A wise man once said: “Some things in life are bad. They can really make you mad. Other things just make you swear and curse.” This one is probably of the swear and curse variety. Seems that the upcoming G-8 summit is being held in a little Northern Ireland town that has been particularly hard hit by the depression. Not to worry, our lords and masters will not be having their noses rubbed in their dirty doings:
What they’ve done is they have filled the shop front window with a picture of what was the business before it went bankrupt or closed. In other words, grocery shops, butcher shops, pharmacies, you name it, they have placed large photographs in the windows that if you were driving past and glanced out the window, it would look as if this was a thriving business. It’s an attempt really by the local authority to make the place look as positive as possible for the visiting G8 leaders and their entourages, and it’s really tried to put a mask on a recession that has really hit this part of Ireland really very badly indeed.
(via Northern Ireland Town Fakes Prosperity for G8 Summit | @pritheworld)
But it’s not really the local authorities. The Austerity King is to blame:
This is one big initiative really stemming from the Foreign Office in London. This is David Cameron’s gig. It’s his invitation, it’s his decision to host the G8 in County Fermanagh, which is, don’t forget, part of the United Kingdom. It’s also on the island of Ireland, it’s in Northern Ireland, but he will be the hosting head of government and it’s his say so. Much of the money that has been spent in and around the host town of Enniskillen, about more than £300,000 worth, that’s getting on from half a million dollars, the bulk of the cash and certainly the driving force behind the plans to tidy up the place, that’s all coming from London.
Well, I suppose there’s a bright side. Little Enniskillen is the beneficiary of the only stimulus spending in which Cameron is prepared to engage. Devoutly must we hope, fervently must we pray, that Cameron’s Potemkin village will make a laughingstock out of its creator.
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