Sir, – I understand from their public utterances that Clare Daly TD and Joe Higgins TD believe they are entitled to use Dáil expenses to mount a campaign against the household charge. They deem it contrary to the public interest that such a charge should be implemented. Be that as it may, why do these two TDs believe they are entitled to dip into my pocket and use my money, which I pay in taxes, for their campaign? Over a lifetime observing politics I have witnessed from all sides some shocking political arrogance, but the arrogance of Ms Daly and Mr Higgins in this instance – forcing me to finance their personal campaigns – is in a class of its own. I look at their shenanigans in conjunction with the strange use to which members of Sinn Féin have put my money to finance their travelling expenses. There has also been the extraordinary rendition of print cartridges on a scale beyond belief by a member of that party, also at my expense, for which, so far as I know, there has been no credible explanation. I like to think that I am, in my own fashion, a generous person, but until recently I didn’t know just how generous I am to people who earn a lot more than I do and with whom I am not on personal terms. It makes me wonder which alternative universe is inhabited by some of those who consider themselves among the more radical of our public representatives, and by those who run the system, which makes such activities possible. Is anyone actually running the shop? Oh, yes, of course, how silly of me – somebody is: it’s business as usual, just on a greater scale. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Recent revelations regarding printer toner, travel expenses, and attitudes to household and other charges show us the difference between European and Irish socialism.
European socialists believe everyone should pay. Irish socialists believe someone else should pay. – Yours, etc,