The Cedar Lounge Revolution

Sunday and other stupid statements from this week December 3, 2023

All examples welcome.

How’s this from the Journal?

THE LABOUR PARTY and the Social Democrats need to merge, former Labour leader and Wexford TD Brendan Howlin has said. 

Speaking to The Journal, Howlin said there is no ideological difference between the two parties and although the Social Democrats are opposed to the idea currently, he believes “the day will come”.

Interesting how the ‘left’ figures in commentary after the riots. Larry Donnelly in the Journal offers this:

The insidious forces of the far right have been named as most blameworthy by some, especially those on the left, for the campaign of hatred they have been waging just beneath the surface targeting all who are not sufficiently Irish in their eyes.

Some indeed. Like that unlikely left-wing figure the Garda Commissioner, no less. 

In a not-entirely Michael McDowell has one good comment and one really not so good comment in his column in the Irish Times this week. The first?

Our Government is afflicted by a sense of lassitude about security. When the strength of the Defence Forces and the reserve is melting away and the Naval Service is largely tied up for want of ratings, they are talking about ending the triple-lock. We’ve got to get real.

The second?

Some of the same loudmouth elements which once used drugs as an excuse for community intimidation have now latched on to immigration as a pretext for asserting dominance in deprived communities. To call them “right wing” may be convenient as a tag for being anti-immigrant, but I am by no means convinced that if any of them vote, that they would not vote for left-wing candidates.

Really? So they’re anti-immigrant but would vote for left-wing candidates that are pro-immigrant?

And in a column on the same topic in Dublin Stephen Colllins in the Irish Times manages to not use the term ‘far-right’ once, except indirectly when quoting Heather Humphrey’s. Indeed he continues with the following:

It is no coincidence that those who flaunt tricolours and spread hatred on social media from the opposite ends of the political spectrum share a common contempt for the State and its institutions.

A tribute to the Pogues and Shane McGowan December 3, 2023

Pete Holidai and Tony St Ledger with Phelim Drew Recorded at the Seán O’ Casey Theatre, East Wall, Dublin, Saturday 24th September 2022. Uploaded with permission.

This is the future? Sure, if by future you mean 1985! December 3, 2023

Anyone seen the Cybertruck, Tesla’s entry into the electric pick up truck market. It’s had an interesting journey so far. There’s some unkind remarks online about the design, one person suggesting that it looked like the recreation room just around the corner from the garbage crusher on the Death Star in Star Wars and another that this is where Cylon’s from Battlestar Galactica would hang out. Not wrong.

There’s definitely something DeLorean about it. But what I find particularly interesting is the styling inside. Put aside, if you can, the modishly squared off oval of the steering wheel and gaze in wonder at the sharp edges of the dashboard, the seats, whatever. Now this could be me but I’m not sure I’d want to experience a sudden stop in that particular vehicle.

What strikes me most forcefully, and this has been stated in reviews, is that it doesn’t seem entirely practical. How much can be carried in it. Do the lines makes sense in terms of putting objects in the back or taking them out. Some have also unkindly suggested that it looks perfect for something designed by an early teen – granted they’d add a gun mounting or two on the back. I don’t know. Perhaps a shovel on the front and we’re in Solyent Green territory?

I’m curious as to whether any of our US correspondents have heard any chatter or interest in this from people who purchase this class of vehicle. I mean is this going to set that world alight?

Waiting for the music… December 2, 2023

Okay, so I think I’ve seen all the gigs I will this year, roll on 2024. Already have Judas Priest booked – it’s really a rollover from Ozzy/Judas Priest in 2019 if I recall correctly, which was delayed, put back, delayed and eventually cancelled. But, this week booked tickets for Peter Hook and the Light in the Olympia for next… November. That’s right, November 2024. I don’t think I’ve ever had tickets intentionally booked for a gig effectively a year ahead.

Three or four months, well that’s kind of normal. Back in the day a few weeks ahead similarly.

It got me wondering. What’s the longest anyone has had to wait for a scheduled gig? I guess for world tours and that sort of thing well in advance? But how long?

British Labour hobbled and hobbling itself… December 1, 2023

William Keegan had a neat line in the Observer about a dynamic in British politics which arises time and time again:

What impressed me most about the delivery of last week’s autumn statement was the good-humoured – almost jovial – manner in which our fourth chancellor in three years unveiled a seemingly endless list of measures supposed to promote “growth”.
In most cases they were nothing of the sort. But Jeremy Hunt was so relaxed that one wonders if he believed a word of it. I had the wicked thought that as his party is assumed by most observers – not least its own members – to be approaching the electoral scaffold, the prevailing mood was one of “lie back and think of the election after next”. Meanwhile, they can enjoy the spectacle of a Labour party struggling to carry out its traditional role of trying to sort out the mess it is likely to inherit.

Think back across the years as how this didn’t merely hobble Labour, but Labour hobbled itself in a headlong determination to appear ‘responsible’. Consider the incoming Labour administration maintaining Tory spending limits in 1997 for at least two years. That alone made governance more difficult in the successive years (though add to that a near paranoid attitude at the top in that party then at seeming in any sense fiscally radical). Similarly with the current crew who in some ways seem to have integrated that attitude to an even greater degree.

So this wasn’t simply a case of having to clean up a mess but of actually allowing the very approaches that led to the mess to be continued into their period of governing. I’m always struck by how brief the periods of Labour rule in Britain as against the Tories. Not difficult to suspect that this is one of the reasons for that.

