still trying to calculate what good Bertie thought would come from his fulsome praise for the arch-chancer. The country was debating this conundrum when Bertie’s shenanigans in Manchester were exposed to public view. The plan people of Ireland were still mulling over these developments when Justice Morris set-off the greatest judicial salvo in modern times.

Enda would have been justified in starting to think about ministerial appointments. Bertie, Haughey’s bagman, was badly tainted and now his master’s crimes against democracy were exposed. What choice would the electorate have but to vote for change? Enda ought to have plunged the dagger but he pulled his punches instead. He settled for his mug-shot on a few posters, looking like the contented cat who got the cream, until civil war broke out in Fine Gael. We’re used to bloodletting after the election debacle but this is a first. The party wants us to know it’s thinking of dumping its leader before the general election has even been called. The foot-soldiers of destiny can barely hide their grins. Who promised what in the dead of night to produce this stroke of good fortune?

Mr Deasy, TD for Waterford, is up there along with Dermot McMorrough and the IRA army council in the betrayal stakes. What’s his game-plan? Leadership of the Fine Gael party can’t be part of it. Whatever ambitions he might have had in that direction are as healthy as last year’s Christmas turkey. Enda Kenny’s chances of getting the top job are not much better. Who’s going to believe in a leader whose own troops are in rebellion?
There’s little time for recovery. The damage is done. Ireland’s peculiar one-party concept of democracy is, barring unimaginable disasters, secure for another parliamentary term. So what’s the point in holding elections at all? Why not save ourselves the effort and expense? We all know the outcome. Charlie Haughey’s apprentice, heir to his master’s political estates, will carry on regardless. Climbing trees in north Dublin and signing blank cheques did him no harm after all.
There might be some benefit from this shambles if the electors turned their fire on the opposition and threw them out, Kenny, Deasy and the rest. If Fine Gael can’t offer an alternative government after the tribunals, the clear evidence of thieving and corruption, and a seriously unbalanced economy, they deserve nothing less. Democracy needs a viable opposition, a government in waiting, and Ireland doesn’t have one. The Labour Party’s pathetic contribution to this democratic disaster is to hint they might throw their lot in with Bertie after the election. Is that the best our political system can offer? Fine Gael were given a severe warning at the last election. If this democracy business is too complicated for them it’s time to put them out of their misery, in the national interest. With FG off the stage the PD’s might become a proper political party rather than the moral wing of Fianna Fail. They could turn themselves into a credible alternative government while Labour spend the next Dail fondling Bertie’s “socialist” credentials in the back of the government car.
As Yeats might have said;
‘Democratic Ireland’s dead and gone, It’s with Charles Haughey in the grave.’

The walls of Belfast

At a recent meeting in London, to discuss the Hungarian uprising of 1956, I found myself sitting next to the jovial MP for Daventry, Tim Boswell, chairman of the all party Anglo-Hungarian parliamentary group. We spoke briefly before the meeting and again afterwards. The 1956 uprising has always held a particular interest for me since the day my father brought me, as a small boy, to see the military camp in Co. Clare where Hungarian refugees were housed. I mentioned this, in conversation, after the meeting and there was some surprise to hear the Irish state had shown such generosity towards the Hungarians. It is regarded as axiomatic that Britain should adopt a paternalistic interest in foreign conflicts, while taking a more partisan line in problems closer to home. My English companions struggled to comprehend what foreign policy interest Ireland could have in distant central European conflicts. They were less than delighted when I explained it was natural for Ireland, itself recovering from centuries of oppression, to welcome the rebels who fought Soviet tanks with their bare hands. Boswell took it well and launched into a familiar recital of English weariness at the intractability of “Irish politics”. I posed a question which often confuses English interlocutors, “you mean English politics in Ireland, don’t you?”
I have often heard it said in England that Irish politics are rigid and inflexible but when I ask whether the speaker is referring to Fianna Fail or Fine Gael they are often genuinely confused. Most have never heard of these organisations and few have any idea what they stand for. When English commentators, even well informed people like the MP for Daventry, talk about Irish politics they are referring to the age-old divisions within Northern Ireland. When I point out that they are complaining about the politics of the part of Ireland that Britain still controls they show signs of irritation at being confronted with an inconvenient truth. The fact is that politics in the republic look much the same as any other European democracy, a volatile mixture of self-interest, principle and skulduggery. It is striking to consider that nearly a century after the division of Ireland the southern republic has moved on, converted its poisoned inheritance into something positive and made a success of itself while the north, still tied into the United Kingdom, is an economic and political failure, mired in ancient feuds and divisions. Seventeen years after the fall of the Berlin wall and the final liberation of Hungary, the authorities in Belfast consider it necessary to maintain high “peace walls” to keep the warring communities from tearing each other apart.
Is it fair to characterise the failure of Northern Ireland as due to some inflexibility in “Irish” politics? I think not. Northern Irish politics perhaps but Irish, no. There are deep-seated structural problems within Northern Ireland and the constitutional link with Britain is at the heart of all of them. It is the British controlled part of Ireland which has failed and the rigidity, which so many British commentators complain of, is a symptom of that failure. It is a failure of British politics, made in Britain by Britons. Britain must dig deep into its reserves of patience, time and treasure to solve it or at least manage it in a civilised fashion, and stop complaining about “Irish” politics.

