The Cedar Lounge Revolution

RISE September 30, 2019

The name of Paul Murphy’s new party.

The last hurrah? Fianna Fáil in the 2000s… September 30, 2019

I was reading Pat Leahy’s entertaining Showtime: The Inside Story Of Fianna Fail In Power recently. It’s certainly readable albeit positioned politically on the centre right, I’d argue. And also entertaining for some mild digs against Leahy’s present place of work (IIRC he was at the SBP back when it was written). Anyhow, book notes in passing the low polling of the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat coalition between 2002 and 2007. It really was remarkably poor for that part, dipping to 30% or so. And it was borne out in both the Local and European elections held in that period. Yet fast forward ten years (and more on this later in the week) and that is now FF’s operating ceiling, at least thus far since the crisis – and having fallen much lower still prior to that.

Which raises an interesting question, because during that same period FG saw its position strengthen to the high twenties – also the current operational ceiling of that party in polls.

Was this a foreshadowing of the reality the parties would come to inhabit in this decade, could it be that 2007 was the very last election (again thus far) that FF would win close to 40% of the vote? And could it be that that period demonstrated that far from the crisis initiating change, rather it built upon that change – a fracturing FF vote. Because another factor during that period, particularly in 2002 at the election that year, was the growth of right-independents in significant numbers, some from the FF gene-pool.

That being the case that must have implications for FF further down the line, if party loyalties had begun to dissolve to that degree so that now, near enough two decades later the old party blocs seem likely to remain fundamentally weakened.

Don’t keep it to yourselves… September 30, 2019

Hilarious to read that:

The British government knows the outline of what it sees as a possible deal to leave the European Union, Michael Gove, the minister in charge of planning for a no-deal Brexit, has said.

Speaking at the governing Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester, Mr Gove said the government’s proposals for an agreement would see a deal that would differ significantly from the one negotiated by former prime minister Theresa May.

Not least given that they don’t appear to have bothered to share that outline with the EU!

Ireland , Brexit and The Left pamphlet launch September 29, 2019

Ireland, Brexit & the Left .
This small Pamphlet is an attempt to look at the overall crisis of Europe, from a Marxist perspective and to interpret the various political and national crises within that framework. We believe that socialist groups have by and large remained committed to a failed perspective of reformist electoralism.

To preserve their socialist effectiveness they will have to adopt new perspectives and structures and we hope that this analysis will in some way help aid that process. We assert that, despite all the confusion and babble, the fundamental division in society is between capital and labour. Among all the chaos capitalism will be able to adapt some of the current strategies to ensure its own survival, at whatever cost to the working class.

‘The Future of the Irish Border and the European Union’s Role’ – Conference, Castleblayney, October 26 September 29, 2019

Our Lady’s Secondary School, Castleblayney will host a conference on October 26 entitled ‘The Future of the Irish Border and the European Union’s Role’. This event will be funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Communicating Europe Initiative. The school is located in close proximity to the Monaghan-Armagh border and the intention is to bring writers, academics and researchers to the border area so that they can present their work to community groups, members of the public and particularly young people. There will be three panels 90 minute throughout the day. Booking is free but attendees must pre register. Full programme to follow.

Speakers include;
Marian Harkin (former MEP)
Dr Ed Burke (University of Nottingham)
Dr Katy Hayward (Queen’s University, Belfast)
Sheelagh Brady (DCU & Security Analysis & Research)
Senator Ian Marshall
Dr Brian Hanley (Historian & Author)
Dr Thomas Leahy (Cardiff University)
Dr Peter Leary (Oxford Brookes University),
Dr Noelle Higgins (Maynooth University)
Darrach McDonald (Journalist & Historian)
The Centre for Cross Border Studies
Border Communities Against Brexit
and many more!

The Stupid is Strong this week… Sunday and other Media Stupid Statements from this week… September 29, 2019

Where to start? A target rich environment to put it mildly.

