Dear Taoiseach,
For the past two years I have sent you messages at Christmas time to let you know how I am doing and, more importantly, how I think you are doing...
(In 2011 I sent you a shirt with my message written on it. Can I have it back? I'm running out of clothes.)
2013 will be known as the Year of the Liar, the Coward, the Parasite and the Psycopath.
THE LIAR
Let me take you back Taoiseach to October 2nd. In the Dáil on that day you made the following statement in reply to a question on the upcoming budget:
"The fundamental issue of the Programme for Government here is that there would not be - and will not be - any income tax increases,"
" ... (the) assertion that people are going to be faced with that is simply not true, and will be vindicated and justified by the Minister for Finance,"When the budget was read out, with you sitting beside the Minister for Finance, we heard that single fathers would have their tax credit removed, resulting in an increase in INCOME TAX of €2,490. I nearly fell off my chair.
Then on October 16th, the very next day in a speech again in the Dáil, you said:
"At the outset we have reversed Fianna Fail’s plan to increase income tax by €500m over two years and have maintained income tax rates, bands and credits to ensure that work continues to pay for working families."
Now, Taoiseach, I'm not sure which of the following is true but the only conclusion is that either:
1. You lied on October 2nd.
2. You had no idea what was in the Budget.
3. You did not read or listen to your own Minister's speech.
4. You don't understand how the PAYE system works.
5. You cannot be trusted to tell the truth when you stand in the Dáil chamber where "privilege" rules allow outright lies to be stand as truth.
I hope I'm still alive at Christmas 2014 after trying to run a home for my children on €154 a week with no allowances or benefits from the state.
This year we have seen clearly that single fathers are regarded by the state system as scumbags, while paedophiles are shown complete leniency and more compassion than their victims. I presume there will be more of that to come in 2014?
Taoiseach, you won't be paying a single cent more income tax next year and neither will your boss Denis O'Brien, yet single fathers will see their incomes cut which will impact significantly on the relationships they work hard at with their children. And you say "I feel your pain"... Well how about you try living on €154 a week for a year and see your children two days a week and tell me how you get on.
October 2nd might actually become known as the Day of the Liar after ironically while speaking from a band-stand! in Stephen's Green. The Irish Times reported:
"At Fine Gael’s final media event today Mr Kenny also
ruled out any prospect of reform of the Seanad, saying the simple choice
facing the people was abolition or retention.
“It costs € 20m a year to run. It is undemocratic. It is minority representative. It is not possible to reform this body,” he said.
And on October 23rd the Irish Times reported: "Taoiseach to hold talks with party leaders on Seanad Reform". http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/taoiseach-to-hold-talks-with-party-leaders-on-seanad-reform-1.1571118
So between October 2nd and 23rd, either the laws of the universe changed and what was impossible became suddenly possible, or you were just lying all along.
Even as I write this (Dec 17th) you are coming out with more lies and meaningless proclamations such as "a pledge not to hike income tax between now and 2020"
A "pledge"..?
Is that like a promise? Like the promises you make to get elected and then refuse to deliver? Is it like a "commitment"? Like your own Programme for Government that you refuse to stand behind, implementing completely contradictory legislation in breach of it?
You're a liar.
Your Ministers are liars.
Your TDs are all liars.
In the Irish Times Dec 17th Fintan O'Toole wrote a piece about the lies which your government have been telling to the Irish people over the past two and half years. In case you ignored it here it is:
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/three-key-truths-about-the-bailout-which-we-are-only-learning-now-1.1629738?fb_action_ids=10201452950709192&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_ref=.UrBShRbbMCY.like&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=[546463182111252]&action_type_map=[%22og.recommends%22]&action_ref_map=[%22.UrBShRbbMCY.like%22]
In 2013 a man went on hunger strike for 23 days to highlight the plight of the self-employed and the unjust nature of the property tax. For two weeks you ignored him, finally stating that you were actually unaware of it ... right outside the front gate! Then you said that you would be happy to meet Tony Rochford to discuss his issue. You did not meet him. You sent two underlings to meet him. More lies... and cowardice which brings me to the next subject.
In 2013 your Minister for Communications made an uncharacteristically truthful statement on national TV when he said that promises made in election campaigns, programmes for government and manifestos are all lies ... "because that's just what you do..."
