The Irish Greens have just pulled the plug on the Irish government, forcing an election in January. Its about time. Faced with the challenge of the global financial crisis, the Irish government has done the wrong thing at every turn - bailing out the banks on insanely generous terms, refusing to raise corporate taxes to make companies pay their fair share, and imposing vicious cuts which drove the economy even further into recession. And now, as a result of that mismanagement, they're having to be bailed out by the EU. Which is better than the IMF, but is still going to mean another round of cuts and more suffering. Meanwhile, the criminal bankers who caused this mess in the first place have fled the scene, pockets full of bailout money.
People are angry - last night a group even attempted to storm the Dail. I don't blame them. Their politicians are corrupt fools who have driven them to bankruptcy and given them a future of debt. They'll pay for that at the ballot box, but its not enough. The politicians will simply lose their jobs. Their victims will lose their homes and their livelihoods to the recession, and their children to emigration.
