The subtle pleasures of political stability for the mainstream left… January 24, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics, The Left.52 comments
… a stability that will see the Labour Party join a coalition with…er… Fine Gael.
Conor has an excellent post here from last night. It shows Martin Ferris and Roisin Shortall on TV last night.
Hearing Roisin Shortall talking about ‘stability’ it was curious, I seemed to hear an echo of the Green Party and their justification for being in government as the economy collapsed.
And look how well that turned out…
A jaundiced eye is cast upon the events of the weekend… January 24, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics.33 comments
Have to agree with Harry McGee of the Irish Times when he raises some basic issues as regards the events of the weekend and what is about to happen next.
What we are seeing is collusion on a grand scale between Fianna Fáil, the Green Party, Fine Gael and the Labour Party over the Finance Bill. That some of these are more or less unwilling participants doesn’t detract from that.
McGee has harsh but not incorrect words for the Green Party over their own positioning in respect of the Bill and the Election.
Telling, was the news that they had been conducting back channel communications to Fine Gael for months and also, entertainingly, that they’d been rebuffed by Labour. Fair dues to Labour.
Up to a point.
The positioning of the Labour Party is particularly lamentable given that within weeks they are most likely to be implementing the terms of a Bill that say they do not accept but that they will do nothing to stop.
So both [Labour and Fine Gael] will facilitate the passage of the Bill (which both really really want to see going through) and then both will have the luxury of voting against it. In collusion with the Greens (and relucantly) Fianna Fail.
I would love to think that this almost perfectly cynical demonstration of what is called realpolitic would be of some benefit to the left and further left, that people would see this particular display of ‘principle’ and resile, but I doubt it.
And here’s a thought. Leo Varadkar was interviewed in a puff piece in the Sunday Tribune magazine over the weekend. His hero?
Micheal O’Leary…
Ah…
Though Leo who has taken to heart some of the more pointed criticism remembered to throw in a line about how he wished he [O'Leary] would ‘tone it down a bit’. Or words to the effect.
O’Leary wouldn’t be O’Leary if he toned it down. That’s what makes O’Leary. That’s what made Varadkar.
That’s a leading representative of the party our nominal social democrats are about to enter coalition with. Though on the evidence of this week’s work ‘nominal’ is the word.
Nailing their colours firmly to the right of centre… the Irish Times editorial January 24, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Economy, Irish Politics.8 comments
It would probably be unfair to say that today’s IT editorial takes some satisfaction in outlining the events of the past week or so, and in particular the events of the weekend, but…
What’s more interesting, to me, is the following:
Good and decent man he may very well be, but his short tenure as Taoiseach will be characterised by the greatest ignominy of all: the abnegation of our economic sovereignty which will have untold consequences into the future. It is a shameful legacy for any leader but particularly for a Fianna Fáil leader. The chaotic manner of Mr Cowen’s resignation will pass but the rise in unemployment, the increase in taxes and the loss of national self-esteem will last for a long time.
Er… even by their own lights what about the cuts in public expenditure which surely are the most dismal aspect of government policy in the past two and a half years (given that the centre right now resiles from the very notion of the state doing anything much about directly intervening on job creation)?
And what of this for an example of confusion at or close to the top of the IT, coming only a week after another piece on the opinion page argued the Finance Bill could be put aside for the new government to take it up?
Today’s controversy will surround the enactment of the Finance Bill. Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan claims that it would be logistically impossible for him to get the Bill through the Dáil by Friday. The normal timetable for the passage of the Bill would be the end of March. The main Opposition parties, now including the Greens, want it done by Friday so that the election can be called. It is worth remembering that this is no normal Finance Bill. Rather, it is the domestic requirement to satisfy the terms of the bailout by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. There is little wriggle room in this Bill for any party, including Sinn Féin. All of the hours of debate in the world won’t turn back the clock on our loss of sovereignty.
The problem with that is not merely that inconsistency between the centrality of the FB to all that is happening, and the varying degrees of importance afforded to its passage prior to or subsequent upon an election, but as importantly the point about ‘little wriggle room’. Given that EU representatives have already opened a structural element of that bailout – the interest rates – independent of the passage of the FB, the authoritative tone of the editorial seems a little premature.
So perhaps some debate on this matter and matters contingent might be entirely appropriate.
Left Archive: The Case Against the Common Market: Sinn Féin/Wolfe Tone Society – 1967 January 24, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Left Online Document Archive, Sinn Féin.4 comments
To download file please click on following link: HereSF 67 DOC
This document is of particular interest because it dates from the pre-split Sinn Féin of the 1960s. As the frontispiece notes:
This statement on the implications of Irish membership of the European Economic Community was rafted by the Economic Sub-committee of the Wolfe Tone Society and adopted at a meeting of the Society in March 1967. It has been revised to take accounts of developments up to May 1967.
