Sunday and other stupid statements from this week

By guestposter on June 30, 2024

All examples and contributions welcome.

The Business Post starts with this today:

Fine Gael now largest party as Fianna Fáil jumps four points

It's the party that has the greatest support in a poll.

Given the photograph accompanying this commentary you'd have to wonder what the person who wrote it is talking about after the out pouring of sympathy and anger at the sentencing of Natasha O'Brien. But no, apparently the 'left' are to blame: "Hand-wringing leftists are in the business of making excuses for thugs. If you want to see an end to leniency in sentencing do not trust the populists one bit. They're all about hard-luck stories and blaming society for every ill"

Someone suggests that the narrative of a 'Broken Britain' is wide of the mark and that in fact Britain is a haven of stability and 'centrism'. Does that sound complacent and detached from reality? Yes.

The point is that there are scandals – partygate, the betting scandal – which are fun to watch but don't mean much. And there are crises – the NHS, the cost of living, the crumbling public services – that are serious but not existential and not unresolvable. And then there is the system: in Britain that is first past the post, essentially a two-party system, that transfers powers peacefully and usually in slow cycles. One that keeps radicals at the gates – neither Farage nor Corbyn got the keys to Number 10 – and the politics largely cohering around the centre. In Britain the structure entrenches stability, no matter the scandal and crises that swirl around it.