A chara, – Imagine if Brian Cowen announced tomorrow that he were cutting the Dáil summer recess to four weeks, his own salary by 50 per cent and holding a referendum on the continued existence of the Seanad? Unions and employer lobbies would be aghast, knowing that the gloves would be off and everything fair game. Public quangos and private cabals too would quake in their boots, but the people would cheer loudly as acts of courage are instinctively recognised as the mark of true leadership.
If only. Instead our politicians continue to prevaricate and dissemble, hoping against hope that they can keep everyone happy and save their own skins. In considering its current strategy the Government would do well to heed Winston Churchill’s cautionary words: “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last”. – Is mise,
EAMON COSTELLO,
Donabate,
Co Dublin.