Over at Cedar Lounge Revolution, WBS is doing a good job tracking the ongoing campaign against Ireland’s borrowing capacity and, in particular, the performance of the National Treasury Management Agency. On a recent post, I…
Monthly Archives For May 2009
The Renewal of Democracy: An Interview with Paul Ginsborg
Paul Ginsborg is Professor of Contemporary European History, University of Florence and a frequent public commentator on politics and life in Italy. His books include A History of Contemporary Italy, Society and Politics 1943 –…
May 25th Afternoon: The Recession Diaries
Boy, was Senator Fergal Quinn taken in. Or was he? In his recent column, ‘Getting people work a priority’ he attempts to make two real-life comparisons – one based on a letter he received and…
Ask a Man Who Knows!!
You Can Trust Me, Sir. I’m a Priest. One of the upsides to all this kerfuffle about sexual abuse and the clergy is that it will lay to rest forever the argument that priests are…
May 22nd Morning: The Recession Diaries
Jim Stewart has come up with a provocative idea to stimulate one small part of the economy: ‘Some possible measures to stimulate spending could be vouchers which must be spent within a limited time period,…
What Price Education?
“I am totally depressed as I believe a huge amount of work has been totally undone … support structures to assist the most vulnerable have been undermined, which will mean that discipline and pastoral care…
Pay Attention Juan Carlos!!
And This Does Not Include My Duke of Edinburgh Award!! Si, is the Prince Phillips of England, spouse of the Queen but not a king himself, just a sort of male First Lady, but with…
Crossroads in Prison Building Presents Opportunities to Rethink Direction
In a press release today, IPRT welcomed the Government announcement that it is to reconsider the proposed building of what would have been the largest prison in the State, and one of the largest prisons…
May 19th Lunchtime: The Recession Diaries
Be under no illusion – the economic debate is now morphing from an obsession with debts and deficits into a full-blown assault on the public realm that has more in common with Thatcherism than it…
May 18th Morning: The Recession Diaries
The ESRI’s recent ‘Recovery Scenarios for Ireland’ offers us a glimpse of the ‘nirvana of the return to normal’ – a set of projections that could see the economy, if not flying high, then at…
May 14th Morning: The Recession Diaries
Here is my challenge to the real devaluationists. Will any of them take it up? Real devaluationists claim that, since we can’t devalue our currency, we must devalue other inputs into the economy. Wages feature…
False Pope Visits Israel, Condemns Jews, Muslims, to Hell
Is the Usurper Pope in a Usurper State! All the papers this week are being raging about the news of the False Pope, Benedinct, and his visits to the bit of Palestine called Israel and…
To be or to have… Labour and coalition
I’ve read a couple of different pieces about the prospects for government amongst various potential parties and combined they allow for some useful insights into how the Irish political landscape may be developing. Yesterday Fintan…
Scratch an Anarchist and a Fascist Bleed!!
No, Silly, is not Cirque du Soleil. Is Mussolini being hanged by the Garibaldis! Whenever peoples are asking me to esplain to them the intricicasies of the Spanish Civil War for Golf, I always tell…