S.O.S. Dun Laoghaire seafront

I took the air at Dun Laoghaire thinking it might clear my head but my stroll was interrupted by a polite but insistent chap handing out leaflets bearing the alarming slogan S.O.S. in bold type. I normally throw these things away but there was no litter bin and I’m far too green around the gills these days to drop it on the promenade so I made the mistake of glancing at the damned thing. Save Our Seafront was the urgent message. It seems like such a simple, inoffensive appeal nobody could argue with it, could they? Well, I can, for one.
The idea of salvation has deep roots in our culture. Think of a man in a long white beard and green cloak lighting fires on hilltops and banishing snakes and you’re on the right track. Fire ‘n brimstone preachers, rosary beads and the dark confessional are all part of our collective consciousness, whether you like them or not. We are bombarded with appeals to save all manner of things, whales, birds (feathered variety), Africa, Antarctica, the marching season. So susceptible are we that all it takes is for some deranged nutter to mount a podium and demand we save the scrapings from his grandmother’s bathtub and all criticism is suspended without further comment or enquiry.
Enough I say. It’s time we sought relief from this salvation nonsense. A line must be drawn. A stand must be made. This far and no further. What better way to turn back the tide of tosh than to take a critical look at that foul, stinking relic, Dun Laoghaire baths?
The baths in question are a crumbling reminder of a long-past age when riding the train out to Dun Laoghaire for a dip was a treat as great as a modern weekend-break to Barcelona or Malaga. The baths were constructed in the 1930’s when the idea of outdoor bathing was in its heyday. It seems hardly polite to mention that this was part of a wider cult of mass-physical fitness and exercise much favoured by the fascists. Hitler and Mussolini were admirers. So was Franco. No doubt there were more than a few blue shirts hanging on hooks in the gents’ changing rooms while their owners disported their bare flesh in the cold Celtic sun back in the good old days.
Smaller examples of outdoor baths can be found at Blackrock and elsewhere around the country. Corbally baths on the Shannon near Limerick is another example which, like all the others, has fallen into disuse and decay. The Brits had them. France had them too, still has a few, in fact. They have the weather for that sort of thing but, even there, outdoor baths have given way to modern health-spas and all-weather facilities.
The truth is that outdoor bathing in our cold climate is about as popular as a party political broadcast. The fad lasted as long as there was nothing better on offer but as soon as Ryanair and modern health spas took-off the open-air baths became the favoured haunt of rats and exhibitionists. The place is bricked-up now, closed to the public for safety reasons so it’s less than useless. The ruins are an eyesore and an impediment to anyone who’d like to take a stroll along the seafront.
No amount of wishful thinking, or public money, will revive a fashion whose time is long past. The baths died not because of any malign policy or official neglect. They died because people stopped using them and there is no sign they will ever come back in numbers sufficient to justify the investment needed to re-open them. I rarely sympathise with politicians but on this issue they have an unenviable task. The S.O.S. brigade are talking nonsense and should be told to get lost but politicians are easily intimidated by noisy protesters. The “saviours” should be required to show how much their daft proposals would cost and then ask the public in clear terms to cough-up for facilities nobody wants, in the form of higher taxation. Where is the politician with courage, or integrity enough, to face down the distopian nutters? Come on you politicians. Let’s get the Throw Out Tosh (T.O.T.) campaign underway without delay. There’s your slogan. I’ll lend it to you free, gratis and for nothing. I can’t say fairer than that now can I?