What's the difference between the UK and the Irish Republic?

Well two days before St Patrick's Day when all Irish, including the diaspora, celebrate the national day, rather startling news from Ireland, which is no surprise at all to those of us who warned about this. The Irish Times today reports that levels of unemployment in the Republic have shot up to 14.7%. This despite the fact that 150 people per day are leaving the country. Can you imagine what the level would be if they stayed? Many people remember the old joke from two years ago before Ireland really tasted the bitter medicine, compliments of the European Central Bank and a discredited government, what's the difference between Ireland and Iceland? Answer: one letter and six months. But there has been another joke doing the rounds now for the last year. What is the difference between Ireland and the UK? Answer: two years.

This is a sobering thought that the economic policies being pursued by the coalition government here - cuts, austerity, devastation of public services, are precisely what the Irish government has been pursuing for more than two years. The results we are witnessing in Ireland will be almost exactly the same here - mounting unemployment, increasing poverty and economic depression. Seamus Milne drew this conclusion in a stark article in the Guardian last week. But the 'Coalition of the Clueless' currently running UK Plc will continue on their ideological mission steering the country and its economy towards the black hole. This is why it is essential that as many of us as possible march on March 26th on the TUC march against the cuts. The alternative is waking up soon with an Irish style hangover and not just for St Patrick's Day but for years to come.