You can bleat on about democracy and mandates and anything else you like, Taoiseach, the Irish people have lost all trust in politics in this country ... and as the longest (self)serving politician in Dáil Eireann that's quite an indictment of you.
How can "feel our pain", Taoiseach?
You've never been unemployed.
You've never faced the prospect of never getting a job again.
You've never experienced the strain of trying to survive below the poverty line.
You've never been on welfare (although you do live off the taxes of the Irish people)
You've never had to choose between food and heat for your family.
Your children have never gone to school hungry.
You've never lost your job two weeks before Christmas and told your children that Santa might not be able to being them what they want this year.
You've never been homeless or lived on the streets.
You've never experienced the savagery of the family court system.
You've never been imprisoned for the heinous crime of not being able to pay your tv license.
I cannot say that you have never suffered the extreme distress of experiencing suicide close-up, but I suspect the you have not.
You've never been pepper-sprayed by State authorities sworn to protect the citizens of this state.
You've never had to "do without" anything in your life.
You know nothing of the pain of ordinary people.
And you dishonour ordinary people by claiming that you do.
THE COWARD
In 2013 the Fine Gael lie continued with Ministers making vapid promises of deals with the Troika, better payments terms (for the debt that wasn't ours) and reports of promising negotiations in our on-going road out of the debtors prison known as "the bailout".
Of course the truth of the matter was that NO REQUEST FOR A RENEGOTIATION OF TERMS WAS EVER MADE BY THE IRISH GOVERNMENT- THIS YEAR OR IN PREVIOUS YEARS. How do we know this? Because Diarmuid O'Flynn and the Ballyhea Says No group have been travelling to Brussels for a long time now, meeting successively more senior EU officials to plead the case for write-off for the Irish people which the Irish government have been TOO COWARDLY to do.
Our political elite have been the absolute subservient, whimpering lap-dogs of the European Central Bankers since 2008, and no change of government in 2011 was ever going to change that.
Michael Noonan plays the role of the Great Negotiator when he takes the company jet to Brussels but when he gets there he changes costume and becomes the Court Jester of Europe, the buffoon with the all the guile and nous of a circus clown. When RTE shows us images of Michael shaking hands with the great and the good of European politics you can almost here the buzzer going off in his palm...
In 2013 you decided (unilaterally apparently) to abolish the Seanad and then could not find the courage to justify your actions in a public debate on the matter, sending your whipping boy Richard Bruton in your place.
Have you not even got the conviction of your own decision making? Are you not prepared to stand behind your own position on matters ... like this issue and the Programme for Government? Everything that comes out of your mouth has been proved to be meaningless. You are not a man of your word.
You betray yourself, the people, your own children and the future of your country with empty words. For what? Power, Position, Pay and Pension. That's what it's all about, Taoiseach. To say otherwise is to lie even more.
THE PARASITE
The Celtic Tiger didn't do anything positive for Ireland. It created the mess we are in and, contrary to your statements to your European bed-fellows that "the Irish people were greedy and only have themselves to blame", the vast majority of the population benefitted not one jot from the orgy of cheap finance, construction industry rampage and non-productive speculative business.
The ordinary man in the street has nothing to show for the boom period except the bill ... for debt that they never created, were never contractually oblige to repay and will cast them and their children and grand-children into generations of poverty last seen in mid-20th century Ireland.
Property Tax
Dáil debate February 2 1994
"It is morally unjust and unfair to tax a person's home, and by so doing grind him into the ground. Indeed in cases it could probably be unconstitutional.
It reminds me of a vampire tax in that it drives a stake through the heart of home ownership, through enthusiasm and initiative, and sucks the life blood of people who want to own their own home and better their position.
If the government fail to appreciate the passion with which people will defend their rights to their home ..., it is making a serious mistake"Fast forward to December 5th 2012. Journal.ie
TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has said the property tax, the details of which were announced in the budget today is “both progressive and fair”.No further comment needed on that one.
Under Fine Gael, Denis O'Brien has become one of the world's wealthiest men. The issuing of the ESAT mobile phone license is without the most despicable, cynical and unequivocal pieces of political corruption to have taken place in this country in the last century.
