It’s not often that I cheer for a politician.

I did yesterday though.

For years we have been living under the threat of water charges.  There have been huge street protests, smaller protests where meters are being installed and outright refusal to pay the fucking tax.  The logic behind the protest was simple – we already pay for our water through taxation, and this was just the Establishment trying to screw us for more, and even hiding behind the EU’s skirts in an attempt to push through the whole fiasco.

In the run up to one of our elections, the Labour Party set out its manifesto, clearly stating the aim of abolishing the water charges.  Labour got quite a few seats on the foot of this, but promptly went into coalition and immediately did a compete volte-face and announced they were in favour of the charges.  Joe Soap was not best pleased with the Labour Party and in particular its leader Joan “The Screecher” Burton.

Then one day Screecher Burton decided to give a speech or something in Jobstown which is a very deprived area and the very heartland of the Irish Water protests, so much so that they had successfully elected an anti-water charge representative.

The inevitable happened.  Screecher rolled up in her fancy chauffeur driven car along with her PA and surrounded by our illustrious police.  The protests were big and noisy.  The crowd were naturally angry.

So when she tried to leave the place, her car was surrounded and she was stuck for a while.

Now you or I would sit this out and realise that maybe we shouldn’t have ventured into injun territory, but Screecher Burton had other ideas.  You see, she was one of the Elite, the Establishment, so how dare the Peasants treat her in this fashion.  The leaders of the protest [including the elected representative] were charged with all sorts ranging from threatening behaviour, through kidnap to false imprisonment.  They dropped some of the charges, but were eventually tried for false imprisonment.

During the trial, Burton took the stand and told the court how she had “been terrified for her very life” [Aw! Get a fucking grip woman!].  She had had missiles thrown at her [a water bomb.  I hope Syria doesn’t have any of those].  She had been called names such as “bitch”, “whore” and “cunt” [OMG! How did she survive that?].  She claimed she had been “imprisoned” in her car for hours.  Quite how someone can be imprisoned by a mob when surrounded by half Dublin’s police force I don’t know, but the claim was made.

Yesterday the trial finally ended.  Not guilty on all counts.

This was a classic case of The Elite thinking they deserve special treatment.  Being stuck in a car for long periods is part of city driving for us Proletariat, but The Elite deserve to be driven from A to B with flashing sirens and all traffic being stopped to let them pass.  It was inconceivable that the Great Unwashed should prevent a minister’s freedom to go where they like, when they like.

Screecher has been remarkably silent since the verdict was announced.

Something else to celebrate.