Democracy
The Irish Examiner today quotes Eithne Fitzgerald at the Mahon Planning Tribunal yesterday, where she said:
"Dublin County Council conducted the business developers wanted done rather than being driven by regard for the wellbeing of the people".
This seems to be the norm nowadays.The idea that our public representatives are there to represent us and enforce laws and regulations for the betterment of society , seems to be a naive view.The notion of democracy , i.e. government by the many, seems to have fallen by the wayside as our so-called representatives spend more time with builders' lobbyists than they do asking how they can help the little guy, or actually doing their job.
We, the electorate , are to blame.We vote every 5 years or so, then hand over all responsibility to the TDs, who hand over all responsibilty to the government.Every act then undertaken by cabinet is rubberstamped by a compliant backbenchers.TDs trot through the lobbies, voting for the government, rarely consulting their constituents on how they should vote.When was the last time your TD asked you how he or she should vote on an issue ?
Existing paraliamentary procedure is archaic in these days of electronic mass communication. We perpetuate the old ways of doing things , too busy to take an interest ourselves.Then we blame the politicians when we don't get what we want.
It doesn't help that there is virtually no choice at election time.FF versus FG, with Labour making up the numbers.As if Fianna Fáil actually differed from Fine Gael on anything substantive.Looks like we will be stuck with this lot for the foreseeable future.
"Dublin County Council conducted the business developers wanted done rather than being driven by regard for the wellbeing of the people".
This seems to be the norm nowadays.The idea that our public representatives are there to represent us and enforce laws and regulations for the betterment of society , seems to be a naive view.The notion of democracy , i.e. government by the many, seems to have fallen by the wayside as our so-called representatives spend more time with builders' lobbyists than they do asking how they can help the little guy, or actually doing their job.
We, the electorate , are to blame.We vote every 5 years or so, then hand over all responsibility to the TDs, who hand over all responsibilty to the government.Every act then undertaken by cabinet is rubberstamped by a compliant backbenchers.TDs trot through the lobbies, voting for the government, rarely consulting their constituents on how they should vote.When was the last time your TD asked you how he or she should vote on an issue ?
Existing paraliamentary procedure is archaic in these days of electronic mass communication. We perpetuate the old ways of doing things , too busy to take an interest ourselves.Then we blame the politicians when we don't get what we want.
It doesn't help that there is virtually no choice at election time.FF versus FG, with Labour making up the numbers.As if Fianna Fáil actually differed from Fine Gael on anything substantive.Looks like we will be stuck with this lot for the foreseeable future.
posted by Brendan at 1:45 p.m.
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