It is absolutely clear that Michael Lowry was, and remains, a parasite and self-serving charlatan who sold his signature for a handsome reward to hand Mr O'Brien the keys to the billionaire club.
Mr O'Brien is doing very nicely once again under your Fine Gael government. Supplying crowd control barriers at the Dail whenever he gets that chance ... probably at €50,000 a day or something like that. He's been a great friend to the FG/Labour government with the Irish Independent during the year, ignoring completely the true stories of Irish citizens like Tom D'Arcy, Fiachra Daly, Tony Rochford, single fathers, pensioners, children with serious medical conditions losing their medical cards, the water meter scam (which he owns too as the installer!) and many other stories. I'm sure the debt write-down he got this year of €100,000,000 will go some way to Mr's O'Brien's Christmas spread. The O'Brien's won't be hungry this year that's for sure.
And when Irish Water gets privatised, who is it that will have first refusal on the Irish public's money again? Denis O'Brien. But he can't do it alone ... he needs a ministerial signature. He needs someone in the same mould as Michael Lowry. Ideally a huckster from the midlands with a brass neck and no thought for the people of Ireland.
No doubt Big Phil is rubbing his hands at the prospect.
Politicians' pay, expenses and pensions ... I'm not even gonna go there!
THE PSYCOPATH
2013 has been another interesting year for the country. It began with your ascension to the throne as Temporary King of Europe with what promised to be an unholy orgy of self congratulation, mutual adoration and unbridled sycophancy towards your great friends and masters Angela Merkel and the Heads of Europe.
This, of course, incurred the wrath of those few people in the country who actually are awake and understand the extent of corrupt foreign interference in the affairs of what you continually mislead the nation to believe is our sovereignty. Irish sovereignty was steadily whittled away by Maastricht, Nice, Lisbon, the Fiscal Compact and other distortions of democracy which were sold to us as the answers to all our hopes and fears.
So to keep peaceful protesters "under control", crowd control barriers and heavy-handed Garda tactics designed to provoke ordinary democracy-driven people into conflict became the order of the day in the hands of the Minister for Injustice. Gardaí were issued with pepper spray and, unprovoked, unleashed hell on peaceful protesters, pensioners, mothers and children ... with Garda 334 the most violent and unbridled dog in the pack. His actions will never be forgotten.
But as I was predicting for months beforehand, when July 1st came around, the unprecedented Garda presence in Dublin suddenly disappeared. It was all for show for the benefit of Angela and the Troika ... making some sort of demonstration of power to the EU, that you had Ireland under control, you were keeping the peasants in their place and Ireland would not descend into the chaos that other awakened EU citizens has brought to other cities across the continent.
You controlled nothing, Enda.
It is a great disappointment to me and my fellow enlightened that the Irish people are more Ire-ish. But that didn't stop me from taking part in some peaceful (and ongoing) protests against your austerity policy. Austerity has been the word of 2013 and I have to congratulate your government on turning it into some kind of badge of honour to be worn with pride and flaunted in the halls of Brussels.
I believe the complacency of the Irish people towards austerity is rooted in our history as a colonised nation and our natural subservience to authority, reinforced by a church that preached fear and humility for a century and castrated its flock, ironically, while fornicating freely with the lambs. Ireland has never united as a nation (other than in the distraction of the sporting arena), has never had to fight for its survival in a war, and cannot do it now when her very existence and future is threatened like it was in the mid 1800s. And today the Irish people are choosing the same option they had then ... to take the boat.
Ireland in 2013 should have been a country of comfortable existence for its citizens, with adequate public services and a decent life for all. But Ireland under your stewardship does not have a WELFARE policy ... it has a FAREWELL policy. At the current (increasing) rate of exodus Ireland will have lost 20% of its population by 2020. Considering that 20% are the young, educated, employable workforce we will be facing the prospect of the elderly, children and the unemployed repaying bond debt up to 2040 ... how are you going to do that?
The answer is you won't have to worry about that. You'll be long gone, with your pension and all the other wealth you have pillaged from Ireland and hidden off-shore through your company "An Taoiseach" listed on Dun & Bradstreet. I presume you are never going to answer the questions I submitted to your office one year ago on this matter. I will take your silence as an admission of guilt to unjustifiable actions.
