For far too long we have allowed our humbug government to treat us as bold children to be sent to our rooms or banished to the bold corner.
Mouth pieces for Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens keep telling us that those in Government are doing a great job and remind us that there will be gifts galore at budget time, ie vouchers for a minute portion of ESB bills and perhaps a few Euros for pensioners and others to buy themselves coffee a bun.
Yipee has to the reaction as our lords and masters throw us the crumbs from their table of power, sops to appease us as we struggle to pay bills and bid to keep the vulture funds from rapping at our front doors with eviction orders.
Reality is that even if Government were to fill our wallets and pockets with 30 pieces of silver we would still be up to our necks in debt and would be struggling to have even a smidgen of hope of making ends meet.
Let me try to explain and to issue a challenge to Kilkenny Press readers.
I would be prepared to bet that outgoings from most homes in the country, apart from D4 and other areas of plenty, would dwarf any ‘help’ from the high kings and queens of Kildare Street.
A simple exercise should convince readers that they are being led up a garden path and, God protect us, right onto a road with no signage that ensures that we won’t know whether we are coming or going.
Simply scribble ‘In’ and ‘Out’ boxes of Euros snatched from handbags and trousers’ pockets on a page of your copybook and you should realize immediately that you should be knocking at the doors of Government politicians to give vent to your anger, verbally of course!
You should certainly feel that you owe it to bluffing politicians who continue to hoodwink us, to make a New Year resolution not to vote for those who persecute us, bamboozle us with words and confine us to lavatory street while continuously trying to convince us, nod, nod, wink, wink; that we are the recipients of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh in our mythical en suites.
A couple of double week payments to social welfare recipients, €100 here and there to struggling families, electricity vouchers and a contribution towards family expenses at back to school time.
If readers come up with other ‘gifts’ they can simply add it to the ‘In’ column, which, they will find takes very little time to cobble together.
Hearts will thump, chins will drop and teeth will be grinded in anger when any ‘Out ’ audit aka taxes to government round-up is complete.
For years the Catholic Church had an unwritten law that the best way to get money out of people’s pockets was ‘little and often’.
Our government has learned from the best. Both bodies have proved to be merciless in digging their greedy paws into the pockets of the real people of Ireland.
Levies are imposed on homes and businesses (property tax), motor cars and farm machinery, porter, cigarettes, bulls’ eyes, television licences, pet dogs, mobile ‘phones, shirts, jumpers, jocks, shoes, knickers, bras and all other forms of apparel from working gear to wedding dresses.
There are taxes on all foodstuffs and drinks, coffee and tea, from the humble and horribly unhealthy burger or hot dog to platters of bacon and cabbage.
We could go on and on but reality is that we would run out of copybook space.
Government politicians may acknowledge some of the more punishing taxes as they grin into their brandy glasses.
But they will slyly ignore the massive tax trove that is hauled in by slapping tax on your favourite sweets, or more harshly on the medicines that you purchase to try to keep your heart ticking or your gut clean.
Tax guzzlers that government may brand as ‘menial’ become apparent every time someone visits a supermarket, pub, sports grounds and a multitude of other businesses, notably the hotel industry where price-gouging has become a dirty tricks story of crucifying those who can afford a weekend on holidays and is most certainly giving visitors a horrible impression of dear old Ireland.
So instead of what cunning politicians may call a small portion of your wages, that some three card trick merchants put at 20% being swiped up by taxes, you are more likely to find that final figures will tell you that the 80%, or four fifths of your taxes represents your final tax bill for a year with a miserly one fifth being left to families to scramble on.
If our people don’t slam doors and confront politicians, urging them to jump ship before they are thrown off, then we have a debt wish, a door to Hell with the lights being turned off in Mother Ireland’s front room.
PS: Stay alert as politicians will no doubt crucify us with a new and extravagant TV licence fee to keep RTE alive and swell the bank balances of over-rated ‘stars’ while devoted workers try to live on meagre wages.
Unless we demand government to resign en bloc we will pay the price of skullduggery in high places and the so-called big wigs of TV will be back in studio to promote the bad and the ugly.
The latter, just like most of them did by encouraging men, women and children to partake in a Covid vaccine programme as senior doctors with consciences warned us to beware of as an experimental drug.
No emergency, no matter how serious, should include bullying, promotion of fear, discrimination, treating some as lepers not to be served while those who paid €9 for a meal in a pub were entitled to wine or dine at their leisure.
What was not explained to us was that the Covid monster would not infect anyone who was feeding his or her face.
Jesus wept.
