Smoking ban or smokescreen? Beware the wedge issues that distract and divide.

What is a wedge issue?

A wedge issue is a clever distraction that is used to draw public attention away from a more serious issue.

They cause the public to spend time and energy arguing over a different topic, while the government continues to push ahead with unpopular policies.

A very recent example of this is the proposal to ban smoking in cars.  How many of you heard your local radio station discussing this, or saw articles about it in the paper, or were talking about it with colleagues or friends? The vast majority of you, right?  Why did this topic suddenly pop out of nowhere, while the country is going down the tubes and we're being hit by  cuts and charges?

Think about it, before the proposal to ban smoking in cars, if someone asked you to list the top 10 things that needed to be done to fix the country, would that ban even cross your mind?

If you got to Google News, and type in "Ireland smoking in cars" it returns over 13 MILLION results, from news articles in papers and radio websites across the english speaking world. And this is just a proposal.

Now type in 'rape crisis network ireland funding cut' and it returns 7 results. This is despite the fact that
their funding is in real danger of being cut off, and has only been extended by a short period.

Mayor Kiely does it again. Jail the beggars!!!!

According to the front page of this week's Limerick Chronicle, our fearless Mayor is jumping to our rescue from another great peril.
He wants new laws brought in to give powers to Gardaí to stop people begging on the streets of Limerick City. He has the backing of the manager of Brown Thomas!
The mayor says that he had been approached by three beggars and found them "a complete annoyance to shoppers and it is time something was done about them".

I'd also prefer if there were no beggars so what's the wonderful cure, Mayor?
Mayor Kiely intends talking to the city manager and the Gardaí to see if new bye-laws can be brought in to prevent begging, and urges the TDs to see if legislation is needed.

Really? To do what? Tell them it's illegal, move on or be arrested? So that they can end up in court and prison (costing over 300 /day and being around criminals and drugs in our already overcrowded prison system).

In Limerick city, we have beggars, some are simply homeless, some are Romanian gypsies, begging while selling old copies of Big Issues, others are homeless because they are addicted to alcohol or another drug.