The owner of Todds shoes took out a full page in the press yesterday, with an open letter to politicians, nearly all of whom are furious at his words, above all the left, who are so out of touch with reality that they assume they are immune from criticism. Had I enough money I would do the same as Mr Todd. At least the mud has been stirred up a bit and that is no bad thing.
Here is a rough translation of his open letter:
Politicians – enough already..
The unedifying spectacle to which you are treating us is no longer tolerable. Your interest lies in personal or party gain, you ignore the interests of the country and you are taking us towards the brink and irreperably damaging the image of the state.
Dont you understand that most Italians have no regard or faith in most of you and have no intention to be represented by a political class that, with a few exceptions, is wildly out of touch with reality and the needs of the people……
Instead its necessary to realise that only a small part of the political class have these characteristics –(seriousness, competence, good reputation) … while the rest is composed of incompetent and unprepared people who have no perception of the problems of the country, of the gravity of the situation and no vision of the future which awaits us.
Even a large part of the ‘market’ has grave responsibility for our current condition. For too long it has had a relationship wiht the political class on teh basis of convenience and opportunity, supporting them without ever asking for a sense of duty in the interest of Italy in return.
Now the gravity of the situation requires that … the business world and the political world unite to work together to confront the situation, and I believe that most of us would thank you for it. To those politicians of whatever colour, who are incompetent, devoid of dignity and sense of propriety for their country there are many of us who would wish you to be ashamed of yourselves. ‘
