As we recover from the Bank Holiday weekend and face into Halloween festivities, spare a thought for the many participants in the Dublin Marathon on Monday last who deserve sincere congratulations for their efforts and struggles through 26 long miles of running.
This year’s event drew a bumper contingent of Mayo athletes - many running on behalf of a home club but just as many running for fun. If ever a personal achievement should be recognised it is in the completion of running a marathon and fair dues must go to all our county men and women who did so well - hopefully the soreness in the limbs has worn off by now.
As for this weekend, the Halloween celebrations are expected to be bigger and better than ever with children making the most of this scary time of the year - now apparently a bigger family event than even Christmas. Take note though that as kiddies don their fancy dress costumes and prepare for trick or treating, the authorities are advising that backyard burning of domestic waste as an excuse for bonfires actually creates a hazard and will not be tolerated - but could instead result in €3,000 fines. You have been warned.
The Halloween break also tends to act as a bridge into Christmas and signs are certainly on it that parents are getting ready with full advantage being taken of toy and household sales currently on offer. Despite the fact that retail sales in general are hitting the floor - a huge appetite for bargains remains. With consumers doing their homework more than ever in relation to special offers and cut-price deals, retailers are simply going to have to make their offerings irresistable in order to get shoppers in - to heck with profit margins.
Happily, as one of our business stories this week suggests, the recession is set to finally come to an end in the middle of next year which will become evident through consumers releasing ‘pent-up demand’ and splashing out on everything from holidays to furniture. Alas, such surveys only serve to display a definite case of wishful thinking as trying to tell anyone now that there will be happy-go-lucky spending days ahead in 2012 - never mind 2011, is stretching credulity to its limits.
Indeed, with talk of what is now tipped to be a bludgeoning budget in December when our €15 billion debt requirement is to be ‘front-loaded’ to the hilt (ie the newly coined term for immediate pain ), the notion arises that might it not be better for everyone to just hand over the money now? This would mean that instead of our finance minister Brian Lenihan having to pussy-foot around delivering warnings and hard stares regarding terrible taxing measures ahead, we could all just beg, borrow or steal (as many are now threatening to do ) or just delve under the mattress to retrieve our precious savings and be done with it. Pain over; €1,000 a piece should do it.
Of course the reality is that such an amount per head wouldn’t cut the mustard at all, so extensive is our debt, and it is for this reason that regular, ongoing cutting measures will be the chosen modus operandi.
Not to finish on an altogether gloomy note over the festive Halloween weekend however, it is good to detect certain signs of hope, not too far away either, as we learn this week that Chinese banks moving to London are driving up city rents and generating a new property boom and jobs boost.
At least that’s not too far away for our young people to have to emigrate to.
