Ireland's Government Negotiations = Nuremberg Trials Part 2

The Programme For Government

What a truth telling exercise! Unprecedented!

Speaking for myself, as storyteller, Frances Micklem: Let me reiterate that voting either way for the Green Party to enter a coalition or not is totally valid. 

What is actually important is for everyone to remember the Truths they exposed. The work that has been done has never been done before in any government in any country. All the questions have been raised about how the country is being run and how that can be changed in every sector to meet the needs of society and protect the environment. This didn't take place in a pub or a social justice forum. It took place in the halls of the Dail, with each party present with equal influence. 

Focus your imagination only on Fine Gael's contribution to those negotiations; they must have been fighting tooth and nail against climate action, against animal rights, against social housing, against clean food against public health. The only things they were 'for' were to protect the profits of damaging industries, to refuse taxation, all 'for' offering immunity and fostering relationships with those governments and industries committing crimes against humanity. Showing blatant disregard for ordinary people, let alone their habitat. 

If there is any concern about a lack of respect, in calling the Taoiseach Leo rather than Mr Varadkar, in the script, it is explained in this great Ben Harper song Excuse me, Mister. "I'm taking the Mr.
from out in front of your name, 'cause it's a Mr. like you that puts the rest of us to shame." Full lyrics at the bottom.

Just imagine if we had been watching the government negotiations on TV, all through the lockdown.

 Eamon Ryan said he wished they had recorded them and I do too.

The series could have been called: 

‘Nuremburg Trials Part 2. The Irish people representing all humanity: Victims of unethical human experiments and coerced research under National Socialism’. 

The gas chambers: supplied by Bayer Monsanto. 

Transport to concentrations camps: Animal Body Parts' Larry Goodman, Kepak, Queallys, Kerry group and Glanbia etc via the Food Industry and  

Gestapo farmers doing their bidding

A nation enslaved by poverty, illness, fear and addiction – Yes footage of all those queues at Macdonalds and Penneys would have been shown in evidence, with their complicit blindness to the people, animals and poisons in supply chains.

The negotiations would have been a gripping court drama. 

Protected Disclosure Case

Erin Brockovich (or rather the series' like-minded Irish heroine) gets up and says

I don't remember any other party going in to government demanding and negotiating for comprehensive changes like these. Yes, the final Programme For Government might be a case of controlled opposition, no one can take away the truths that have been told and the agreements that have been enshrined in the programme. 

Nazi Doctors: 

Oppression:

You are accused of racism in not supporting the Occupied Territories Bill, the historic anti-apartheid Irish Bill to ban criminal Israeli settlement products, (currently the illegal annexation, open air imprisonment, of Palestinians) that our community and tens of thousands across Ireland have fought hard for, since 2018.

Leo replies. Guilty as charged but it was Simon Coveney's idea

Pacifism and Neutrality:

Fine Gael, you are accused of being a pro-Israel lobby group in with the US government, against Europe, ensuring racists and war criminals profit from crimes committed in Palestine and the Yemen. And complicit in all the Wars where we provide the stop off for US war planes.  

Leo replies. Guilty as charged but I think that was Simon Coveney's idea too.

We have the choice, because of our Neutral status and the Lisbon treaty, not to take part in Security and Defence but you have refused both the Green Party, Fianna Fail and public will to protect Ireland's neutrality. 

Leo replies. Guilty as charged but it was Simon Coveney who got us so deep in that a year or two ago.

Ecocide: 

You are accused of avoiding climate action and any commitment to reduction in carbon emissions. Intending, instead, to put Ireland further in debt paying the fines for not taking action, under the pretext of mitigation.

Leo replies. I suppose yes, guilty as charged.

You are accused of dishonesty in your agreement with the Green Party, in your commitments to climate action outside the term of the government. You demonstrate an intention to neglect your responsibility and not honour it when the time comes.

Leo replies: Guilty as charged, I confess to even saying publicly that Fine Gael have only discussed changes for the second half of the decade because the Greens won't be in government by then.

Fraud:

You are committing fraud by giving the agricultural sector arbitrary preferential treatment in rating biogenic methane differently from other emissions, against scientific proof they are equally damaging.

Guilty as charged. I hoped voters would believe me on a trust me, I'm a doctor basis that all those pollutants and chemicals in food are safe for people and the planet.

Against the Public Narrative: 

You are increasing live exports rather than ending it. You are increasing the herd rather than reducing it. 

These should not be seen as violations that the Greens are agreeing to, as much as violations by Fine Gael that the Green Party have exposed during the negotiations. Don't shoot the messenger!

Against smaller farmers and Rural Ireland: You have not sought fair prices for farmers.

Do you confess to 100% social justice failure in your term of office?

Do you confess to pretending to meet the commitment of 20% organic through 1) making small farms go organic or not work their land at all. Meanwhile, 2) you intend to put no cap on herd numbers or feeding/housing/waste regimes in intensive farms?

