Sunday Independent Stupid Statement of the Week

Perhaps it was the Christmas shopping; or perhaps their efforts have exhausted them this year; but there’s a definite feeling that most of the columnists weren’t even trying this week, but their natural tendencies ensure our regular feature can continue.

Ruth Dudley Edwards gives another masterclass in the profoundly trivial, with an extremely bizarre list of reasons to be cheerful. Including such gems as this

Unlike the unfortunate asylum seekers and economic migrants risking their lives, we have innumerable countries that will take us in. What’s more, with computers, Skype and cheap flights, families can keep in touch.

Eilis O’Hanlon, as usual, completely misses the point

That message is particularly relevant at a time when so many people seem to be, for want of a more delicate phrase, getting their rocks off on the recession. You know the type. They’re the ones who said that Ireland had lost its soul during the Celtic Tiger years and that a slowing down of growth would do us all the power of good. Well, they got their wish. Now it’s come, far from being humbled into admitting they were nothing but pretentious snobs who didn’t like the sight of oiks with too much money, they’ve simply got a new hobby, which is rubbing their hands in liberal glee at the sight of so much misery. It’s all led to the development of a new poverty porn in the media, characterised by lovingly detailed accounts of the hardships of the poor in post- Budget Ireland.

And we will finish with Willie O’Dea. A farcical note to end a farcial year under the guidance of a farcical political elite of which he is such a shining example.

We will, in the years ahead, look back at the EU/IMF deal as a significant and pivotal moment in our political and economic history. I suspect that we will look back upon it as the moment when our economic and social fortunes started to turn, and may even come to regard it as a positive development.

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