Taxing times for the powers that be

These are rough times. Politicians and pundits keep telling us our living standards will fall by ten per cent and more. Tax has just about gone through the roof. A lot of people are angry and frustrated. Not everybody got fat riding the Celtic Tiger. Most just carried on. Sure, there was more money in their pockets but everything was dearer as well.

As they survey their options, the Government would do well to remember five anniversaries.
The first is of the introduction of the poll tax twenty years ago this month, on April 1st 1989, by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government (the template for the PDs).
This was a ‘fixed tax’ to pay for local government. It was levied on everyone, except the very poor. The idea was that everyone used things like roads, so why should anyone be exempt from paying for them?
Well, Ireland in 2009 reminds older people of the UK in the 1980s. A tax-hungry Government would do well to remember what followed. It was perceived to be unfair and deeply unpopular (We won’t pay the poll tax, we won’t pay the poll tax, na na na na, na na na na…) and the widespread unrest led to the overthrow of Margaret Thatcher.
The second anniversary comes from 60 years ago. On April 18th 1949 Ireland, the Republic that is, formally expressed its independence and withdrew from the British Commonwealth.
Some people don’t know what that means, and in truth, quite a lot of our high streets are indistinguishable from their UK counterparts. Likewise, there is substantial penetration of the Irish market by UK media to such an extent that the Irish Times recently devoted a third of a page to an obituary of the British reality TV ‘celebrity’ Jade Goody.
But that declaration sixty years ago was about taking charge of our own destiny. It was a difficult and dangerous choice, maybe even foolhardy, but it was optimistic and brave as well.
We have gone through a series of ups and downs in the meantime – the post war austerity, the lean years of the 1950s, the oil-crisis recession of the 1970s and 1980s…
But we’ve done well too, and in these desperate times, we need to remember what independence means and how solidarity pulled us through hard times and into the sun. That solidarity has been in short supply these last months, as has optimism and generosity, replaced by pointing fingers and vicious collective self-deprecation.
In our own welter of rage, we are losing sight of the world outside. We seem unable to see that everything is changing out there.
The unregulated market-driven capitalism unleashed by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher (elected Prime Minister thirty years ago next month) has crumbled. It hasn’t been admitted yet, but it’s on the way out here too.
Across Europe and the USA, a different economic order is emerging. New philosophical notes are being heard, more emphasis on responsibility, regulation, financial prudence and social solidarity.
The third anniversary goes back to Assisi in Italy 800 years ago this month when Francesco di Pietro di Bernardone founded his order of monks, now known as Franciscans.
The Hog is not religious but that doesn’t preclude him acknowledging the good things done by those who are. Francesco was the son of a well-to-do businessman who renounced the wealth-obsessed world to dedicate himself to the poor and preach repentance.
Well, a lot of people in financial and construction circles made many millions out of wild speculation and greed, and some repentance would do them no harm at all. Neither would turning their hands to help the detached and marginalised who, to borrow a phrase, are always with us.
To move onwards, of course, we must remember that we haven’t lost our skills and capacities. Despite what you might think from listening to any given radio station or reading economic commentators, we haven’t become stupid overnight.
The fourth anniversary is the launch of the Ford Mustang forty five years ago. Henry Ford was part of the diaspora. His ancestral home was in Cork and he maintained a strong link with the area. A lot of people worked for Ford over the years.
Of course, they didn’t make Mustangs, which is a pity. A great, raucous gas-guzzling roadster, this isn’t a very green anniversary I’ll admit. Yes, it smacks of deregulation and highway freedom but this was a car with attitude! Infused with the mood of the ‘60s, it’s no surprise to find it threaded through rock ‘n’ roll music.
Ah yes, the music. Well, that brings us to the fifth anniversary – thirty years ago this month, U2 bestrode the stage in the Dandelion Market. The band had emerged out of a period of economic depression, just like we are in now. And, in the spirit of the declaration of 1949, they decided they wouldn’t leave for London but would take on the world from Ireland…
We’re at a fork in the road, and we’re going to have to take it. Bad things like rage, poll taxes and deregulation or good things like attitude, independence, humility, social solidarity, innovation, networking and creativity. Which way we go is our choice to make. Let’s make it the right one…