Leo replies. Guilty as charged. But can I say in my defence, like I did to Paul Murphy TD in regard to the Emergency Payment: Rich people get paid for the work they do, like myself, and poor and/or rural people get paid commensurate to the useless articles they are.

Against national narrative:

You intend to keep hare coursing and greyhound industry financed.

You continue to allow fur farming.

Leo replies. Guilty as charged.

Homelessness:

You have increased homelessness to 10,000 Irish people in your last term of office.

Now you intend to sell off public land and disempower local authorities further in providing homes.

How do you plead?

Guilty as charged but those private developers have said they're going to build lots of fine homes and they are surely the best people to do it.

Perverting the Course of Justice:

You are charged with withholding evidence of Ireland's trade and security deals, how do you plead?

Leo replies: Guilty as charged and we were particularly pleased with our success in this. It was mainly achieved by Simon Coveney's brother being head of RTE so we could easily control the media.

The Verdict

Here comes the cliff hanger! 

We expect someone to stand up and say

You are going down!

The Public look forward to an apology and compensation but are maybe willing to forego retribution and incarceration.  

But no!

The court says: 'Go and settle this between yourselves' and off the 3 parties go for nearly six months' negotiations.

The Green Party have all the cards; the number of TDs needed, the plan, the values, the momentum, the public support (oh no, for some ludicrous reason we have reams of people who purport to caring about the environment, their children's futures, their community, their own health and well-being but have decided on a technicality that they won't back the Green Party in their efforts to be a political arm to that movement.)

Still, the time comes and they go back in to court. The judge delivers the verdict.

'Fine Gael you are sentenced to 5 more years Community Service in government but don't worry, you'll be like those mafia guys in prison with all the power and all the mod cons. You'll still be able to do all the things you were doing before this trial. You will be given a new license to operate under 'A coalition with Fianna Fail and The Greens'

Green Party, this was essentially a 'Protected Disclosure Case' (designed by Simon Coveney). This means that:

You will have to pay all the court costs.

You were the whistle blowers so you will be made to regret challenging the status quo.

 None of the evidence that you have exposed of Fine Gael's misspending of public money and bad practices will pass to the Public Prosecutions Office.

You will be made to sign an NDA, a non disclosure agreement, whereby you concede your votes on upcoming bills, to the coalition.

The court will let you know the costs in due course but they will include...and this is not an exhaustive list: All your hard work, votes, the environment, public health and any chance of a social economy.

These outcomes will be publicised as your fault. This will mean that no authority, legal body, industry or individual will be given or expected to take responsibility for any part of Ireland's failure to make a green transition. 

This case is closed.

-----------------------------------------------

Just to reiterate, there are valid arguments either way for the formation of a coalition. 

But don't miss the real point:

The Programme For Government tells us things the public never would have known about Fine Gael's corrupt relationships with Israel and the US, totally out of alignment with the European Union and even more out of alignment with Ireland's Neutrality and recent history of oppression ourselves. It tells us of their corrupt relationships with meat, dairy and agrochemical food industries, hospitals, technological and pharmaceutical imports and exports 

AND

 How Fine Gael stand in complete opposition to climate action, housing action, public health and the core values of every Irish citizen.

Think after you read this courtroom drama, about how Fine Gael did not put any of the preceding court proceedings in to their manifesto. 

Excuse Me Mister
Ben Harper

Excuse me Mr.
Do you have the time
Or are you so important
That it stands still for you

Excuse me Mr. won't you
Lend me your ear
Or are you not only blind
But do you not hear

Excuse me Mr., but
Is that natural oil in the sea?
And the pollution in the air Mr.
Whose could that be?

So excuse me Mr.
But I'm a mister too
And you're givin' Mr. a bad name
Mr. like you

So I'm taking the Mr.
From out in front of your name
'Cause it's a Mr. like you
That puts the rest of us to shame

It's a Mr. like you
That puts the rest of us to shame

And I've, I have seen enough, I've seen enough to know
That I've seen too much

Excuse me Mr.
Can't you see the children crying
You say that you can't help them
Mr. you're not even trying

Excuse me Mr.
Just take a look around
Oh Mr. just look up
And you will, you will see it comin' down

Excuse me Mr.
But I'm a, I'm a mister too
And you're givin' Mr. a bad name
Mr. like you

So I'm taking the Mr.
From out in front of your name
'Cause it's a Mr. like you
That puts the rest of us to shame

It's a Mr. like you
That puts the rest of us to shame

And I've seen enough, I have seen and I have seen
I have seen enough to know
That I've seen too much
I've seen enough, I have seen enough, to know that I have seen too much

See 'cause Mr. when you're rattling
On heaven's gate
Let me tell you Mr.
By then it is too late

'Cause Mr. when you get there
They don't ask, they don't ask what you saved
All they'll want to know, Mr.
Is what you gave

So excuse me Mr.
But I'm a mister too
And you're givin' Mr. a bad name
Mr. like you

So I'm taking the Mr.
From out in front of your name
'Cause it's a Mr. like you
That puts the rest of us to shame
It's a Mr. like you
That puts the rest of us to shame