Post sent by Desmond O’Toole – Dublin

Two hundred anxious and angry people met in a hotel in Dublin last Saturday (21st February) at a seminar sponsored by the PES and the Irish Labour Party. They were Labour members and trade union activists from across Ireland who had come together to discuss the “State of the [Irish] Nation.” In a few short months Irish people have seen the Celtic Tiger become the Celtic Mouse. A once vibrant and self-confident economy has been brought to its knees by reckless banking and political corruption. Ireland is now a place of fear – for jobs, for mortgages and for just meeting everyday needs.

The seminar was opened by Eamon Gilmore TD, the leader of Labour in Ireland, who condemned the incompetence of the conservative government that had presided over this catastrophe and also their slash-and-burn solutions to the crisis of driving down wages and cutting public services. Eamon demanded a better way with better thinking that put people first and depended on solidarity between all Irish people and with our partners in Europe.

The seminar then heard from a selection of economists. Intelligent people, no doubt, steeped in the discipline of counting numbers and speculating about markets, but who, with their differing analyses, proved the maxim that you can lay all the economists in the world end-to-end and they still wouldn’t reach a conclusion! They all did agree that the Irish economy is facing a meltdown of unprecedented proportions. The solutions of the majority of these economists, however, perpetuated the same failed perspective that had brought the Irish economy to its knees …. cutbacks in public services, cuts in wages and rapid deflation.

Sanity, and indeed hope, was restored by two politicians who have shown strong and persuasive leadership during this crisis: Joan Burton TD, Deputy Leader of Irish Labour, and Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. Joan made the important point that we could not afford to follow the path of deflation as they have done in Japan. That led to a “lost decade” for the Japanese. We could not afford a “lost decade” here in Ireland. Much better to follow the example of Scandinavian policy-makers and use the state to drive reform, to provide solidarity with those displaced by recession and to positively manage our way out of this crisis.

Then Poul spoke. He had flown in from Denmark that morning and was returning immediately after the seminar. A tiring journey, but one much appreciated by his audience. Poul took the bull by the horns. Like Joan Burton, Poul is credible, personal, direct and honest with his audience. This is Poul’s way with people and Dublin warmed to him. We have to do eight things Poul said, counting them off on his fingers:

1. Clean up the Irish banks.
2. Show solidarity between EU member states by issuing eurobonds that will bring down the cost of Irish government borrowing.
3. Use EU funds to keep people in work by paying for the training of those placed on short-time working or laid off.
4. Create a regulatory regime that is transparent, international and includes all financial actors.
5. Bring stability to people’s pension funds and use these assets to finance long-term, sustainable economic investment.
6. Defend the rights of working people across Europe and demand that these rights are respected.
7. Address the scandal of tax-havens and liberate the funds they contain to finance growth in the world economy.
8. Create and deliver a recovery plan for jobs that leverages pan-European solidarity.

This was the alternative narrative that we were waiting to hear. It was convincing, direct and carried a message of hope. Astonishingly for a Dublin audience we all rose to our feet and delivered an enthusiastic standing ovation for Poul. This is why the PES is different. This is why we are worthy of the people’s trust. The hope we offer is not blind optimism. It’s not a case of whistling as we pass the graveyard. The hope we offer is rooted in an intelligent, reasoned understanding of the nature of the crisis we are facing. It is rooted in the belief that solidarity between people and a commitment to use the enabling power of the State and its resources can help us manage our way out of this mess.

We are not some flotsam tossed about on the stormy waves of international markets. We can, if we choose, become masters of our own futures. Poul and Joan exemplify this alternative narrative. In Dublin, last weekend, we were able to replace anxiety with confidence, fear with hope and submission to anonymous market forces with belief in ourselves and in each other.

Further to my post yesterday on dubious stories about the EU, Open Europe has recently launched a paper called ‘Out Of Control’ which focuses on the costs of EU regulation.It of course produces some juicy statistics which they know the right-wing papers will eat up, but much of their research is flawed.The European Movement has published my own briefing on regulation and Open Europe’s claims,

«Le ragioni di Beppino Englaro, padre di Eluana, sono condivisibili, legittime e piene di buon senso. Nessuno più di lui, ad ogni modo, ne sta oggi sopportando il doloroso peso delle conseguenze.» E’ questa la precisa opinione di Luciano G. Calì, Segretario toscano del Partito Socialdemocratico in merito ai recenti fatti di Udine.

«È bene ricordare che Eluana non era in coma, condizione nella quale l’attività cerebrale superiore è solo sospesa ed, in alcuni casi, può essere ristabilita. Essa era piuttosto in stato vegetativo persistente, situazione ben più grave, dovuta ad un danno irreversibile delle strutture nervose, in particolar modo della corteccia cerebrale, che sottendono alle attività mentali, alla coscienza, ed alla personalità. Il suo organismo, da oltre diciassette anni, conservava solamente le attività vegetative, come il ritmo sonno-veglia, le attività ormonali e le funzioni viscerali. Per Eluana si è però giunti a parlare persino di una sorta di disabilità, notevole ma non necessariamente definitiva; oppure di fragilità; nel senso che chi si trovi in SVP sarebbe solo un essere più fragile degli altri, e per questo bisognoso di maggiore assistenza. La morte della povera donna fa parlare a sproposito di eutanasia, se non di un vero e proprio programma di eliminazione di malati e disabili, senza badare al fatto che, assai più semplicemente, la vita della persona Eluana era già finita tragicamente a seguito dell’incidente automobilistico avvenuto ben diciassette anni fa. Si dimentica la denuncia dell’accanimento terapeutico e non si vede invece quanto accanimento vi sia stato nelle piazze, nei cortei, nelle prediche e nelle bottiglie d’acqua offerte ad Eluana. 

Per una volta, da socialdemocratici, laici e fermi sostenitori di una chiara iniziativa di legge in favore del testamento biologico, non possiamo che essere d’accordo con le parole espresse dal Senatore Andreotti: «tutti dovrebbero fare un passo indietro di fronte al dolore della famiglia Englaro. Ci sono vicende nelle quali la politica deve fermarsi sulla soglia di casa delle persone. Abbiamo a che fare con una famiglia già duramente provata da una tragedia e nessuno può arrogarsi il diritto di decidere d’imperio.» 

Per tutte queste ragioni il PSDI si è mobilitato, in Toscana come in tante altre regioni d’Italia, avendo ben chiari i principi di laicità e di libertà delle coscienze che, da quanto è possibile dedurre dai sondaggi, sono condivisi dalla stragrande maggioranza degli italiani.

First, Bruno Waterfield, Telegraph correspondent in Brussels, fills in a lull in interesting stories coming his way, by reporting that “MEPs” want to build a swimming pool in the parliament at taxpayers’ expense. Never mind that the idea has already been rejected bt the Parliament’s bureau. It is sufficient that one French Green party member continues to support it, for Bruno to generate his