Headless tiger stalks Charlie's circus
By Meadbh Gallagher
`They seek him here, they seek him there, Le Tigre Vert'. Pardon
my French, but that is what the elusive Celtic Tiger is called in
the Paris papers.
You might be sick to death of hearing about him, but he is having
a good run of it across Europe. And like all great Irish myths
and legends, this one's set to run and run.
Last week's Great Giveaway Show south of the border hosted by
Charlie McCreevy added to the myth-building.
Charlie's media friends now call him Buttons because he kept such
a tight lip on things before Budget day. I'd call him Buttons
because that's all he gave to half the population. All he did was
feed the tiger.
Yet the media pundits fell over themselves to cheer on the
circus. Amidst the din, the voices of the official left sounded
subdued and peeved that they weren't there to do the same
themselves.
A freshly recruited cheerleader was Moore McDowell, an economics
lecturer who fronts the Adam Smith Institute in Ireland. He was
brought on to award nine and a half marks out of ten to Charlie
for ``a set of changes of which Mrs Thatcher would approve''.
Indeed. That large parts of England and most of Scotland and
Wales were devastated by Thatcher's rampage doesn't matter. It
seems we are to be forced to relive in Ireland the feeding frenzy
for the few that left a third of Britain's population wasted.
McDowell also gave McCreevy an A ``for standing up to the
do-gooders''. In Thatcher's years, the charities were patronised
on to their knees while her bootboys beat the people they served
senseless with the message to stop griping and get on their
bikes. It was easy.
That's why it's bad when it's left to the do-gooders to carry the
voice of opposition. Yet the two-thirds/one-third society that
Britain ended up with is exactly where the 26 county economy is
heading. And it was largely left to the do-gooders to point this
out.
It was the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI), the St
Vincent de Paul and Sister Stan of Focus Point who came out most
strongly against McCreevy's pickings.
Charlie's tax cuts will be of no benefit to almost 40% of the
population. The percentage of net government social welfare
payments has actually decreased in recent years even though the
number of social welfare recipients has increased.
Contrary to popular belief, the highest earners in Ireland pay
less tax than virtually anywhere else in Europe. And while
Charlie made them pay even less, Vincent de Paul announced it
would have to help at least 80,000 people in Dublin alone this
Christmas.
But little facts like that have not been allowed to get in the
way of the booming myth.
We all knew the emperor had no clothes when he paraded himself
about the place, but are we really now being asked to believe
we're seeing a tiger? Have you seen one in Donegal, in Cavan, in
Kerry - never mind beyond the shopping mall of Donegall Street?
The only tiger I've seen prancing around these parts was a
headless one. Headless. A piece of striped cloth blowing about
the pace full of hot air. Some day it will burst and make a good
cheap rug for the multinationals to walk all over.
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