It’s worth pointing out that therefore that this arrived with the imprimateur of SF, given that it was published by Sinn Féin’s Republican Publications.
As the Introduction notes:
Only time will tell whether President De Gaulle’s hostile reception to Britain’s application to join the EEC represents a fixed determination to keep Britain out or signifies the adoption of a strong initial negotiating position by a French Government which is reconciled to ultimate British entry.
It also argues that ‘… British big business and the British Government see in Common Market membership the only solution acceptable to them for their present acute problems; they will therefore continue to desier entry to the CM for the foreseeable future, though having to contend with rising popular opposition to this policy from within Britain itself’.
It continues that since the French attitude is delaying British accession:
…It therefore gives a little more time for public opinion in Ireland to become aware of the perils to this country of Common Market membership and of the alternative courses possible.
And it further notes that:
…while the Common Market may be of benefit to various interests on the continent or even in Britain, it nevertheless is not in Ireland’s political, economic or cultural interests to join.
This is a reasonably comprehensive document so therefore an example of the rationale behind that last statement will suffice, with an example from each of the three areas mentioned, all of which foreshadow – at least in part – debates that will be familiar with more contemporary concerns.
As regards political interests the document is strongly critical of the impacts on neutrality (p.16). However it also argues:
…members of the EEC must recognise one another’s territorial frontiers. If Ireland joined the CM with Britain we would thus have to recognise the territorial frontiers of the United Kingdom. Yet the Constitution lays claim to part of the territorial area of the UK. Is the Dublin Government wiling to abandon also its claim for a politically united Ireland?
On economic issues:
It must be remembered, of course, that the grants and tax reliefs and other aids which the Irish Government at present offers to attract foreign industry to Ireland would have to go if Ireland were in the EEC. Indeed already they have to go under the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement (by 1975 in general and by 1983 in the case of Shannon).
On cultural issues:
There is not a work of significance in any of the arts that is not distinctively national in either its form, its content or its inspiration. The destruction of nations by their ‘integration’ in monopoly-dominated economic and political blocs signals the destruction of European culture and not its efflorescence.
In this respect the document remains rooted in a discourse tilted more towards the national than towards socio-economic or even class contexts. And in the text there closest that the analysis comes to the latter is in the mention of ‘the alternative to the Common Market… can only be given to the people by a socially radical, republican-minded Government which puts the interests of Irish workers and small farmers before the interests of foreign capital’.
It’s worth noting in passing that structurally the EEC in 1967 was different to its later incarnations. Consider, for example the description of the Parliament/Assembly on page 11. And in the analysis of this, although it is not explicit, are contained the seeds of some of the future debates as regards national primacy over democratic legitimacy that have been characteristic of critiques of the EEC/EC/EU subsequently.
As a blueprint for the future development of the significant number of parties that can be said to have branched from the Sinn Féin of the 1960s this has a considerable significance, not least in the way that it merged a then contemporary issue with previously extant concerns and approaches.
So, what happens next? January 23, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics.17 comments
This is sort of difficult to read as regards where we go next. According to the Green Party their withdrawal from government is to ensure an election is held.
Okay. But their continued support for the Finance Bill seems to cut across that given that FF seek to string out the latter for as long as they possibly can.
And isn’t this strangely familiar, for before Christmas when the GP said they wanted the election to be called in January but this was cut across by the same Financial Bill and the time span it would take to deal with that.
I don’t know if this does any good for the GP. Again, I doubt it.
And the following seems wildly optimistic…
Mr Gormley said the party would support the Finance Bill from the Opposition benches and he called on Fianna Fáil to make every effort to fast-track the legislation. He declined to answer questions about whether the party would support the Labour Party’s motion of no confidence, saying that the “issue doesn’t arise” because the Opposition was willing to stay the motion to bring forward the Finance Bill.
What’s the betting the latter will precede the former?
And Fianna Fáil, now a minority government, will do all they can to survive a bit longer because new leader or not, and note the rush to distance themselves from…er… their Taoiseach, they’re going forward in the worst possible circumstances, two weeks of utter chaos, SF and Labour still riding high, and a situation where the continuing presence of Cowen will undermine their efforts to jettison him.
Though the outcome of all this seems near imponderable, in broad terms it simply doesn’t look good for FF or any serious clawback of their position to anywhere near 2007 levels.
Much more on this during the week…
Greens gone now too … January 23, 2011
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Uncategorized.56 comments
…..A few years too late….
An All party agreed Finance Bill?
