In modern democracies, political offices are just one of a whole series of interlocking institutions that wield political power. Capturing one of them is not enough. There are no shortcuts.
We have a bizarre situation where the next Government will be bound – at least to some degree – by major spending decisions taken in the dying days of this one.
Not heaped on the taxpayer
Which came first? The Catholic Church? Or the people? The latter, surely: nowhere else in Europe was the Catholic Church given such power by democratically-elected governments.
Appalling abuses are happening right now.
Well, when you say it out loud…
Also: Fintan O’Toole’s extraordinary attack on cataract busses.
Politicians have both a political and economic incentive to tell you that everything is fine, until it isn’t. It’s not lying, necessarily – but it might just be unwarranted optimism.
Spend our taxes
Janice Boylan
War on parental rights?
Would we grant that level of benefit of the doubt to some working class white guy from Alabama who tweeted that Barack Obama was a Kenyan?