by Jimmy Rhatigan
IF YOU got a box in the mouth every time you passed a bully’s home would you put up with that savage treatment for the rest of your days?
We doubt it?
We are sure that any man or woman being abused so abysmally would eventually react with a clout that would finally release him or her from his or her chains of suffering.
The time has come when we should be confronting politicians in a coliseum of fair play as they continue to line their own pockets and tear our lifelines to shreds.
Successive Governments would put Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves to shame.
They have awarded themselves crocks of gold at a retiring age of 50.
At the same time they confine pensioners, ill or otherwise to life in the trenches or at the top of a ladder ‘till age 67.
Financial hardship
To add insult to injury, Ministers, TDs and Senators speak out of the sides of their mouths about a two-two tier society, a two-tier health system etcetera.
For generations, financial hardship has been dished out by those who would fit nicely into any plot as gangs of hoodlums.
The latter are made up of a motley collection of political parties that has as much respect for us as a pig would have for a clean shirt.
Too often we have turned the other cheek after one is belted black and blue but a road to Hell that now beckons may just jerk us into action.
While whipping up their gold plated pensions and lump sums politicians are continuing to ravage the pockets of those they semi-respectfully call their constituents, but with the word slaves lingering disgustingly.
Today, The Kilkenny Observer has a wake-up call for readers, male, female and of all ages.
Battered and bruised
For as far back as we can remember we as voters have been battered and bruised by a boys’ and girls’ club.
Whether we admit it or not we have been bullied, spat at, peed on, puked on and pushed into a gutter by a political class that has powdered its own arse while continuously kicking our butts.
After meeting politicians for a first time no one could fault us if we described him and her as beggars as they court us for
our votes.
Ballot paper ticks from voters bring tickets to lives of privilege and luxury that have over the years spawned political dynasties.
More aptly, we term these inhabitants of the dirty world that is politics as beggars on horseback.
The latter is described as one who has become unscrupulous or irresponsible due to the sudden acquisition of wealth.
Chase girls
Perhaps the latter should more accurately read a road to wealth as a TD who may become a Minister who can look forward to vulgar wages, lashings of expenses with generous lump sums and immoral pensions while still young enough to chase girls.
To buy some politicians’ pensions from a private pension company could cost as much as €3million.
Compare that to the miserly €248.30 a week pension that is so often begrudged to old age pensioners who worked hard all their lives.
And the latter is liable to tax.
Not only is the gap between public representatives’ pensions and those who toil honourably and honestly for their crust unfair and unjust, it is also a reminder that we are in fact the slaves and that our politicians, those who are supposed to work for us, are our masters. From January 2021 a working man or woman will have to work to age 67 and from 2028 that will be hiked to 68 before either is eligible for an OAP.
Political pawns
The sooner the better it dawns on us that we are being cheated, spoofed to and used as pawns in a political game of chess, the quicker we can bring a class that has created a lucrative gravy train for itself crashing down to earth.
As long as we vote in right wing or Fascist Governments, a weapon we have persistently used to beat ourselves with, we will continue to be the waiters at the tables of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in particular, both of which fits neatly as right wingers.
Whether or not we can derail the gravy train by electing a left wing Government with the likes of Sinn Féin, People Before Profit and perhaps the Labour Party is up for debate.
Labour’s history in bed with the big boys has to put doubts into our minds.
Juggling with words
Any inaction will lead us only to juggling with words like cowardly, apathetic, lazy, inept, or dare we say it, a return to the days when we were ruled by Britannia.
Whether we liked it or not we then forked out our tithes until the lads and lassies of South Kilkenny kicked up a shindig in the famed Battle of Carrickshock
We don’t have to resort to violence to get justice but if we don’t wakey, wakey very soon we will spend our time carrying our 68 or maybe 70 year old carpenters and their tool boxes up ladders on stretchers.
Short term, pensioners need to guard their pittances with a Fort Knox-type of security.
Pauper’s purse
Come Budget Day, the devious trinity of FG, FF and the Greens just might be brass-necked enough to pick pocket us again.
A majority of them would pinch from a pauper’s purse in order to avoid any gravy spill.
Is there a leader among us?
Even one brave son or daughter of Ireland would be a plus as our high society politicians do not have anyone with vim, vigor or good vision.
That man or woman could lead in an unscrupulous game of give and take where
politicians take from us and give to themselves.
