Madam, I believe the media in general and The Irish Timesin particular has been unfair to Leo Armstrong's attempts to get a new political party off the ground (Home News, July 22nd). Specifically, the accusation that the new party has no policies is unfair, not because it is untrue but because it is premature.
What the new party (in its embryonic state) does have is a list of 40 or so aspirations which we, the members of the new party, will convert into real policies as soon as we can do so.
What we don’t want is some elite insiders telling the rest of us what we should think – we’ve had enough of that.
What we want instead is a bottom-up approach which arrives at a consensus over whatever time period is necessary. The inaugural meeting in Kilkenny last Wednesday was attended by only 50 or so people (I think the GAA had only five?) but what we lacked in numbers was more than made up for in contributions from the podium and from the floor.
Among our major aspirations, from which our policies will grow, are honesty and integrity to replace the current cronyism and corruption; the current cover-ups, wastage and misappropriation of public funds by 100 per cent transparency and accountability (including 100 per cent vouching of all expenses and the elimination of some altogether), and many more, not least of which will be setting forth proposals for white collar crime, which currently carries no real sanction.
We will also work tirelessly for the eradication of the existing insider/elite’s centralised power and its replacement by direct democracy and (very) local involvement on a power to-the-people, for-the-people basis – after all, the principle of subsidiarity is supposed to underlie EU governance from top to bottom.
In that way, the 80 per cent of us who are not corrupt but who are ordinary, decent honourable men and women can take over running this country as our forefathers envisioned and gave their lives for. Initially we can only have a minor influence but over time we, or others like us, will prevail.
Being small in numbers doesn’t mean having no influence – remember Tony Gregory? Go ndéana Dia trócaire air. – Yours, etc,