It is almost a hundred years now since the celebrated economist John Maynard Keynes famously said, during a debate on future monetary policy: “In the long run we are all dead.”
It’s a statement that comes to mind in the current public health crisis. Sadly we all have to leave this life at some stage but we would prefer to postpone that eventuality for as long as possible: a marathon rather than a sprint, please.
The damned coronavirus has already ended many life-spans and the rest of us are praying it won’t come knocking on the door. As a result, we have put up with restrictions on our movements that would normally be unthinkable. A friend asked me the other day (on the phone of course): “Did you ever think we would end up in a situation like this?”
No indeed, was my reply. As someone well-disposed to the forces of law and order, I still feel uncomfortable at the number of police-cars whizzing through the streets of Dublin. When stopping you at a checkpoint, the Garda Síochána are invariably polite and friendly but it still recalls descriptions of countries under occupation, albeit a very benign one in this case.
It’s all in a good cause, of course. A religious phrase comes to mind: “Offer it up for the relief of the souls in Purgatory.” You could say we are going through an earthly version of Purgatory at the moment, but without a guarantee that our sufferings will lead to eternal salvation.
The virus may be a curse in most respects but it has proved a blessing in some ways for certain politicians in the south.
At the last election on February 8, the voters inflicted a “good kicking” on the Fine Gael-led government under Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Nearly three months later, that outgoing administration still holds office in a caretaker capacity and Varadkar and his colleagues have gone up in public estimation.
The latest Business Post/Red C poll has Fine Gael at 35 per cent, which is 14 points up on its general election performance. The same survey has Sinn Féin at a fairly solid 27 points and Fianna Fáil with a dismal rating of 14. Even more worrying for the ‘Soldiers of Destiny’ is the finding that, in a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael coalition where the position of taoiseach would rotate between the two parties, 39 per cent of respondents gave Varadkar as their first choice for the job, compared with 14 per cent for FF-leader Micheál Martin.
The Fine Gael surge is attributed to their decisive approach in government during the crisis – although it might be argued that they simply followed the advice of medical experts and that public sentiment will change when issues such as their approach on nursing homes as well as the ultimate cost of dealing with the health emergency come in for further discussion.
The caretaker government has no parliamentary mandate and we are told that this will eventually cause serious problems, e.g., where new legislative measures are required. It is bizarre and ultimately unacceptable to find ourselves in life-threatening circumstances but without a proper administration.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have, for their own reasons, consigned Sinn Féin to “the naughty step” but the old Civil War enemies are prepared to form an unprecedented coalition. The 12 Green TDs would make up the numbers in the Dáil and, last Sunday, a majority of their parliamentary party voted to enter talks with FF and FG on government formation. Any agreement that emerges will need to be approved by a two-thirds majority of the Green Party membership which, as Newton Emerson has pointed out in this newspaper, includes a substantial contingent north of the border.
If the deal is rejected by the party’s rank-and-file, a second general election could well be on the cards, with opponents of the Greens trying to portray them as failing in their patriotic duty by standing aloof from government. That could prove quite damaging at the ballot-box. Any suggestion – whether justified or not – that a party isn’t putting the national interest ahead of other considerations doesn’t go down well with the electorate. If we don’t live long enough, we cannot save the planet.
Email: Ddebre1@aol.com; Twitter: @DdeBreadun
