There's a good piece in The Irish Times by Robin Wilson, Director of the Belfast-based think tank Democratic Dialogue under the above headline. The article asks if Bertie Ahern really believes in Robert Putnam's views, why has his own work followed such a different path? Why would he indicate a preference for a continued coalition with the Progressive Democrats when Michael McDowell proclaims that inequality is necessary in a capitalist society in order for incentives to prevail?
Wilson rebuts this view by citing the important work of Richard Wilkinson, a British professor of social epidemiology, whose data shows a critical link between levels of equality and people's sense of well-being. The greater the levels of inequality, the more sick and dysfunctional the society. (See this review here) The healthiest societies are not the most wealthy but they are the most equal.
Meanwhile today's papers frame yesterday's meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party and the Fine Gael - Labour event in Mullingar as the start of the campaign for the next general election. The language used suggests a fierce battle. The Irish Examiners page one lead declares:
The first volleys were fired last night in what may turn out to be the longest campaign in Irish political history when Fianna Fáil and the opposition mounted blistering attacks on each other's policies and trustworthiness.
The Irish Independent opened with "the coalition and the alternative government took the gloves off yesterday and threw the first punches of the next general election campaign. The Irish Times described Fianna Fáil and the two main opposition parties as trading "extraordinary abuse and insults in what may become the longest general election campaign in living memory". So as far as today's papers are concerned the battle lines have been drawn between two clearly identified sets of combatants.
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