Assessing the damage to workers and public property after last week’s Dublin events December 1, 2023

So, as the week has gone on, the damage caused by the ‘riot’ has become easier to assess. We have seen Luas trams damaged, buses destroyed, at least thirteen shops looted. Here’s the situation facing one group of workers.

Workers in the Holiday Inn Express hotel’s coffee shop on O’Connell Street in Dublin have been temporarily let go due to damage sustained to the building during last week’s riots.

The eight workers, comprised of six full-time and two part-time baristas were informed by management this Tuesday in a meeting that they would be laid-off effective immediately without pay.

One worker, Siobhan told RTÉ Radio 1’s Liveline: “A lot of us don’t have any other income and were told to contact social welfare. It’s just weeks before Christmas, we have no job, we have rent to pay.

“The rioters of last Thursday night, they have actually caused you and your colleagues to lose your jobs,” Mr Duffy stated, to which she replied: “More or less, yes.”

Worth questioning the employer about all this. The repairs will take months apparently. Given what the workers endured it seems a poor way to reward them:

She also informed that a number of her colleagues were stuck in the coffee shop when rioters were breaking in on Thursday. “They were terrified, they had no exits, they were locked in the bathroom for half an hour to an hour,” she said.

She said that rioters then began taking furniture from the Holiday Inn to use to break more glass.

When asked by Mr Duffy how long the repairs are expected to take, she replied that it would “100% take longer than two months.”

And just on that, the situation of workers during these events:

A Dublin shopkeeper was forced to hide in his basement for “over two hours” as his store was looted during last week’s riots.

Reji Yohannan is the co-owner of the Gala Express shop located on Lower Abbey Street in the city centre. And when last Thursday’s riots broke out, Reji and his staff were trying to close up for the night.

 

He told RTE’s Morning Ireland: “By 8 o’clock we closed, the glass shutter was fully closed and we were just about to leave from the shop. Myself and two staff were just going out when one big mob came in, they had hammers. They smashed the glass window by hammer and everyone came in.

But other impacts are also part of this and they will have continue to have very real repercussions for workers.

Spending in Dublin city centre plunged on Black Friday as many consumers opted to stay at home following riots on Thursday evening.

A new report from Bank of Ireland revealed that in-person debit and credit card spending in the city centre almost halved last Friday compared with the same day in 2022.

In-person card spend dropped by 46pc in Dublin 1 and Dublin 2 on Black Friday, which is typically one of the most important trading days of the year for retailers.

Fewer shoppers also made the trip into the city over the weekend despite ongoing sales and discounts as uncertainty lingered in the aftermath of Thursday’s events.

Bank of Ireland reported that in-person card spend dropped 27pc year-on-year on both Saturday and Sunday.

That’s workers jobs and lives blighted.

And then there’s this:

Tens of millions of damage to public infrastructure has been done in disorder involving 500 people, according to garda estimates.

All the whining and moaning and shouting about how the country is going to the dogs is nothing compared to the material reality of what was inflicted on public property and workers last week. 

ILA Podcast #54: David Costelloe: Military History and The Troubles November 30, 2023

David Costelloe: Military History and The Troubles – Irish Left Archive Podcast

In this episode we’re joined by David Costelloe. Dave writes on history and politics on his website Never Felt Better, and in particular has written an extensive series of articles on Irish military history from the earliest records almost to the contemporary, Ireland’s Wars. We spoke to Dave previously in 2021, on episode 20 of the podcast, about his background and work on earlier military history, and he joins us again to discuss the period of the Troubles in particular and the comprehensive series of articles on the topic he has written since last speaking to us.

You can follow us on the Fediverse (Mastodon, Pixelfed, Peertube etc.) at @ila@leftarchive.ie.

‘Vigilante groups’ November 30, 2023

Anyone know anything of this?

Green Party councillor Janet Horner told the commissioner that people did not feel safe in Dublin. “I’ve heard talk in different circles of vigilante groups in multiple areas being organised in response to the danger they feel for their communities. They need to feel protected; they need to feel engaged with.”

What doesn’t Elon Musk get about the fact no company is forced to advertise where it doesn’t want to? November 30, 2023

Another day another outburst from a billionaire.

Billionaire businessman Elon Musk apologised for endorsing a social media post widely seen as anti-Semitic.

However, he accused advertisers who are turning away from his social media platform X of “blackmail” and said anyone who does so can “go f*** yourself.”

The remark before corporate executives at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence.

It’s telling that.

Why does he appear to think it is compulsory for companies or corporations to advertise on twitter? Why does he appear utterly indifferent as to the need for any advertising platform (whether it is a newspaper, magazine – essentially a bunch of adverts with some articles in between them, or a social media platform) to act in certain ways to attract advertisers. His dynamic betrays a complete lack of understanding of how advertising works and how advertising platforms work. Does he think that every company or corporation has to advertise in the New York Times or the Irish Independent?

They make their own calculations as to where they want their advertising spend to go. If a brand is toxic as they see it they’ll go somewhere else. To be defending corporations in this instance is an unusual position to be in, but there we have it.

For Musk to verbally attack those companies that do choose to stay away from Twitter – due to his own statements on that platform and to the general increasing madness and chaos that it represents – is just dumb.

Entitlement thy name is Musk.