This morning's main news, concerning An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's alleged writing of an alleged letter to delay some sort of work on an alleged quarry in the alleged county Roscommon is an interesting indication of just how rotten the Irish political system is. We don't even know what a scandal is anymore.
On the face of it, an elected TD, even if he's only an opposition back-bencher, isn't meant to be sticking his snout into planning matters, the decisions of which are meant to be autonomous. However, the reality is that the chief thing we as a nation seek in a politican is someone who's sufficiently thick to have nothing better to do with his time that write letters to the Department of Social Welfare demanding a toothpaste allowance for a man with no teeth, or else bollock the head of some misfortuntate in the County Council who interprets the law (which in theory has been legislated by our bellowing friend on the end of the phone) as saying that a farmer that wants to build a pigsty modelled on the castle that was on the start credits to the Wonderful World of Disney is out of bloody luck.
We elect them to write letters and then profess to be shocked when they do? We deserve all we get.
