Mary Kenny“the economics of the market are not the be-all and the end-all”, writes Mary Kenny
Economics and progress are important elements of everyday life – when you have no money, or are worried stiff about bills, you come to understand that – but they are not the whole of life, and political decisions should sometimes factor in other dimensions.
As the great Edmund Burke said, society is made up of communities of people, of churches and voluntary associations, of families and clubs and, he added, of the dead and the unborn bringing continuity, trust and social investment to a nation. (How Burke would have appreciated the GAA’s terrific community role in Irish society.)
Markets are a reality, yes: anyone who has ever had to sell a heifer grasps the principle of supply and demand.
But the economics of the market are not the be-all and the end-all.
There could hardly be a better illustration of this than the current controversy over An Post. It’s surely lamentable that the Government is arranging for social welfare payments to be transmitted electronically through banks in the future, thus depriving the post office network of the business, and prompting more local post office closures.
Maybe electronic transfer to banks is more economically ‘efficient’, and maybe some recipients would prefer the banking option. But think of what is lost: the social interaction of a visit to the post office, especially in a rural area: the useful services that a post office provides for marginalised people, who are not able to have a bank account without a fixed address: the ancillary services provided by the P.O. – not only mail and parcels, but the social contact involved, which can be an alleviation of loneliness and a watch on crime in some areas.
Public trust
And it’s not as though people don’t use the post office. They do. It’s just that the Government has decided that it’s more convenient to transmit the business to the banks. Even though the public trust in banks is markedly lower than their trust in An Post.
In times gone by, the local postmistress in any townland or village knew pretty well everything that was going on locally. Some folk would say she knew too much – she’d have a track on phone calls as well as the post. But there is usefulness in a certain degree of vigilance and anyway, what do we have instead, nowadays? CCTV. The panopoly of security services.
I hope someone will produce a lapel button saying “Yes to our Post Offices”, in imitation of the effective “Yes to Equality” badges during the same-sex marriage referendum. But then there was financial support behind that campaign in a way, I fear, that cannot be matched for the vital cause of saving the post office network.
Drinking alcohol during pregnancy
I’m uneasy about the medical advice being handed out practically forbidding women from drinking alcohol during pregnancy.
First of all, it’s the usual case of applying hard cases to the average, more moderate majority. Of course it’s dangerous to drink excessively in pregnancy – but most women don’t. Indeed, for many women, the very smell of liquor becomes repugnant during pregnancy – wine turned to vinegar in my mouth in pregnancy and I could not down more than a spoonful. Nature takes care of its own.
Secondly, and perhaps significantly, I suspect that the ‘no alcohol in pregnancy’ rule is part of an agenda of planned parenting. I don’t mean, here, the organisation Planned Parenthood, but the ideology that every aspect of conception and procreation must be ‘planned’ – and therefore absolutely perfect.
There must be no ‘accidents’ of birth. Every pregnancy and every child must be carefully planned and ‘chosen’, every pregnancy must be controlled medically, and every pregnant woman must show that she is complying with these standards. If she does anything out of line, better to terminate the pregnancy.
Thirdly, it’s another way of making women feel guilty about motherhood. Instead of women feeling, as they’re entitled to, that pregnancy is perfectly natural.
And fourthly: French doctors have maintained that a small amount of red wine daily is actually good for mother and baby, as it contains iron. Most women won’t want to drink much, but if mothers want the odd glass of Burgundy, the French medics, at least, will not scold them!
Euclidean geometry is still all Greek to me
The appearance of Euclid Tsakalotos onto the stage of European politics – as the new Greek finance minister – is a delightful reminder of the name Euclid. I didn’t know that Euclid could be a forename – it cannot be a ‘Christian name’, as the original geometry chap was of course pre-Christian.
Euclid’s name will bring many senior citizens back to the classroom, chanting “the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other side”. Have I got that right? I never really knew what it meant, by the way!