The precious voices of Irish politics

First it was George Lee quitting on politics and his party and now we have another high profile resignation. Today the Green Party's Déirdre de Búrca resigned.

De Búrca was a Senator for the Greens, one of only eight party members in the two houses of the Irish parliament. She got her seat in the Senate when her party entered government in coalition with Fianna Fáil back in 2007.

De Búrca {photo with John Gormley} says she is quitting because she can no longer support a party that has "abandoned our political values and our integrity." She points the finger directly at party leader John Gormley saying he's "done a disservice to the Green Party" by tying the party too closely to their government coalition partners. De Búrca says Gormley has been "unable, or unwilling" to "take a stronger line with Brian Cowen and the Fianna Fáil party" and ignored Green Party principles because the party has become too attached to being in government.

Okay, she's frustrated I can understand that. She wants a stronger leadership from the head of her party, again understandable. What I can't understand is why she's quitting.

She could have led an effort to change leaders, but she chose not to. She could have stayed in, fighting for the party she clearly still believes in, but she chose not to. She chose to quit.

Believe me I'm just as happy because her views rarely matched mine, but I don't like all this quitting. What does it say about people that they'll quit rather than fight? What does it say about us as an electorate that we're represented by such people?

Lee & de Búrca both could have made simple statements that they were leaving politics because they've had a change of heart or decided that it wasn't for them or they wanted to spend more time with their families or whatever. That would have been fine, but instead what we have is people leaving because ... I don't really know ... because no one's listening to them? Gimme a break!

Good riddance I say to both of them. I find it embarrassing that such preciousness exists in the houses of parliament. I don't want to be represented by the type of people who, when angry, wince as they slap you halfheartedly and then turn and run away.

If you believe in what you're doing and in what you can do then fight your corner. But, if you're going to quit, then quit with dignity. Shaddup.

{Kudos to the Green Party for their quick web site fix. De Burca's page has already been purged. The government's own web site should be as quick to treat De Búrca and Lee as non-persons.}