And so it begins, the Irish General election is going to take place this year, some believe the 2nd or 3rd Thursday in May as being the most likely dates,and to that end the political parties are gearing up with promises designed to woo the electorate in the run up. Its still only Feburary but two parties, namely the Progressive Democrats and Labour, have nailed two proposal's firmly to their respective political masts already.

On Saturday "The Rabbit", Pat Rabbitte, Labour Leader ,announced that should Labour be part of the next government, it would ensure that the basic rate of income tax would come down from its present 20% to 18% within two years of been in government.In an attempt to counter this "The Rothweiler" Micheal Mc Dowell, Leader of the Progressive Democrats" today announced that should they be returned to power they will increase the Old age Pension to €300 per week from its present €200 per week.

Now on face of these two announcements you would say whats the problem here?, its not the announcements that annoy me its that fact that it appears to be a clear attempt to buy votes. Yes, I know that all political parties make promises at election time, and many of these promises are then not kept, but these announcements seem to be a departure from the norm. Additionally I also feel that the political machines in this election are going to be geared towards the individual on a micro level as opposed to gearing policies and committments on a macro level, for the good of the economy as a whole.These announcements come with a backdrop of our schools being overcrowded, the health services is a shambles, people with special needs are simply ignored, and thugs roam our streets armed to the teeth that will kill or harm you without a second thought.But it appears that these issues are irrelevant to "The Rabbit" and "The Rothweiler".

D'ont get me wrong, I like tax cuts, and I beleive that  pensioners should have a decent amount of money to get by, however I feel such policies should be included in parties overall manifesto's and come with a full costed figure attached. At least that way the electorate has an opportunity to weigh up and analyse the contents of the proposal's and ask ourselves questions like do, I want the 2% reduction or would I prefer to see the money spent elsewhere?. There seems to be a belief by the political parties that we are unable to carry out these types of analysis ourselves.

If this trend continues during the run up to the election we will end up being promised everything from "windmills" from the Green Party, to "2 week holidays in the west" from Fine Gael, and "season tickets to Croke Park from Fianna Fail", just to secure your first pref. It'll be like Christmas in May.

I have a funny feeling that Independents will do well in this election as they will run on tickets that will affect local issues, such as roads, schools etc, which will leave us in a strange situation, but not an unfamilair one as those of us old enough to remember the early 80's when we had three governments of varing colour in the space of 18 months, which lead to the "halcyon" years that followed. The reason they were "halcyon years" was due to the fact there was nobody left, thousands had to go to find work.

Would,nt it be nice for some political party to come up with novel policies such as ,

• We are going to sort out the health service by weeding out the tiers that do not add value.
• We will ensure that our children's schools have proper roofs and heating to afford them the opportunity to learn.
• We will invest wisely for the future and not rehash and repackage old policies and call them new.
• We will tell the truth.

At least it would be better that being sold promises that I d'ont believe are worth the paper they are written on. "The Rabbit" and "The Rothweiler" need to stop the attempts of "buying" votes we are not fools, and I believe that we will return that party or selection of parties that will tackle all the important issues facing the country, and not single giveaway policies