One of my closest friends is a chap called Michael Thomas De Berri Coughlan...(yes, yes, I know - such a pretentious name); splendid chap who is always great fun to be around with a myriad of hilarious anecdotes and one liners.

Anyway, Mike is one of these tiresome people who is a 'Professional Irishman', something very common amongst the Boston, Sydney and NZ Irish communities with rather tenuous (or non existent *ahem*) links to Eire, and never lets an opportunity pass to ham it up as if he had just gotten off a plane from Dublin...(oh please, it was 160 years ago *sigh*)

Many moons ago Mike was great mates with..(speaking of those who 'ham it up')...Frankie Stevens, who was a judge on some silly talent quest television programme, and Stevens nicknamed him 'Mike Cock' (say it quickly to get the joke), an amusing nomenclature I never pass up an opportunity to use.

One day in the spring of 1995 Mike and I were chatting about Eire, after his return from a holiday to the 'old Country' ..(*sigh* oh please)...and his recounting of various experiences therein.

Something which struck him was the enormous poverty compared with New Zealand, and also the homogenous nature of Eire, causing him to say "One thing I will say about Ireland there are no n***ers there!", to which I replied... (causing his enormous displeasure for abusing the 'old Country' to an extent I am sure he has never fully forgiven me for)..."that is not a surprise, afterall, it would mean going from one third world country to another!" ...(boom, boom!)

But at that time, a fairly short 13 years ago, my comment about Eire being a 'Third World Country' was sort of still true; and certainly during the previous century was undoubtedly true, yet it is not the case today.

Why is that? why is Eire no longer some irrelevant bankrupt offshore Island?

A TEN PERCENT COMPANY TAX RATE

I shall repeat that in case John "the little mouse" Dickhead failed to hear me: A 10% company tax rate.

That low tax rate (so low it is not really worth cooking the books to avoid paying) has encouraged numerous companies to productively invest in Eire in the last decade or so.

Such investment has created 1 million new jobs, quadrupled property prices, a five fold increase in the sharemarket, prosperity for all..(well, almost all, the working class no hoper 'Kevin' types are still living in poverty but who cares about them?)...and Eire has become an economic powerhouse.

New Zealand should take a lesson from this.

We should also cut our company tax rate until it is a nominal rate and causes every Fortune 500 company under the sun to set up shop here and invest 'productively' to make us the richest nation on Earth.

Of course, this would mean that some people would be earning...(*Shock* *horror*)....capitalist PROFITS, and Maoris and Islanders and other no hopers would be ignored and irrelevant and still in poverty (think 'piss ups' and breweries), but it is worth doing, it is vital for the future of our great nation.

(Afterall, we can simply disenfranchise the Maoris, but being the richest country in the World would last forever)