Ireland the Republic of Trocaire Boxes, Moving Statues, and Obama Plaza. We’re a paradox of good values and brown envelopes, anti-imperialism and double Irish, peace and partition. 

Western culture is full of double standards, catholic guilt has been replaced with plastic remorse. We contribute to inequality and climate change every time we import fruit, fast fashion or electricity; despite how much we convince ourselves that we recycle and buy fair trade coffee.

As the world has gone global the values of equality, fraternity, and liberty have not. Being a Republic at home and part of the imperial machine abroad is a difficult concept, we balance ideology with opportunity, often choosing convenience and cheap commodities without considering the cost of production, the politics behind an avocado, or the truth behind products like palm oil.

Perhaps identifying as a Republican is difficult in a broad world dominated by globalisation. In the modern world it could be hard to stay true to our values without resorting to a life of asceticism. Closed borders choke prosperity and diplomacy is required to trade with neighbours we might not fully agree with.

However one symbol we should value, understand and remain true to is our national flag which represents unity between green and orange. It’s a symbol of peace and its meaning is honoured by our domestic actions. So whatever being republican means in the modern world, being true to our flag should be an easier undertaking. Anyone corrupting the meaning of the tricolour to broadcast nationalist rhetoric is nothing short of being a traitor to peace and ignorant to what it means to have a shared Ireland under one flag. 

Reinforcing a philosophy of hatred and bitterness towards the United Kingdom is simply forgetting the goal of self determination and forming a united Ireland. Flags at half mast are not just about diplomacy abroad but about peace at home. Being a republican can be complicated these days but the green, white, and orange are in our DNA; we need to think more about what a healthy society looks like and we should respect our flag in what we do and say in order to live up to the values it represents. ​

Politicians need to have the moral compass of Saint Brendan but the leaking scandal makes this government's ethical judgement look like a lost walrus heading from Valentia island to the coast of Wales.

We put our trust in politicians and we expect them to know the difference between right and wrong, in particular on matters relevant to good governance that the layperson isn’t expected to have in depth knowledge of, after all that’s why we let experienced politicians run the country.

So perhaps I was a bit disappointed when Michael Martin and Eamon Ryan stood up to defend the leaking of a confidential document; on the Dail record they accepted Leo Varadkar’s apology, and decided that no harm was done. Meanwhile the opposition kick-started a criminal investigation and really made it clear that not all was ok with Leo’s actions (this Dail debate is summarised in the post The Big Deal).

I’m not a legal expert, so from the outset all I can say is that I don’t know if any law has been broken. I’ve read the article in Village Magazine that calls Leo a lawbreaker, I’ve listened to the Dail debates, and I’ve done my best to find more information on the story. All I know is that during ongoing negotiations the then Taoiseach decided to release a confidential document to a group that wasn’t a party to the talks. While there’s no evidence of financial favours there is a sense of close relationships and inner circles. Is this how all governments are run? Is it normal to court special interest groups while in negotiations with trade unions? It’s clearly not what should be done and whether illegal or not there should be less tolerance for such behaviour.

I’m not going to say Michael Martin and Eamon Ryan knew that leaking this document was illegal, and that they tried to pull the wool over our eyes, nor was I expecting them to perform some sort of character assassination on a partner of government, but I do expect them to have better moral judgement.
​
That’s why, if found guilty of wrong doing, it’s not only Leo Varadkar that will have to step down. If found guilty the whole leaky trinity will be in trouble, Leo Varadkar will have to step down, Michael Martin will have to step down, and Eamon Ryan will have to step down. This government will need to go back to the electorate if that happens and we will need to ask ourselves the question; when faced with an ethical dilemma do our politicians act the way we want them to, or do they hide below deck so they don’t rock the boat.  

Political conversation seems very different these days with online posts quickly turning into threads of abuse where people trade insults faster than Hydroxychloroquine on the stock exchange. Nowadays it’s simply irresponsible to post anything unless you’re willing to double down with extreme viewpoints and a hard-drive load of South Park memes. In the online world of tech-tac-toe centrists tend to get called bootlickers, stans, and sheeple while anyone right of centre is a fascist toryboy, and the latte loving socialists to the left get called everything from snowflakes to libtard globalists.

With all this going on it’s hard to know if you’re left or right in Ireland, especially when you listen to radical viewpoints. For example the far right will call Fine Gael Marxist traitors while those on the left call them Leo liberal poshboys.

Those on the right believing Ireland to be left leaning, especially in comparison to American conservatism, and those on the left believing we’re following the neo liberal ideology of the UK a little too closely. Meanwhile the confused centre thinks they’re getting the best of both worlds, but in reality they’re just successfully failing the extremists. Nonetheless the centre trods along, contently believing it is doing the best for average Jane and middle class Joe.

For example coalition partner Jackie Cahill (FF) said of the 2021 budget “I do not believe it is an overstatement to say that this is the most progressive, stimulation focused budget in the history of our State”, much to the confusion of pensioners, child care workers, unemployed youths, regular motorists, and perhaps the entertainment industry, who wondered what was so progressive about it.....but with hospitality vat slashed to 9% to help the recovery it’s more clear what is meant by stimulation focused.  After all we’re one step closer to the greatest recession ever seen.

