Stupid statements from this weekend and the week… December 23, 2018
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Who could have said this this week?
The Irish political system has not simply delivered stability and kept the country safe for democracy over the past 100 years it has, in recent decades, delivered a level of prosperity and openness that is the envy of much of the world. Many Irish people, fed on a diet of unremitting negativity from sections of the broadcast media, may find this hard to believe but facts are facts.
Of course that doesn’t mean the country doesn’t have serious problems or that everybody feels the benefits of prosperity equally but it is important to keep things in context. It is notable that the most vitriolic criticism of the Irish political system comes from people who lauded the disastrous policies of Yanis Varoufakis in Greece and gave uncritical backing to Hugo Chávez who destroyed the economy of Venezuela.
For a sensible statement, or at least question, look no further than comments BTL of the above for the following from ‘Myra’… An overlap or de facto single party government?
[John Boutcher, chief constable of Bedfordshire Police] says former members of the IRA have come forward to name suspects. If this has been “sanctioned” by the republican movement, it indicates a new willingness to co-operate on Troubles cases in line with Stormont’s proposed – and currently delayed – mechanisms for dealing with the past. If it has not been sanctioned, the republican movement is losing its grip over former members and co-operation should still be forthcoming.
Unionists and the Conservative Party could also be stripped of their favourite objection to investigating the Troubles: namely, that the state kept records but the IRA did not.
If the state was managing the IRA, its records will suffice.
Hyperbole much?
Meet the new boss… same as the old boss… December 23, 2018
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What a shower the populist right are…
Passage of two laws last week backed by [Hungarian] prime minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party angered a variety of groups.
One, dubbed by critics the “slave law”, allows employers to ask staff to work up to 400 hours per year of overtime. Another would set up new courts which critics say could be politically manipulated.
A pre-Christmas poll brings good cheer for… December 23, 2018
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…well, not Sinn Féin.
Sunday Times/Behaviour and Attitudes has the following figures:
FG 31% +1
FF 29% +2
SF 17% -6
LP 5% -1
IND ALL 2% +1
SOL/PBP 2% NC
GP 3% +2
SD 2% +1
IND 10% +1
Interesting to consider why SF should suffer such a drop – though even at 17% they’re a fair bit ahead of their last performance in 2016. And isn’t it telling that FG/FF together have 60% of the vote. Since the last election they’ve gained about 10% or so. All others are in or around where they might be expected to be.
Uncanny author December 22, 2018
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Speaking of Lovecraft, as we were only the other day, this is entertaining…a Slate.com piece which argues that the author influenced Aquaman (hey, that’s no big deal, check out the influence on Ben10 or rather on this character in Ben10) but….
Despite the chaos, director James Wan lets the camera hold a moment on a coffee table whose contents include a paperback collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories named after one of his most famous tales, “The Dunwich Horror.” This isn’t a tossed-off detail. It’s a nod to how much the film owes to Lovecraft, who set his stories in a world filled with lost civilizations, colossal beings of unknowable age and unspeakable powers, and the couplings and resulting offspring of humans and beings from other worlds, all of which find their way into the film. Lovecraft’s influence is all over Aquaman. It’s also a film that would have repulsed him.
This is, of course, due to his racist attitudes throughout his life (including anti-semitism, which must have made his marriage to Sonia Greene, who was Jewish, an example of remarkable cognitive dissonance). Though as the piece notes ‘while it’s accurate to call Lovecraft more racist than most others of his background, it’s not fair to treat him as an anomaly’.
The oddity is that Lovecraft was atheistic, and in a sense scientific. In his stories Cthulu et al are not Gods, even if those who worship them believe them to be so, but alien beings of either this universe or other dimensions whose approaches are beyond human comprehension. But then it is not difficult to see that fitting into a racist worldview which some at the time underpinned by faux science.
I came to Lovecraft relatively recently, and the racist aspect while submerged in his output is still not entirely concealed. Yet he’s a writer of some power. Engaging with his work is interesting for the questions it throws up – even if it is not difficult to understand and sympathise with the multiple responses found here:
In 2015, the World Fantasy Awards abandoned its old trophy design, a bust of Lovecraft, in favor of the less controversial image of a tree and moon. For others it’s meant putting their own anti-racist spin on Lovecraft’s work.
Wouldn’t this look great painted in a Renaissance style? December 22, 2018
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As to the issue at hand… it’s not just not making egregious errors but not being seen to seem to make egregious errors – that’s politics now.
This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… Dominic Behan December 22, 2018
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Dominic Behan died in 1989, after cremation in Glasgow his ashes were scattered at the Royal Canal Dublin by May MacGiolla, an oration was given by his lifelong friend Seán Garland. The trio can meet up now in the afterlife….
It’s amazing how many traditional standards were written by Dominic Behan. “Come Out Ye Black and Tans”, “Take it down from the Mast” , “McAlpines Fusileers” and so on.
TWO ACTIVISTS: SEAN GARLAND & ALAN MACSIMOIN. December 21, 2018
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Good piece by D.R.O’Connor Lysaght……
TWO ACTIVISTS: SEAN GARLAND & ALAN MACSIMOIN.
Signs of Hope – A continuing series December 21, 2018
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Gewerkschaftler suggested this recently:
I suggest this blog should have a regular (weekly) slot where people can post happenings at the personal or political level that gives them hope that we’re perhaps not going to hell in a handbasket as quickly as we thought. Or as the phlegmatic Germans put it “hope dies last”.
Any contributions this week?
