If the Art of War had been written by the Irish opposition instead of Sun Tzu, it would have been much shorter, and gone something like this:
“Shout at your opponent when the goals you told them to adopt backfire.”
That’s it, mind you – that’s the whole book. This alone is the plank which underlies almost all of Irish discourse.
No matter the issue or situation, Irish parties follow the same worn-out protocol: demand their opponents pursue certain goals, and then give out to them when their hated foe agrees and actually does what was asked. If our country’s politics was a dance battle, the contestants would have precisely two moves – not “popping and locking,” but “flipping and flopping.”
And we have been reminded of this fact, yet again, by the country’s biggest opposition party, Sinn Fein, on the cost of living crisis.
Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman, Pearse Doherty TD, did not hold back recently as he ripped the government a new one over the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Emergency Budget needed to support workers and families as inflation hits highest rate in four decades – @PearseDoherty
“The government’s refusal to act is inexcusable, with workers and families paying the price."https://t.co/jRW40atxeK pic.twitter.com/jgIElGFIkF
— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) June 9, 2022
“Household energy prices are up by 57 percent while the cost of home heating oil has more than doubled,” Doherty said.
“These are not just numbers, but represent the real hardship being felt by households who simply cannot bear these price increases…It is disgraceful that this government refuses to act while households face the biggest price shock in decades.”
Doherty also referenced the urgent need to reduce petrol and diesel costs for drivers.
Now, undoubtedly, everything said here is absolutely true. You can’t fault the reasoning so far.
While inflation is certainly hitting households hard across the board, energy is by far the biggest source of the crisis – specifically, the governments’ insistence on heavily taxing energy and fuel to reduce Ireland’s carbon emissions and meet climate targets. And Sinn Féin is right to call this out. It is, indeed, outrageous.
And if they left it there, there would be no problem. But, of course, they didn’t leave it there – they went a step further.
Within hours of Doherty’s statement, Sinn Féin issued a second press release: “Government must make up lost ground on climate action”
Sinn Féin spokesperson on Climate Justice Senator Lynn Boylan has called for immediate action to address the slow progress in achieving the Climate Action Plan measureshttps://t.co/5AgRuP3Q3I @LNBDublin pic.twitter.com/wPaLUiPM9X
— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) June 9, 2022
“Sinn Féin spokesperson on Climate Justice Senator Lynn Boylan has called for immediate action to address the slow progress in achieving the Climate Action Plan measures.
…Senator Boylan said:
“The gap between the government’s rhetoric and climate action continues to widen.
“Worse still, we know from the EPA we would still be on course to miss our carbon budget targets even if the government delivered on the climate action plan measures…If the government can’t even get the simple things right, it does not inspire confidence in delivering the step-change that is needed.
“The pathway to a sustainable future gets steeper and steeper with every progress report. The government must outline how it is going to make up lost ground.”
Bear in mind, Doherty and Boylan’s two statements were posted just four hours apart. They’re demanding both of these things at the same time.
So, in summation, the message to the government appears to be: “Why aren’t you doing more on climate change, and how dare you do more on climate change.”
Anyone who follows my content knows I’m not exactly a cheerleader for either the green cause or the government. But you don’t have to be a card carrying member of Greenpeace or Fianna Fáil to know an unreasonable demand when you see it.
The absolute prioritisation of climate change as an existential crisis, which all parties have agreed to, necessarily must lead to policies like carbon tax and driving motorists off the road (pardon the pun). That is the natural end-stage of this green mania. You can absolutely hate what the government is doing, but if environmentalism is your sacred cow, then this is where you must end up.
By holding both of these positions at once, the opposition is like that lady in the Simpsons who wants all of her groceries in one bag, but she doesn’t want the bag to be heavy. It’s not going to work, lads.
At least Paul Murphy had the honesty to admit that, yes, in pursuit of the Green agenda, the so-called “national herd” must be culled.
You can absolutely hate that position, but he’s only taking what the rest of them are saying to its logical conclusion.
In a similar vein, Sinn Féin made a point of how dreadful it is that holidaymakers are experiencing such chaos at Dublin airport with queues out the door due to mass lay-offs, describing the situation as a “shambles.”
And yet just a few months ago, in the midst of Covid, Sinn Féin wanted mandatory hotel quarantine, which would have decimated the airport further.
Sinn Féin have some neck to be talking about what's going at #DublinAirport when last year they were calling for mandatory quarantine which would have literally shut down the airport!! https://t.co/ZmXEUiY2jW pic.twitter.com/TpAACosNdV
— IrishConservative (@RealIrishCONS) June 3, 2022
There are many such examples.
Ireland in 2022 is sandwiched between, on one hand, an incompetent government, and on the other, Schrödinger’s opposition, where every policy is at the same time crap, and not implemented extensively enough. Dandelion seeds don’t blow around in the wind nearly so well as Irish politicians.
If these parties want to be taken seriously as being able to one day lead the country through crises, they should get off the fence and pick a clear stance on these vital issues once and for all.