This leads me onto my next point on what exactly is left and right politics, where is the centre, and what is its purpose.  As a very lose definition the centre is a friend to wealth creation and will make reasonable arguments to justify its actions, despite knowing that some are harmful to Irish society or the climate. Most centrists are capitalists who invest in the game and usually have some business interests that influence their decision making. The Irish centre is European, expresses itself through Gaelic traditions, and believes in stable market growth.

On the other hand the left tend to make ideological decisions based on moral conscience that put people’s well being ahead of profit motives, as a result the left is often snubbed as a hippiesh venture that would result in a low wage economy with little personal opportunity.

Generally speaking the right push for survival of the fittest in a low tax economy, they tend to not want to share wealth and believe in little government interference, with a preference for the market to provide goods and services at whatever price that might be. In Ireland the right have close ties to conservative values, Christian doctrine, and can be traditionalist in how they view roles for men & women.
​
How someone develops on this left/right spectrum will reflect how they view the world and form political loyalties. That said it’s not always clear if our big parties are left or right, the pendulum swings, and often individuals can have a huge variance in opinion from one another; even within the same political party. All the same I thought I’d present some scenarios to help explain the difference between left and right politics on some key issues in Ireland.

Local Property Tax

This might seem like a confusing issue, with people you think to be left or right calling to end property tax, but generally speaking the left look to implement taxes that are as fair as possible while the right look to pay the least amount of tax possible. As the Marxist adage goes; ‘from each according to their ability, to each according to their need’. Leftists believe society is a cooperative venture in which people of means should contribute the most.

The group most supportive of property tax in Ireland is the Labour party, with Brendan Howlin saying:

“"Local Property Tax is designed to be as fair as possible, with those in more exclusive dwellings paying more. Anyone who cannot afford to pay due to a low income is able to defer payment.....Local Property Tax is essential for local councils to deliver road repairs, street lighting, playgrounds, public parks and many more local services. Local people should be given more say over what needs to be funded in their areas”.
​
The ability to raise taxes to fund local projects is a critical component to involve people in local politics, to show how we can work as a co-operative to the benefit of the community. Whether this is fixing a bridge, or painting old houses, or building a bingo hall.....the council needs money and in recent years this isn’t coming from central government.

LPT isn’t just about tax, it’s about empowerment, and making local decisions to benefit the community. The LPT was introduced by a Fine Gael / Labour Government in 2013 but is generally opposed by FG / FF/ Sinn Fein while the Social Democrats look for reform to allow a greater amount of LPT to be spent in the area it’s collected. 

Covid 19

Approaches to Covid 19 vary differently, depending on how much you believe in science. The result is that wearing a mask has become a statement of solidarity, and not wearing one a symbol of individuality and belief in personal freedom.

Left leaning ideology puts significant value on every single life, and calls for a total lockdown aiming for a zero covid country, with the government providing free grain for an indefinite period while we achieve this. The strategy could only be achieved in a co-operative society that lowers the cost of living by way of debt forgiveness, free rent, and greater control of the supply chain to ensure everyone eats.

Meanwhile fun loving economy lovers on the right believe we need to warehouse the sick and elderly in order to let the party continue. On one hand the right call for herd immunity, while on the other they dismiss Covid 19 as a fake news story, and tend to call it the Kung-Flu.

The centre have taken half measures, closing part of the economy down, in an effort to rollercoaster the virus until a cure is found.  Of course the left will argue the cure should be free for all, the centre will insist we pay a suitable price for it, and the right think the vaccine is a tracking device that sterilises alpha males.
​
Thankfully most our parties fall left of centre when it comes to how we handle the virus, even the current government have made left leaning decisions on the crisis, but one has to think the outcome of the February 2020 elections set the agenda on how we responded, which is an optimistic reflection on the power and consequence of democracy. 

Climate Change

Another key differentiator we have to consider is climate change. The right don’t actually believe we as a species are responsible for global warming, and they dismiss all scientific evidence in favour of viewing it as an act of god. Sadly there are a few of these people in the Dail, they tend to believe anyone with a love of nature has idle hands, and climate action comes at too high a cost to the economy.

Centrists like FF/FG and the Greens believe in collective action and aim to stall global warming by meeting EU targets and directives. They believe in applying carbon taxes on goods that are bad for the environment in order to gradually price them out of the economy.

Labour are slightly to the left of this and want to ensure any carbon taxes are pumped back into the economy to support transitioning to green energies, retrofitting houses, and subsidising electric cars. However this is problematic as in the past few years Ireland has been fined heavily by Europe for not meeting targets.

Further left leaning parties like Sinn Fein and the Social Democrats believe carbon charges are a tax on the poor which don’t modify behaviour so much as they punish those who can’t afford to transform. They call for carbon taxes to be poverty proofed or income sensitive.  

The ultra left believe we are on the crest of Armageddon and must immediately transform to a green economy, calling for a green new deal to prevent the apocalypse, they are likely to take more radical action than to wait on our EU neighbours to call the shots. People of this persuasion tend to be more troubled by the dogma of extinction than the thought of how far you can go on a Nissan Leaf - without stopping to charge it (not far enough).