Those no-deal preparations December 21, 2018
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There’s a lot of panglossian stuff on the Brexiter side after the EU published its preparations for a no-deal Brexit – some arguing that this is the guts of a no-deal deal. Richard North’s piece here should disabuse anyone of that notion. He neatly deconstructs the four headline areas – finance, aviation, road haulage and customs. Essentially he points to all effectively being a shadow of their former and current situations. For example, UK aircraft cannot operate ‘intermediate pick-ups – freight as well as passenger or intra-Union services… validity on licenses is cut to nine months’ and it’s unilateral! Customs? All points in the EU are to operate the Union Customs Code. Wacky ideas like switching from a French port to Dutch one won’t work in order to circumvent procedures of restrictions. And North at least points to the Irish situation.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/hard-brexit-would-have-severe-impact-on-every-part-of-irish-economy-1.3737544
The primary channel through which Brexit’s economic effects would emerge would be through application of WTO tariffs and regulatory divergence (non- tariff barriers). These could affect supply chains and the cost and/or availability of imports from the UK.
A further fall in the value of sterling would impact on the competitiveness of Irish businesses, while a deterioration in economic conditions in Britain could impact on exports.
Whilst Brexit’s potential macro-economy impacts dominate headlines, Brexit has the potential to impact every element of economic functionality: trade flows, supply chains, economic and business operations, the labour market and consumer confidence and spending.
There would be particular pressures on certain sectors, such as agri-food, fisheries, aviation and road transport, pharma-chemicals, electrical machinery, retail and wholesale business. The economic impact is also likely to be greater in certain regions – especially the border region – and on smaller businesses that are more dependent on trade with Britain and Northern Ireland.
A no deal Brexit would have negative consequences for Irish growth, both in the short and long run, relative to a no-Brexit scenario.
And:
It is difficult to assess the full scale of the impact of a no deal Brexit on the British economy and British society. However, there is no doubt that there would be a very significant adverse economic and social impact and that Ireland would also suffer considerably in that context.
The Irish Government would work with the British Government, as a member of the EU27 but also as a neighbour and close friend, to seek to minimise the economic and social disruption. However, we are under no illusions as to the difficulties that would arise or the challenges involved in addressing them
These would include issues such as aviation, road haulage, delays within the UK and on ferries, the introduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers, the need for customs controls and checks on food, plant and animal products, the related need for additional storage capacity, issues relating to excise and VAT, issues relating to the provision of financial services and the status of contracts, ensuring the supplies of medicine and medical equipment, and difficulties with cross-border manufacturing supply chains.
There would also be significant issues for citizens’ rights, free movement of people, labour and skills shortages, and provision of cross-border public services that would have to be tackled by all the relevant parties.
There’s more detail in the sections on ‘Road Transport’, ‘Customs’ and ‘Sanitary/phytosanitary requirements’.
But take that last:
27.Will live animals and animal products be checked at the borders when entering the European Union from the United Kingdom after 29 March 2019 in case of no deal?
In case of no-deal, every consignment of live animals and animal products coming from the UK would have to undergo, as of the withdrawal date, checks in Union border inspection posts (BIPs) at the point of entry into the EU.
For more details, stakeholders should consult the Commission preparedness notice on EU rules for food, feed and sanitary and phytosanitary controls.16
Every consignment. Between here and Britain and on the island.
The same but different… December 21, 2018
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I’m always a bit amused by those who finally come to the conclusion that there’s no great ideological differences between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Oliver Callan has a piece in the IT on this supposedly newly revealed truth. Yet for those of us who have been around a while this has been obvious from the off. And for the generations preceding us too.
He notes that:
Ideologically they’re the same. Allow the property market to roam free, let multinationals pay as little tax as possible. Look at the recent history of their handling of Garda reforms from ignoring the Morris tribunal recommendations to ignoring the Garda Inspectorate report.
Who would have thunk it?
Granted he’s a bit closer to the truth with the following:
They’re like rival clubs in the same county, inter-married and disliking each other in that most Irish way: by seeing the unpleasantness they recognise in themselves.
But I think that still misses the point. As does the following:
The parties truly believe they have separate identities. Some point to history and tribalism as the major chasm, but in 2018 no one cares about either, least of all the parties themselves.
The thing is they do have separate identities and arguably somewhat different class bases and attitudes, though harder to argue about policy or ideology. But of course they can easily do so. There’s no great trick to having competing right of centre political parties – Poland has a plethora of them and no left wing parties at all!
Of course the other angle is they offer alternative paths to public position – that’s no small thing.
And while he may suggest no one cares about either somehow, remarkably, people vote in large enough numbers for both FF and FG, indeed they each command near enough a third or more or less of the electorate. That’s no small achievement – and I don’t say that with any particular admiration for it.
And yet, Callan’s analysis points up precisely why they do so…
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are the same. And there is no impetus to solve major public service crises without a real difference between the Government and the Opposition. It’s a shame the lefties can’t seem to get together and create an actual leftist party, not the diet socialism of Labour or the comically confusing hodgepodge of “others”.
Isn’t it telling he can’t articulate any definition of leftism himself that might offer an alternative. It’s all wooly stuff on his part – despite the fact that there are clearly distinct strands of leftism now on offer. In my more pessimistic moments I wonder if that points up a problem with voters as much as with parties. Because in truth there’s a certain comfort for many of them – apparently 6 in every 10, in the current situation with two large right of centre parties. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see what Callan himself would wish for, above and beyond stuff like ‘diet socialism’ etc…