Madam, – How many recall the lead-in to the second Lisbon referendum with Micheál Martin warning us darkly of the unspecified but terrible fate that would befall us if we voted against it. We were told that tighter political integration into a wider Europe, was the only way forward. There was simply no alternative.
A year later, there was simply no alternative to Nama, there was no alternative to a bank bailout and this year there is no alternative to severe cutbacks. There is no alternative to citing the new children’s hospital at the Mater site either. There are three local elections long overdue that would most likely cause the Government to fall, but there is no alternative but to defer them.
We were a capitalist democracy, but the “no alternative” line has moved us into quasi-fascist territory and the bank bailouts break every rule of capitalism. The people have had no say in any of this and won’t have as long as this status quo persists. With the total contempt that our Government show for us, I suggest that we have no alternative but to get rid of them, one way or the other. – Yours, etc,