Initially, I was going to write to you in response
to Justin Moran's letter,
in which he criticises Anthony McIntyre for not mentioning
the Sinn Fein people who went to prison. I was going
to say to Justin, that McIntyre went to a leftist
event and gave the readers his take on it and was
not leaving out anyone deliberately. The Andersonstown
News which makes no apology for being a Sinn Fein
party paper did not cover the events or the story
of the bin tax at all as far as I am aware. For them
it was a non event.
However, now that Anthony McIntyre has had this
interview with Cieran Perry the attitude of Sinn
Fein speaks for itself. They are all over the place
on this issue, is Mr. Perrys' opinion. How right he
is, and not only are they all over the place on this
issue, but on all of their issues.
I watched the Late Late Show about two weeks ago and
the attitude of the audience reflected Mr Perry's
opinion. Working class people in Dublin and the Republic
generally are fed up with having to pay more than
their fair share, to a government that has no problem
giving themselves generous salaries. One thousand
pounds per week is paid to Mary McAleese alone! Bertie
Ahern is paid more money than Tony Blair!
Tonight, on RTE news I was really aghast at the fact
that class room assistants for special needs children
will be cut by 30%. In the Republic school psychologists
have long waiting lists of over one year, and day
centres for the mentally handicapped and elderly are
practically non existent. Elderly parents of mentally
handicapped people have to look after their adult
children and receive hardly any financial support
from the state. These mentally retarded people sit
at home all day because there is no day centres to
look after them. We witnessed terrible scenes on television
during the last strike by day care staff!
I am glad to see that working class people themselves
are taking this issue on, and it is the political
parties who are looking to jump on to the band wagon.
Lets hope and pray the ordinary people keep control
of it and not loose it to opportunistic politicians.
I don't think Mr. Adams is worried to much about the
bin tax as he is over in America again, he is more
over there than here. I live in his constituency and
I have not seen him around in years.
I really enjoyed reading the interview as it was the
opinion of someone who was involved at a deep level.
Lets hope the working class people in the Republic
are successful in overthrowing this unjust tax!
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