In September 2008 the Irish banks all but collapsed having been allowed to operate unsupervised and create an entirely unsustainable debt structure. There was serious mismanagement, negligence and predatory practice involved in their actions.
In the summer of this year myself and some friends challenged the Department of Finance on its lack of action in relation to the banking scandal, highlighting that the statue of limitations of 5 years in cases of fraud was about to run out and your government had done absolutely nothing to seek the truth or find justice for the Irish people who had been handed the bill.
In September 2013 the media began reporting that no banker would be charged with criminal offences. We were right. For two and half years when you could have initiated an inquiry, instructed the Minister for Justice, the Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate and ,if required, to pursue those responsible. You did nothing.
The people responsible for the destruction of our country and the enslavement through unjust taxation of future generations have sailed off into the sunset with your blessing and your collaboration.
Ireland is a safe haven for the corrupt elite in business, banking and politics. It is a sesspit of the most predatory psychopaths intent on extracting every ounce of wealth, capital and power from the ordinary men, women and children. You and your political class have betrayed the people for profit and nothing else. As long as you protect the corrupt, you are part of the corruption. Your legacy, as I told you in last year's message, will be one of eviction, emigration, poverty, despair, destitution, prison and suicide.
You are not concerned with the lives of the 4.5 million people in this country, only the immunity and comfort of the 1% who hold a noose around the neck of this beautiful little island.
You have single-handed created a new focus of distorted public policy in Irish politics. You are not concerned with Health Care ... you are only concerned with Wealth Care.
This week an ex Anglo Irish Bank official was appointed as a High Court Judge, a Dublin man walked free from Irish courts despite having been found to be in possession of child porn, the age of consent is under review to be changed downward - great news for paedophiles, while single fathers, most of whom are honourable good men who do the maximum possible for their children within their means, have been vilified and penalised by the State for NO JUST REASON.
You tried to abolish the Seanad, as I have already said, against the wishes of the majority of the people and are intent on reducing the number and removing the remaining power of local councils.
You constantly defend your actions on the basis of having "a mandate from the people" ... which you don't, and insisting that you are not a dictator but a defender of democracy.
Well let's see what Ireland and its political system would look like under Enda Kenny with no second house and no local government:
Taoiseach
Economic Management Council (4)
Government (15)
Dáil Eireann
That reminds me of another political structure:
General Secretary
Politburo
Central Committee
Party Congress
To seek to create the same political structure as Stalin's Russia and at the same time insist that you are not a dictator is quite a feat of intellectual gymnastics, Sir. That's quite the Messiah Complex you're sporting!
There is no political ideology in Ireland. Every politician, regardless of party allegiance, practices the Politics of Expediency.
What do I have to do to get elected?
... tell the people what they want to hear, making "promises", "commitments" and "pledges" which you are not obliged to keep and have no intention of keeping. As Minister for Propoganda Rabbitte said ... tell lies.
What do I have to do when I am elected?
a) if your party is in government, you simply do what you're told ... by the Central Bankers, the ECB, IMF, the REAL policy makers (Germany, France), the people who financed your campaign and actually OWN the party (Denis O'Brien et al.) and the PERMANENT, UNELECTED, INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND ... the mandarins in the Civil Service.
b) if your party is not in government, nothing! You simply spectate, raise your eyebrows a few times and let out a few platitudes to the masses of how much better things would have been if you'd been in government.
c) whether in our out of government, your absolute number one priority is always the same... the four Ps of Irish Politics: Position, Pay, Perks and Pension.
If I have served a difficult term in government with low probability of re-election, what do I have to do to get re-elected?
a) Pull "a Keaveney"... jump ship, voicing your disappointment at your former party and how they betrayed their ideology (!?), their members and the electorate, to the plaudits of those sheep who think you're a man of honour ... only to do a "1-80" on your political principles and join the party you derided in the previous election as being the scourge of the nation.
b) Retire with your pension and lobby your buddies for a few directorships which will keep leeching the ordinary man's wages into your (off-shore) bank account.
We don't have a national motto in Ireland, but we should certainly consider: "Ah, sure, what can you do?"
My response to you, Taoiseach is EVERYTHING I CAN.
Merry Christmas. Don't let the ghosts of Christmas future in the forms of millions of impoverished, hungry, homeless Irish men, women and children keep you up...
