Ireland is brilliant at sport We are brilliant at music We are brilliant in industry But we are woeful at politics. Just as, professional sport-stars start in local clubs, musicians in local pubs and founders from local enterprise hubs…..so too should politicians… “All politics is local” the famous maxim But over the last two decades, we have systematically stripped our local councillors of real power and purpose. They are now nothing more than messengers of doom, managing fallout of awful Govt policy. Not allowed to make any meaningful decisions. Parties that claim to stand for democracy won’t even let councillors nominate freely. I believe in Irish exceptionalism. We need a new movement, not necessarily a new party, but a new mindset, that empowers local representatives to: 1. Make real decisions for their communities 2. Reject tokenism 3. Demand reforms that restore power to local govt 4. Speak up… even when it means going against their own party leadership. If we want better national politics, we must fix local politics.

Posted by Fred Bassett