A volley of invective sent to the Irish Examiner recently:

Dear Sir

While reading, with increasing alarm, your article about the licence to print money which is the new, untested swine flu vaccine it occurred to me that the principle behind everything Fianna Fail have ever done or will ever do is indemnity for their rampant greed: indemnity for vaccine makers who will make a fortune out of a rushed and risky product; legal and financial indemnity for decades of appalling physical, psychological and sexual abuse against children; indemnity against the mindless, craven give away of our natural resources; indemnity for fraudsters; indemnity for corrupt politicians; retrospective and wildly speculative(NAMA)financial indemnity for failed bankers and developers; indemnity for wreckless speculation on the financial markets; indemnity for environmental destruction and neglect of every sort and indemnity for pervasive, systemic maladministration and waste.  Fianna Fail have, over the last two decades, legislated the most comprehensive cowboys’ charter ever dreamed up – the crowning achievement of their Celtic Tiger years. More than the politicians and their backers however, it is the voters who created the opportunities for them to do this who carry most of the responsibility. Those who did not lose their heads and could see where all the madness was inevitably leading us were shouted down, ridiculed and frequently bullied and victimsed – even offered the option of suicide by our then Taoiseach, whose own personal fundamentals have since turned out to be something less than ‘sound’.  How can a person with a shred of integrity or sense of fairness bear to be publicly or privately associated with such a party?  How can these citizens look at the devastation their votes have caused this country – to their children’s futures, to the withering education and health systems, to the struggling and dying businesses throughout the country, to their unemployed family members, neighbours and friends and not feel appalled and ashamed?  Whichever party or parties form the next government (please, God, let it be sometime very soon)take note: if we elect you, it will be on the back of a firm and non-negotiable demand that you will destroy this profoundly undemocratic and destructive culture of indemnity.
Yours sincerely
Miriam Cotton