Yes, politicians are human beings too

The politicians will soon be off on their holidays. The country is still standing. There is the odd fire but overall, the leadership is pleased with its handiwork.

We know this because it has been lording it over another fearful EU member in a debt bind. That’s despite the fact that only 33 months ago, the Taoiseach was very clearly demanding a debt deal for Ireland. “I’m very clear on this. We are going to get a deal on debt,” he said.

So why the harsh tone about Greece last Sunday? Where exactly was he positioning this little outlier of ours in the scheme of EU debtors and creditors? What happens the next time the roof blows off?

In the meantime, we look like hypocrites with amnesia. And it was unnecessary. A similar message could have been pitched in a more sympathetic tone, at no cost to anyone.

Yet Enda Kenny is a man lauded for his even temperament. It enabled his coalition to stagger more or less intact through the early years. But his witless Dáil comments in recent times – such as the "toddle along" dismissal of Paul Murphy – reflect badly on a man whose prime ministerial demeanour should be a benchmark of civility and gravitas.

Sneering nonsense

If he chooses to indulge in such sneering playground nonsense, can he expect civil engagement with opposition in or out of Dáil Éireann? If it was done in error, he should have apologised.

That’s not to say that politicians are not entitled to respond to provocation. No one owns the moral high ground. Politicians should not be afraid to fight back – though probably not to the same extreme as Boris Johnson with his recent “f*** off and die – and not in that order” at a haranguing London cabbie.

No one else would get away with it, but some observers have taken it as a sign that British politicians are beginning to step out of the doghouse after a prolonged self-flagellation over the expenses scandals.

As I write, Jeremy Corbyn, the British Labour leadership candidate, is on Channel 4 news, reacting with genuine, white-hot anger to the interviewer’s repeated question, barking “thanks for the tabloid journalism”. It’s not admirable in itself but it is a sign of some residual self-respect.

The general assumption that politicians are arrogant liars, only there to be tripped up in a “tough”, breathless, Paxman- wannabe interview, is doing no service to either side.

Last year, Brendan Howlin wrote a reflective piece about democracy's need for thoughtful, informed debate, accusing the broadsheets and RTÉ of allowing "red-top excitability" to rule the roost. "Every media organ reports on deficiencies in our public services and supports the call from sectional groups for more resources which may or may not be justified. Seldom, if ever, do they ask the question about the impact on other sectors if additional scarce resources are pumped into one area over the other."

Of course the endless spin from Leinster House, the well-known tendency to answer only the question that was asked, is also an abuse of the public’s intelligence.

There is a need for reflection on both sides.

The upshot is that our elected politicians have become the town idiots, learning to take the bile with a smile. How should any sentient being respond to this tweet on Joan Burton’s disastrous #TalktoJoan venture? “I hope you die roaring you f****** c***! You look like a stroke victim ya sour oul hag! F*** off and die you horrible bitch.” It was the worst of many personally abusive comments on that thread but as any social media target knows, it is the cumulative effect that erodes the spirit.

Hate mail

The notion that only wrinkly old biddies are shocked or affected by such abuse is countered by the likes of

Ellen Pao

, chief executive of Reddit (“the front page of the internet”) who resigned last week following an avalanche of hate mail and death threats over the firing of an administrator. A lot of what she had seen in her time there had been inspirational, she said, but some had made her doubt humanity.

Following the lonely death from alcoholism of the former British Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy, commentators noted all the cheap laughs garnered by social media from his erratic Question Time performance and the gloating over his election defeat. They saw them as examples of a culture that often lacks an ounce of compassion or insight into the complexity of others' lives.

Yes, politicians – some of them – have the power to damage lives. But how are politicians formed? Who elects them? How many good, talented young people have been scared out of participation, how many existing politicians virtually silenced, by that culture? The damage inflicted on politics, and democracy, is immeasurable.

"To embrace politics as a vocation is .. . to be described as somewhat of a heroic gesture," President Michael D Higgins said a year ago. Politicians' deeds were often met, he said, by "a kind of pre-emptive cynicism", which rarely pointed to constructive alternatives but "rather... manages a fatalistic acceptance of the inevitability of the mediocre". Six months later, the head of State himself was subjected to protesters' roars of "midget parasite" and "traitor".

The fact that politicians seem to smile through it all might be viewed as admirable. But it may also be just another manifestation of their fear of doing, saying, supporting or criticising anything that might annoy anyone at all in their constituency. And that’s not good for either them or us.