You don’t have to be any kind of mad Marxist or leftie loony-tune to see that like the other crises now smouldering, both within the eurozone and outside it (Iceland, UK, the US itself), Ireland’s plight is the inevitable result of the crude deregulation/liberalisation/freemarkets/globalisation codswallop peddled by doctrinaire academics, politicians, fat-cats and snake-oil salesmen to the Western World since the 1980s. (Notice, by the way, how it has never really caught on in those new paragons of economic success, China, India, Brazil and Russia. And it also never quite took hold in that bastion of sanity, strength and sound money, the Federal Republic of Germany).In an age of globalisation, no man is an island. The Tory Taliban opposing the UK’s modest contribution to the rescue package for Ireland clamoured for globalisation, in all its ugly manifestations. Well they got it - the whole lousy, delusional, destructive package. And they and their mates/allies/collaborators lumbered the rest of us with the consequences. The very least they can do now is help to clear up the disastrous mess. And where better to make a small start than with our friends and neighbours across the Irish Sea?
Anthony Warwick-Ching ● 5611d