Summary: <a href="http://www.johnleahy.net/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">John Leahy</a> became leader of <a href="https://www.renuaireland.com/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Renua Ireland</a> in September 2016. I spoke to him about aspects of his policies set out on the Renua website, <a href="https://archive.is/Mjlhe" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">including the proposal</a> to<br> Introduce 90-day detention orders for those Gardai suspect of being actively involved in preparations to murder another or of being responsible for directing the activities of an organised criminal gang.<br> Jailing people for any length of time because of what gardaí suspect that they might do in the future would almost certainly be unconstitutional. <a href="https://archive.is/2ed2T" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Also, Renua will</a><br> campaign for the return of national vetoes over all policy areas and the abandonment of Qualified Majority Voting [and] … introduce an Australian-type points system for inter-EU migration. We do not believe that the free movement of people is an essential element of any customs union.<br> There is no prospect of implementing any of these policies without first leaving the EU.<br> *****<br> I like free stuff. I think everyone does. Even when it’s not really free.<br> I was on holiday recently in a hotel where they did breakfast as one of those buffet things where you can collect whatever from a huge array of food. There was pancakes, every type of cereal, cooked breakfasts, scrambled eggs, different breads, hot croissants and pastries, cake – cake for breakfast – cheeses and I dunno what else.<br> I ate myself stupid. Some people have the presence of mind to just collect a couple of things that they want. I don’t have that sort of self-control. And the worst of it was that I wasn’t even able to eat half the things that I collected, even by stuffing myself, so I either had to eat myself even sicker, or watch it go to waste. And the food wasn’t even all that good. It looked appealing, but the pancakes were stodgy, the scrambled eggs were cold – and it was clear that I wasn’t the only glutton, there was a huge amount of food being wasted in the place.<br> I wouldn’t mind so much, but I’m normally pretty good with avoiding that type of waste. I’m the type of person who goes to the supermarket with a shopping list, I buy what I need, I freeze leftovers. We really don’t do food waste in our house. So what comes over me at the breakfast buffet?<br> Economists actually have an explanation for this. They have a saying: Unpriced resources will be wasted. That basically means that if we’re not paying for it, we’re not careful with it. We saw this in spectacular fashion years ago with the plastic bag levy. When it was introduced, plastic bag consumption dropped immediately by 93 per cent.<br> I thought of this, and the Right 2 Water campaign when I was listening to all the problems with water supply during the hot, dry weather. In case you don’t remember, the Right 2 Water campaign are against all water charges and metering. <a href="https://www.right2water.ie/about" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Their website says</a><br> Water charges will discriminate against working people and the unemployed in favour of the wealthy and are another regressive tax taking vital money out of the pockets of people and out of our economy. Our public water system is already paid for through general taxation which is progressive and we wish it to remain that way.<br> As I said, I like free stuff as much as the next person, and I don’t want an extra bill to pay any more than the next person either, but that whole campaign was totally wrong. It was based on the premise that paying a water bill was double taxation. That was nonsense to begin with. There is far more than one type of tax; we pay income tax, VAT, motor tax, inheritance tax, excise duty, stamp duty, property tax and that’s just some of the taxes paid by private individuals, to say nothing of the taxes that are paid by businesses, and passed on through pricing to their customers.<br> And,
