The Cedar Lounge Revolution

Far less Labour candidates than 2014 April 25, 2019

I know nominations have yet to close but was amazed to see the areas in the Local Elections that lack a Labour candidate.
The Labour Party Site with candidates and Adrian Kavanaghs one listing the Labour candidates
In 2014 they ran 198 candidates, this time at the minute they have 104 candidates running. After Boundary changes there are more Local Electoral Areas now than there were in 2014.
Notable places no longer with candidates are Howth-Malahide, Tallaght South and Tallaght Central (the two Tallaght Cllrs left Labour and Mick Duff is contesting as an Indo). Parts of Cork County , all of the non City Galway LEAs are bereft of Labour candidates. They are only contesting half the LEAs in Meath, no candidates in Offaly or Roscommon, areas in Tipperary with no candidate. Two of the three Waterford City LEAs have no Labour candidate either.
I imagine a lot of parties are finding it difficult to persuade people to run.

Signs of Hope – A continuing series April 25, 2019

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?

Presenting the dispensation in the north as other than it is… April 25, 2019

Slugger quoted not that far back one M. Martin’s speech from the FF Ard Fheis. It has stuck with me since.

As Martin said on Sunday:
When you have scandals in government you deal with the scandal. You have your inquiry and it falls where it falls. You don’t collapse the entire edifice of government and parliament – name a parliament in Europe that got collapsed because of a scandal in a particular government department?

Is that a useful comparison though? Surely a more pertinent comparison would be, and of all people Martin should know this, a minor party withdrawing from a government over a scandal. That’s been the pattern, almost the modus operandi, of numerous parties in the past. From Labour withdrawing from the FF/LP coalition in the early 1990s, to the PDs and the GP.

The distinction is, and surely Martin would allow that it is entirely reasonable for a party to choose not to be in government if it so wished, that in the Executive the nature of the dispensation arrived at – and agreed by FF itself as it happens, means that if a party withdraws the government and parliament do in effect collapse.

That may be a glitch or a feature or both, but that’s the way it is. And I think it a bit disingenuous of Martin to try to present it as something other than it is.

EU voting blocs April 25, 2019

While this news from the IT, a report on polling trends across the EU that suggests anti-EU parties may form the second largest bloc in the EU parliament, is interesting, it may not be quite what it seems.

With support for anti-EU parties on the right and the left increasing in many parts of Europe, the European Council on Foreign Relations says that the new parliament is likely to be dominated by three major coalition blocs – the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) group, the centre-left block based around the alliance of Socialists and Democrats and what it calls the “anti-European” bloc, comprised of several elements.

As the piece notes any such ‘anti-European’ bloc is likely to be far too disparate to combine usefully. Though stranger things have happened as we all know. There’s food for thought closer to home.

Country-by-country breakdowns of the research show that the think tank reckons that in an election with 11 MEP seats in Ireland (13 seats will be filled if the UK leaves; 11 if not) Fine Gael will win three seats; Fianna Fáil will win two; Sinn Féin two; Independents three; and the Greens one.

Anyone care to make predictions as to who may fill those seats for those formations if the projection is correct? SF surely would be disappointed with 2. The GP ecstatic with 1. It will be telling if the outcomes are close to this.

And then this:

However, the think tank also suggests that for the first time a combined “grand coalition” of the EPP and the left-wing bloc will not have a majority in the parliament, handing a potential king-maker role to a fourth bloc: the centrist Alde group, which includes Fianna Fáil.

That all sounds a lot more exciting that it probably is.

Posters Up! Some too early! April 25, 2019

As IEL noted yesterday posters are going up.

But, spare a thought for those hardy souls who went out a day early and posted posters. It may cost them.

Dublin City Council is investigating a number of cases where politicians put up election posters on Tuesday, a day ahead of the permitted time.
Candidates found to have put posters up early can face a €150 fine per poster.

Interesting we were talking about anti-politics thinking informing anti-postering. Though this is slightly different and I think it fair enough there should be a period where it is allowed and a period prior to that where it isn’t. That said the number of meetings by many aspirant and actual councillors this last year on any and every issue has been a tribute to their enthusiasm. Let’s hope they’re held to the same standard if (re) elected.

This England… April 24, 2019

High Times… April 24, 2019

There’s a lot of good sense in this piece here from the Guardian a while back where a former marijuana user and now neuroscientist outlines some sensible thoughts on the drug. Effectively she sums it up as a situation where regulation and attitudes previously were unscientific and too constrained but that there are significant problems in relation to some who use it developing psychosis.

Or as she puts it:

We are swept up in a backlash against overly restrictive and unscientific regulation of cannabis. While it is well past time to loosen restrictions, promote research and consider the data that emerges, the Lancet study provides evidentiary warning about the inherent dangers – to some – of our quest to mitigate reality.

It’s widely accepted that the strength of variants now available is much greater than thirty and forty years ago and that’s interesting and concerning.

Grisel writes;

Addiction and psychosis are similar in that they are the result of biological vulnerability combined with a stressful environment. Some are more predisposed than others, and this should provoke ethical and moral obligation – particularly from those of us who are not at risk – to protect the unlucky ones for whom the use of cannabis may be permanently detrimental.

How though to do that? And how to measure risk? And there’s this anecdote which she starts her piece with which in a way puts those questions in more concrete form:

Occasionally during my love affair with marijuana I would experience perceptual disruptions profound enough to freak me out. One time I was driving along a crowded road when my car seemed a little wobbly and then listed towards the centre, an alarming thud-thud emanating from the back end. In the middle of a densely populated spot without a hard shoulder, I crept slowly across a few lanes of traffic and pulled to a stop. Concentrating very hard, I got out of the car to assess and hopefully change the flat tyre. I rarely got paranoid from smoking weed; neither did it typically make me sleepy. Instead, I was among the lucky ones, as the drug made everyday activities such as gardening, waiting on tables and talking to my family bearable if not interesting. So I was shocked and embarrassed to find, after a few minutes of close inspection amid the honking horns, that there was nothing wrong with the car. At the time I took hallucinations as evidence of a good score. Now, as an ex-smoker and neuroscientist whose focus is addictive drugs, I know that my resilient response to this stressful experience was contingent on having a neurotypical brain.

But hallucinations while at the wheel of a car? That sounds like more than potential trouble.

Posters Up!! April 24, 2019

Great to see the posters up this morning.

Looks like a lot more female candidates.
A lot of candidates reusing posters.
The thin posters appear more popular now too.
 
Any posters catch your eye this morning?

Oh and I wonder has anyone put posters up in Dalkey?

Has he thought this through? April 24, 2019

Someone who benefits from the near dominance of twitter does not appear to understand how they dominance has assisted him:

Trump, who often announces policy changes on Twitter, tweeted to complain about discrimination he had faced as a Republican from Twitter. He called for “more, and fairer” social media companies.

What you want to say – 24 January 2019 April 24, 2019

As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.