Dear John, why now?
Twitter blew up on Monday morning with rumours that the Greens were pulling out of government. The initial reaction from many was a resigned, muted sigh. It could also, however, have been one of astonishment and even anger.
The previous evening had seen a momentous moment in Irish history, when Ireland’s Taoiseach officially went cap in hand to those with money and asked to be bailed out. And quickly.
Monday morning saw the Minister for Finance on Morning Ireland going through the various aspects of the bailout, with one consistent line being the obvious importance of the putting through of the impending austerity budget and four year plan. While one might disagree with aspects of the government’s communications strategy this past week and vent one’s spleen about other decisions that have brought the country to this point, the emphasis on unity and urgency with regard to the budget made sense.
So, Mr. Gormley, why now?
It can’t be a sense of political nous; if that had been the case they would have ducked for cover months ago and at least given themselves some sort of a chance of wiping themselves clean of their recent association with Fianna Fáil.
A sense of patriotism? The timing of the decision, mere hours after the bailout announcement, threw the Irish political world into no small level of chaos for the rest of the day. The timing could hardly have been worse, with eyes from all over the world concentrated on this small western European island and its severe economic difficulties. The very last thing that was needed was our being seen to have severe internal political difficulties (not to put too fine a point on it) to compound the problem.
The Greens are going to be wiped out in the election, whenever it comes. Maybe that would have happened already; some would say that it was already a certainty. But this decision to throw the Irish political world into chaos at this moment smacked of a wounded animal deciding that it wanted to be put out of its misery.
That’s a bad sign to send to the Green Party, to the rest of the country’s electorate, not to mention the rest of the world.
John Gormley, you’re fired.
The greens have been nothing but a massive disappointment in government. That they went back on their (Trevor Sargants) word (I will not lead the Greens into government with FF) by playing pedantic word games should have been warning enough. That they supported Bertie Ahern saying he won cash on the horses, supported massive pay rises for ministers and perks, appointed party hacks to state positions shows their true colors. Their parting shot in government under the 4 year plan has been to double carbon taxes on the poor. Get ready for electricity, heating, gas, and petrol bills to now all go up thanks to the greens. I look forward to their utter destruction as they have been the party of traitors.