Welcome to 2007… meet the new year…Iraq, the Election, Saddam, the North… same as the old year…

Okay, the dust settles, the winds abate, the rain stops pouring and the hangovers recede.

What’s to report? Not that much really. Or to put it another way, altogether too much.

Again this is a brief one raising some thoughts about the last couple of days.

Firstly welcome to Bulgaria and Romania. The EU has finally opened it’s doors to these two countries. We sweep eastwards, slowly, incrementally, but inexorably. And the circle of gold stars widens to encompass more of the Eurasian landmass. Charles Stuart Parnell once said, “No man has a right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation. No man has a right to say to his country thus far shalt thou go and no further”. This is interesting when applied to the European project and particularly the case of Turkey. The EU is not a state, and the federalist dream appears to have withered on the vine. But it remains a potent force globally and it appears to have it’s own expansionist dynamic. I tend to sit on the side of the fence which sees it largely as a good thing and I think that Turkish accession would also be a good thing. But both these viewpoints will no doubt be tested to near destruction over the future year.

On the subject of the march of the nation there is the tangled issue of policing in the North. There are those around these parts who have a better idea than I about such things, but, if a deal can be struck which see’s policing devolved to the Assembly i.e. to Irish people on this island then I find it difficult to see how further progress can (or should) be prevented on that issue. But the devil is in the detail. And the detail appears to shift in and out of focus depending upon what one reads and who one believes. Most depressing are the noises off from the DUP intransigients (they know who they are) who remind me of cartoon characters on a runaway train desperately throwing down track ahead of the engine, each piece of track being a new excuse to delay the moment of truth when the Executive lurches like an even more dissipated Frankenstein to eventual (half) life.

And talking of life, or more precisely the execution of Saddam. Well… standing in the arrivals hall of Dublin Airport on Saturday morning watching the executioners noose being tied around his neck was certainly an odd experience. I can’t say that I think it’s the best way to move on in Iraq (although the Iranian reaction of barely unconfined glee was very telling if one wishes to see it in a Shia/Sunni sort of a way). Nothing has been solved in the Middle East. The ISG report looks like it’s been shelved for the moment as we see the ‘surge’ concept of increased US soldiers thrown around as a viable proposition. And who knows? Maybe it might work, but I doubt it.

Things that don’t work? Well how about our beloved “official” opposition, still mired in depression after a 2006 which saw them reach for the smoking gun that might finally do in our astoundingly beloved government ( that element of popularity incidentally being a feat of political physics akin to anti-gravity ), and turn it on themselves. I’ve held no particular candle for the opposition (although lighting a few mightn’t be the worse way to deal with the problem, or at least couldn’t hurt) but even if only to see the situation sharpen up it might be nice to see a greater effort. Although perhaps I’m being unfair. I met a bunch of dyed in the wool FG voters and members today who pretty much accepted that Bertie would be our once and future leader. It’s when I hear that sort of thing I begin to wonder, perhaps it ain’t so.

So all told interesting times. Let the games commence…