The IMF are here

It's only a week since I wrote my previous blog post, and depressingly it seems like its already far out-dated. In that post I wrote how the Government had denyed everything that has happened thus far in the recession – however, even in my most cynical of minds I never thought that they would try and deny that an EU/IMF bail-out was taking place when it actually was. But no, that realisation was confirmed on the radio yesterday morning by the Governer of the Central Bank Patrick Honohan – that's right, not our elected leaders, but an unelected (if decent) civil servant.

The most depressing thing about this bail-out for me is that I've had to try and piece together what's happening from a different country, with the Internet as my only tool. I saw on the BBC website that Ireland was negotiating a bail-out, while at the same time RTE were denying the story. It appears that this citizen living hundreds of miles from Dublin is perhaps even better informed than a person actually living in the country ! But I can't get away from this story – it is in the front pages of French papers as well. I even had a French friend today mocking me about it, saying that they'll be the ones bailing us out. I couldn't even argue with her. It's interesting to note that it's almost exactly a year since the Thierry Henry hand-ball incident – how our priorities have changed since then.

When I left Ireland at the start of September for my year abroad on Erasmus I never thought in my worst nightmares that we would end up at this stage. Sure things were bad, but I still remembered the heady days of the Celtic Tiger and thought that there was no way would we end up like Greece or Iceland. Previously, I thought that the IMF was a hypothetical tool that was used by neo-liberal puppets to call for more cuts to social welfare, health, education etc. Now they are here, occupying the Central bank for negotiations. It's only since I've come and lived in a foreign country that I've seriously thought about the future and the possibility of emigration. It's now looking like emigration is a probability.

Look, I fully expect people to fuck up – its a natural human trait to make mistakes. Sure my party Labour have made a bundle, from entering government with Fianna Fail in 1992, to the Mullingar Accord in 2007, and promising to cut taxes in that election. However, what I cannot stand from this government is that they make mistake after mistake after mistake and deny all responsability. Even worse, they deny that they have made any mistake in the first place! The lies, spin, deceit and downright treachery displayed from this Government in the last few weeks has surprised me, when I thought I couldn't be surprised by anything FF did anymore. In this crisis we have heard FF lay blame on everyone but themselves - Lehman brothers, independent economists like McWilliams and Morgan Kelly, the media. It appears that the public aren't buying it anymore – I think we saw the start of this on Primetime last night with Pat Rabbite's passionate tirade against Pat Carey, and Fianna Fail in general. Everyone on Twitter, Facebook and forums seemed to agree that Rabitte spoke for every citizen of this country last night – the anger was palpable. It seems like we are mad as hell and not going to take it any more. I'll gladly bring the French fighting spirit when the protests properly start.