Aer Lingus

The government may well have signed its own electoral death warrant this week by deciding to privitise Aer Lingus. It is not that they are wrong to privitise it, but they should have done it 4 years ago.

The state will retain 25.1% and an Employee Share Ownership Programme will get XY% but the important percentages will be the swing in votes against the government in constituencies where there is a strong ‘airport vote’ They are already in trouble in some of those anyway, and unless they offer the unions major concessions – ‘sell out’ is the technical term – they will be hit at the polls.

They knew this was coming for years – EU rules restrict state funding to national airlines, fuel prices have been hammering costs and the airline has struggled through a series of crises over the past decade. They also knew it would hurt electorally in as many as 5 consituencies, and remind everyone who bought shares in Eircom that they lost money in that privitisation. Here is a hint – Do not remind people how much you cost them in the run into an election.

That error of timing is a clear sign that they need a spell in opposition. Ever since 1927, Fianna Fail have prided themselves on their political skill – it is why they have spent 18 of the past 20 years in government. They dodged the issue of selling it off for the past 4 years, which is typical of the lack of foresight of politicans, and now they lack the political brass neck to postpone it until after the election. The opposition has nothing to reccomend it, apart form being ‘the other crowd’; indeed the ‘Rainbow’ might be just as bad as ‘this crowd’. Yet again we face an election where we get to vote for the lesser of two mediocrities.