On 23 November 2010 14:36, james.mcboyle <james.mcboyle at gmail.com> wrote:
> Political change has to start somewhere, and here and now are always
> the best time and place.
Indeed, but the last ten years of my life going into the DoJ and
arguing with Ministers and TDs and watching two major Bills go from
consideration to statutes (with chunks of them initially written by
me) tells me that while here and now might be the best time and place,
it doesn't mean that you're going to get considered here and now.
It would be like me saying that we shouldn't vote for any TD who's not
going to support the licencing of centerfire pistols for target
shooters. It's a genuine issue for a few hundred people, and it does
represent a decent amount of cash in tourism from running
international matches, in VAT and licence fees from competitors, and
so on; but the odds of it getting five minutes on any TD or Minister's
schedule in the next few weeks would be around about zero.
Political change has to start somewhere - but that doesn't mean it is
inevitable or that it *has* to be done. And if you run at it in a very
naive fashion - and I'm speaking from bitter experience in the last
decade - you wind up in a far worse place than you start out from.
--
Mark Dennehy
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