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THE GREEN Party is different. It does not try to fool the electorate, as other parties do. It fools itself. They actually believe that the morsels they got in the revised programme for government was “transformational”, rather than just another piece of clever Fianna Fáil condescension. The delusional Greens believe they are principled green egalitarians, rather than the reality: they are a crowd of flaky middle-class dilettantes, amusing themselves with the fantasy of power and the delights of its trappings.

There was and is a central issue at the heart now of our politics: whether the fiscal crisis is to be resolved at the expense of those who can bear the expense or at the expense of those who can’t. In other words, whether the fiscal deficit to be addressed in the coming budget is to be addressed in the main by public expenditure cuts, including social welfare reductions, or addressed through the redistribution of wealth and income – ie through the tax system.