I watched a bit of television last night.

Vincent Brown has this programme he calls "The People's Debate" on every week where a panel of would-be politicians set out their stalls for the next election.

Last night they were in Dun Laoire which was an old haunting ground of mine so I watched it.

The panel consisted of three hopefuls [there were supposed to be five but two chickened out].  There was Alan Shatter who is an utter cunt, Alex White, who is an ultimate cunt amongst cunts [arse-lick to Fatso Reilly and rabid anti-smoker] and Peter Mathews who I used to admire up until the point where he declared himself to be an anti-abortionist.

The programme itself was a bit of a pain to watch.  There were advertisement breaks every five minutes and at one point they came back after a break and jumped straight into a repeat of the previous block without anyone apparently noticing it, but then that's TV3 for you.

The programme was a tooth grinder from start to finish.  It started with each of the three making a sympathy statement about those students who were killed in Berkley.  I cannot abide anyone trying to make political capital out of anyone's misfortunes.  They may think it shows them as being "in touch with the people" and sympathetic and all that shit but they just come across as cynical opportunists.  And any politician who turns up at a funeral should be buried along with the coffin.

At one point near the beginning, White was trying to brag about his achievements in office and bragged how he himself had opened two new schools in his constituency.  For one thing, he didn't build those schools himself so there is no credit there, and what the fuck was he doing at the opening ceremony?  He isn't paid to open schools so he is once again wasting tax payers' money.  But then Dame Enda is never seen in this country either, unless he is opening something or announcing new jobs in some company or other.  If you want to see a politician in this country, just let them know there'll be a camera there.

When asked why they should be reelected both Shatter and White both gave the nauseating reason that if they hadn't been "in power" over the current term that we would now be in the same boat as Greece.  Time and time again we heard how the gubmint "saved" us and that it's thanks to them that we are booming again.  When it was pointed out that we still had massive poverty problems and that the vast majority had seen little or no sign of recovery, their answer was that we had an excellent credit rating on the money lending market.  I'm sure that's a great comfort to all those who are homeless or out of work?

One of the best speeches came from a bloke in the audience who pointed out that we have never had a proper honest government since the founding of the state that was of the people, for the people and by the people.

[You can find his little speech here at 57:33]

He was spot on.

What we have is government of the people, by the mendacious power grabbers, for the elite.

And you wonder why I don't vote?