COMMENT | Some three centuries ago, Jonathan Swift, the Anglo-Irish satirist and author of “Gulliver’s Travels” wrote an essay: “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being A Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial To The Public”.

Swift was outraged at the ineptitude of the politicians, the hypocrisy of the wealthy, the tyranny of the ruling elites and the squalor and degradation of the common people of Ireland, struggling to put food on the table. Sounds familiar?

In his “A Modest Proposal”, Swift advocated breeding the children of the poor as food for the wealthy, providing reasons and numbers to show it was a viable like how most projects are justified, contrary to reason, good sense and morality. Say, like the Urban Renewal Bill.

He showed how the economic value of children’s meat is to be computed and suggested menus best suited to their flesh, like a fricasee, a stew with pieces of meat served in a sauce flavoured with cooking stock. Or a ragout, a meat dish that...