Opinion

Tom Kelly: The moral test for our politicians now is planning for recovery

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

US President Donald Trump. Picture by AP Photo/Evan Vucci
US President Donald Trump. Picture by AP Photo/Evan Vucci US President Donald Trump. Picture by AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Like many others in lockdown I have been de-junking.

Unfortunately as a hoarder of newspaper clippings, books and political memorabilia very little makes it to any recycling bin. Yesterday, I came across stuff picked up when working on US campaigns and at two Democratic conventions.

Amongst the bits and bobs were campaign materials and signed photos of American political giants including: President Carter, Vice President Mondale, the then Governor Clinton, Congressmen Jesse Jackson, Joe Kennedy and Barney Frank, Governor Dukakis, Speaker O'Neill and Senator Ted Kennedy. I even had letters from less admirable characters such as convicted New York congressman, Mario Biaggi.

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President Carter remains a personal hero. He may not have been the most inspiring of American presidents but he was earnest and above all honest. The contrast with the current incumbent of the White House could not be more stark.

Even in his nineties, Carter and his wife continue to live in their simple bungalow, working tirelessly for Habitat for Humanity.

It was whilst living in Washington DC that I came across the brutalist Hubert Humphrey Building which was then the Department of Education.

While DC has many fine buildings, this was not one of them. Humphrey, a former Vice President, was the epitome of what was good about US politics. At the re-dedication of this ugly building which bears his name, Humphrey expanded on words previously uttered by Gandhi in 1931.

He said: “The moral test of a government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the disabled”.

Tom Kelly
Tom Kelly Tom Kelly

Humphrey captured the essence of what should be an intrinsic part of the moral fibre and motivation of every single politician who aspires to govern.

Donald Trump is probably the most classless politician to have ever graced public office. At a time of great pain and loss, where are his words of compassion, concern and empathy for the families of the near 90,000 victims of coronavirus?

Instead, he has acted like a demented demigod, dismissing science and expert opinion. He is stretching the American constitution to its very limits. A constitution ironically drawn up by the Founding Fathers to protect the American people from anyone as dictatorial as Trump.

Even the feckless Boris Johnson understands the limits of his office and his own capabilities.

To their credit, our embryonic Executive, whatever their differences, have been empathetic by putting the welfare of the most vulnerable at the centre of their actions during this Covid crisis.

Without sounding rude, if RHI scheme was judged by the inquiry panel as being beyond the pay grade of local ministers, Covid-19 is RHI magnified by ten. But it is not easy for our ministers to be second guessed every day by every lump lounging in an armchair. Politicians live amongst us and their actions impact on their families as much as ours.

One false narrative which is arising during Covid-19 is that it’s all about health or money versus lives. It is not as binary as this.

Covid-19 will pass. A vaccine will be found. The planning for economic recovery should have started along side the start of this crisis.

Current policies should be as focused on the future as the present.

In an article in the Spectator it is estimated some 33 million Americans are now unemployed, that the UK economy will shrink by some 14 per cent, the lowest since 1706. Cancer mortality rates are expected to soar because of the impact on patients currently awaiting treatment. And we already know that during the last financial crash suicide levels were shockingly high.

The moral test now for our politicians is to plan for recovery. The lockdown, like trouble, is easy to get into but hard to get out of.