Sunday Independent Stupid Statement of the Week January 23, 2011
Posted by Garibaldy in Sunday Independent Stupid Statement of the Week.15 comments
The Sunday Independent is a remarkable entity, it really is. With Cowen going yesterday, the country’s most militant neo-liberal media outlet has found the scale dropping from its eyes. The problem was not, after all, the trade unions and their evil beards; nor was it the banks and their reckless behaviour; nor the IMF being forced upon the state by Merkel and Sarkozy and their ambitions of European domination; and it certainly wasn’t the nature of capitalism itself. So what was the cause of our recent problems?
As the week went on it seemed clearer and clearer that this country’s fatal flaw in recent times was one Brian Cowen.
Cue more discussion of his drinking habits, possible depression etc. As we saw, the groundwork for this line of argument was laid down last week, and it’s not surprising to see it. But it’s still breathtakingly shameless, especially given the paper’s track record on Cowen and his government.
Brendan O’Connor has a definitely very silly explanation for why things got so bad.
It was, in fact, the introduction of a soupcon of socialism that led us to our current unpleasant situation. Essentially, the bad gambling debts of the bondholders were nationalised, as were some of the ailing banks.
Ah. It was all socialism’s fault – what we needed was more capitalism.
Eilis O’Hanlon takes a different – and equally if not more stupid – approach to the Barroso statements that annoyed so many Sindo columnists.
As it happens, Joe Higgins was wrong as well — and not simply because of his fetishistic obsession with the woes of the working class at a time when any fair-minded analysis would have to concede it is already struggling middle class homeowners who are bearing the brunt of this recession, and whose children, educated at great personal expense and sacrifice, are now emigrating, according to the ESRI, at the rate of 1,000 per week.
A masterclass from Eoghan Harris that deserves to be read in full. The last line gives a good flavour of it.
Cowen has the guts for a general election. His party must find a place for him in the front line. Because under Lenihan as leader and with Cowen in charge of the Swat teams, Fianna Fail could make a fight of it yet.
Game [almost] over… Can this government survive the week… January 22, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics.6 comments
… Even this afternoon I thought they just might, but as more names are thrown into the hat for the FF leadership (my God, it’s every man and woman for themselves there, though no doubt with an eye on the potential for raising their profiles in their own constituencies) there’s something unhinged about everything that’s going on that makes me a lot more dubious about their survival.
According to David McCullough on RTÉ:
Even if the Greens decide to remain in Government until the Finance Bill is passed – there are indications this evening that the coalition faces defeat in the confidence vote.
If that’s the case it’s farewell the Finance Bill and an election in two or three weeks. Ah well, happy days.
Jesus wept. What a mess.
Cowen… Given the whiskey and the revolver and instructed to use it… January 22, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics.39 comments
He’s out of here… Sort of. As FF leader, but not as Taoiseach.
That co-op bank idea January 22, 2011
Posted by Tomboktu in A co-op bank.14 comments
At the end of November, I mulled here the idea of getting a co-op bank established in Ireland. Sonofstan had suggested that the ICTU would be a useful organisation to act as the catalyst. This week, I will try to get a motion on the topic on the agenda of my own union’s branch AGM. Others are welcome to copy and adapt for their union.
Establishment of a co-operative bank in Ireland
“(1) This ADC notes the following developments in the not-for-profit financial services sector in Ireland
(a) that the EBS is about to be sold to a private company,
(b) that the INBS is also likely to cease trading as a mutual, and
(c) that some years ago the TSB was “sold” by the government to a for-private-profit company.(2) This ADC notes that in light of those developments, the only options available individuals in Ireland for large financial tasks such as mortgages or many necessary services like a current account or an ATM account is now to bank with a for-private-profit company.
(3) This ADC notes that credit unions may still continue to exist but that
(a) credit unions are restricted in the range of services they can provide, and
(b) under the recently enacted Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Act 2010, the position of credit unions as membership-driven could be ended under the powers given to Minister for Finance to transfer the business of a credit union, which do not require that any such transfer must be to another not-for-profit.(4) This ADC believes
(a) that there is a need for an alternative to be created to enable people in Ireland to have a real choice in ordinary retail financial services like credit cards, ATMs, mortgages, cheque books, motor loans, etc., and
(b) that such an alternative could usefully take the form of a co-operative bank similar to ones available to people in other EU countries, and
(c) that the trade union movement has a large enough membership and has the structures and resources to explore the feasibility and to act as the catalyst for setting up a co-operative bank in Ireland.(5) Therefore, this ADC instructs
(a) the incoming Executive Committee to request the ICTU to investigate the possibility or options for the establishment of a co-operative bank that would provide retail banking services, such as mortgages, current accounts, ATM accounts, and the full range of other retail financial services for individuals (to members generally in addition to, public servants and trade
union members), and
(b) the incoming Executive Committee to campaign vigorously within ICTU on this matter and to report to ADC 2011 on progress achieved or on any related issues of consequence.”
