Politics – Shush! The great unwashed will hear you

Curtailing debate in a democracy is dangerous.

That the supposed bastion of local democracy – Galway City Council – is the one shutting down debate is even more worrying.

City Councillors were gagged at the most recent meeting when they were supposed to discuss the Local Property Tax (LPT).

No can do, they were told by officials. Elected members can’t be discussing LPT because there is a public consultation underway and by talking about it, they might prejudice what the rest of us think about it.

The stench of bulls**t in the Council chamber was unbearable when that line was trotted out by officials. It’s so ludicrous you couldn’t make it up.

Do they actually think anything that’s said at City Hall about LPT is going to make homeowners any more or less amenable to paying it?

The Council used to be derided as a talking shop – but now its members aren’t even allowed talk.

Worse still, the Gombeens in the ruling pact, who later this year on the advice of officials are going to vote down any attempt by Sinn Féin to lower the property tax by 15%, are the same ones who voted against an attempt by the unlikely alliance of Catherine Connolly (Ind) and Michael John Crowe (FF) to proceed with the debate.

The LPT cheerleaders in Fine Gael, Labour and former PDs are democrats when it suits them. They stay schtum when it doesn’t . . . And when the chief executive tells them to. That’s democracy, folks, Galway-schtyle!

Also in Bradley Bytes in this week’s Sentinel…

• Tir gan teanga
• Politicians aren’t all the same
• Fidelma and the bubbly

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