Sunday Independent Stupid Statement of the Week

Fans of Mad Men may enjoy Jody Corcoran’s piece. What struck me from it was the way in which a (rather old-fashioned and patriarchal) thought is raised in what follows, but left unfinished. Regardless, it seems that we have a new group to blame for our ills. Women. Not the system of course. Absolutely not.

The unwritten story of the economic crisis is the contribution towards its cause by women; in my view it was significant.

There is a book doing the rounds, What Women Want, by Paco Underhill, a long-time student of consumer behaviour. In a passage, he marvels at the enthusiasm of women for their contemporary kitchens, in which he says a woman can wander euphorically among a showroom of gadgets, fixtures and appliances, just as a man collects his toys.

There is no doubt that capacious kitchens became all-pervasive during the Celtic Tiger boom; bigger and grander, gleaming and granite-topped, the point — and the conflict — being the freedom not to be there.

An outside expert from the world of private finance, Paul Sommerville, has some interesting things to say. I like his line about people being in an abusive relationship with the political elite. However, he also offers this up.

To break the spiral, there has to be wrenching and radical change. No half measures will do. A total overhaul of our competitiveness and the structure of our decision- making processes is required.

In this article there is no time to delve into particular policies, as to do them justice each one would need to be fleshed out. But, to give a flavour: we would need to cut the minimum wage; radically reform the benefits system; slash wages in the higher echelons of public and semi-state bodies by capping salaries; widen the tax base; lower taxes on small business; abolish numerous quangos; incentivise our non-domiciled citizens to bring their money back onshore; and cut utility prices (the current Green Party plan to raise electricity prices is a great example of how it believes in the humane treatment of animals but not the humane treatment of the taxpayer).

He talks about building a more equal Ireland from this crisis. A fine idea. But I’m not sure that programme is going to achieve it. Maybe more people being equally badly paid and miserable.

In first place, this entire piece about Johnny Ronan. All hail the Irish property developers, masters of the universe, good guys, fun-loving, and clever. Despite all evidence to the contrary.