Hard to find a `healthy' poll option

It would be a "remarkably healthy development" if the people of South Tipperary voted against Fianna Fail next Saturday. The symptom of remarkable political health, according to Charlie McCreevy, is for voters to do the opposite to that which Government Ministers advise them to do. Indeed, one Government Minister thinks this is so remarkably healthy that he votes against a proposition he advises others to vote for.

Of course, it would be even more "remarkably healthy" if, come the general election, the electorate voted against the Government. But perhaps what Charlie McCreevy had in mind was voting against the establishment, and with this there is the problem of which of the political parties is not part of the establishment, or differs at all from all the others?

There used to be differences between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. Fianna Fail was sound on the national question, Fine Gael was not. Fine Gael was sound on law and order, Fianna Fail was a bit dodgy. Fianna Fail was sometimes reliable on the economy, sometimes not. Fine Gael was sometimes reliable on the economy and other times not. The big difference was that Fine Gael was clean and Fianna Fail was not - clean as in honest.

But where are we now? There is no national question - we voted to abolish that in 1998. Fianna Fail is as hysterical on law and order as Fine Gael ever was. Fianna Fail has re-established its track record on the economy and on the honesty question. Since the last election Fianna Fail has emerged as more crooked even than we expected it was. But we have all hung around for over four years now for Bertie to get caught and he hasn't - yet. But, unexpectedly, Fine Gael has got caught. At last the penny is dropping that something very fishy happened with Fine Gael in government from late 1994 to 1997.

The question still remains: how was Fine Gael on the verge of insolvency when it went into government in late 1994 and was sloshing around in cash when it left office in mid-1997? Whence the dosh and for what?

At least we have come a little way on this issue. The mere questioning of the integrity of Fine Gael would have resulted in demands for effusive corrections: now they are a little more restrained. You see, it has now been established that Fine Gael is not at all averse to doing favours for cash. Eighteen months ago it offered the best favour money can buy from an opposition party: a say on party policy. So how plausible is it that it did no favours in return for all the cash it got while in government?

The point is that while several Fianna Fail luminaries have been found to have had their hands in the till, there is now the suspicion that Fine Gael may have had its collective hands in the till while in office (no, there is no suggestion that individual Fine Gael luminaries were benefiting personally, just that the party as a whole was). And so no longer can Fine Gael be distinguished from Fianna Fail on the integrity front.

SO where does that leave us at the next election? How are we to choose between FF and FG. And that is the real choice, for one or other of them will be the mainstay of the next government? They are both below board on the honesty question, the economy question doesn't arise for it is looking after itself and both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are equally awful on the law-and-order question. Neither gives a hoot about fairness.

The Labour Party, in an earlier incarnation, might have offered an alternative and it might have been a "remarkably healthy development" to have voted for it. But what does the Labour Party stand for now that is any different? Ruairi Quinn threw a few shapes over the Nice Treaty last December, but then backed off and toed the establishment line.

He can hardly claim any credibility on the fairness front, having been the architect of three budgets as minister for finance that massively favoured the rich. And there are a few questions about finances that Ruairi Quinn is reluctant to answer - but more about that in the coming weeks.

The PDs, God help us, have long lost whatever edge they had. Yes, if they go out of power before the Ansbacher scams are finally disclosed, there is little prospect that the friends of Ansbacher in Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will ever have the bottle to complete the job. But we are still waiting four years on for Mary Harney to spill the beans.

So if we are into "remarkably healthy developments" what are we to do? There are the options of voting for Greens or Sinn Fein. The Greens seem on the side of righteousness but then look at what they did when they got into power in Germany. Would it be a "remarkably health development" if the Greens were voted back into office there, and if not why should it be any different here?

On the face of it, Sinn Fein seems to pass the "remarkably healthy" test but, decommissioning apart, is it really any different now from the others? If it got into power would it not do precisely the same as the others, budgets favouring the rich, law and order (and, you bet, there would be lots of that once they settled down).

Ruairi O Bradaigh was right all those years ago when, opposing the political option for the republican movement, he said they would go the way of the Stickies and they have done just that. Not quite the vast arrays of big lies and manipulation, accompanied by viciousness, but there is time enough yet.