This morning we have a contribution from a regular in these pages:

Do they seriously believe the public will not eventually see that the backstop stance was not about political principle but a personal stance about saving face?

Yeah, that’s it, no doubt. The backstop which has consumed political activity in the UK and is the result of lengthy negotiations between the EU and (at the prompting of) the UK is all about ‘saving face’. Beyond naive – as are any who take the analysis seriously.

Perhaps this from yesterday’s IT opinion pages.

What are some of the hallmarks of paganism? Obvious examples that spring to mind include nature worship, ritual sacrifices and doomsday prophecies, all of which are present in the climate justice cult [sic].

Perhaps predictably it’s all downhill in the article from there.

Speaking of the IT. An odd disconnect in this piece between the following:

Dismissing people with unpalatable views as isolated groups of backward, racist yokels was a mistake for which Britain is still paying. And it’s a mistake we’re now in danger of making. Ignoring the concerns of people in rural Ireland who feel hopeless about the future plays right into the hands of those ready to exploit them.

And this:

Communities need to stop whining about how hurtful it is to be mischaracterised as racist, and start focusing on the positives that can come out of an infusion of new life into a place. They also need to start helping themselves. If they could rally around positive initiatives with a fraction of the determination evidenced in Oughterard last week – where more than 60 people manned a picket around the clock – many of the very real problems of rural Ireland could be solved. Unfortunately, as populists know only too well, fear is a stronger call to action than hope.

The first line in the second quote above is an odd way to assist in changing deeply problematic and often woefully inaccurate negative perceptions of immigration on the ground.

And then you have to wonder about another article that starts:

The UK may be the only member-state to activate article 50, but it is not the first country to seek to leave the EU. Algeria left in 1962, Greenland in 1985, and St Barthélémy in 2012.
None of them shared a land border with the EU and the 499 kilometres of the Irish border presents a far greater challenge. But there are precedents from these previous exits and the EU’s current land borders that might point to a solution?

The EU in 1962 and 1985? And Algerian independence from France in 1962 is the same as the UK leaving the EU in 2019? This from the Executive Director of European Movement Ireland no less.

Meanwhile we have the following from someone often featured on this weekly post:

Now, as then, mainstream British politicians who want to do the best for their country, and for Ireland as well, are trapped between the irreconcilable demands of Irish nationalism and unionism, this time in the shape of the Border backstop.

And then there’s this which seems a stretch, a real stretch:

But it wasn’t wise – and not merely because indulging in Johnson’s charade is tiresome. But because there is nothing to be gained from aping the penchant for mannered nastiness that has become the calling card of the present British government.

Mannered nastiness? I think not. It’s the real thing.

Must be another Sligo socialist so… September 29, 2019

Just caught the latest issue of the Phoenix today and some interesting pieces in it. Not least an article about some party polling that suggests Declan Bree might be in with a strong shout of the last seat in Sligo-Leitrim with Fine Gael possibly losing out. Declan Bree as many will know is a tireless left campaigner – and was an LP TD between 1992 and 1997. But uncharacteristically the Phoenix appears to have, in its enthusiasm, forgotten a far from insignificant detail when it suggests that:

Either way, Bree… will be hard to stop and it will e amusing should the long-time socialist, who has a soft Republican line on the north, returns to the Dáil. It would be one of the few gains – perhaps the only one- for Labour and Bree is about as close politically to Brendan Howlin as Jeremy Corbyn is to Boris Johnson.

Bree left the LP back in 2007 and is an independent socialist (albeit I think a member of I4C). This is interesting in terms of suggesting some substance to any such polling – Bree’s excellent result at the local elections. It would be a real gain for the left for him to be back in the Dáil.

And it has to be asked… anyone here ever seen a UFO? September 28, 2019

UFOlogy isn’t entirely unknown on the left whether amongst adherents of Trotskyism as noted here… …or indeed in the Soviet Union.

I’ve only seen one thing that struck me as genuinely odd but that was a very long time ago and possibly was flares of some description over Dublin bay in the afternoon.