Sunday Independent Stupid Statement of the Week January 31, 2010
Posted by Garibaldy in Media and Journalism.trackback
In third place, Eilis O’Hanlon, for a fine example of ignoring who actually is responsible for the economic difficulties of the south in favour of the usual lazy scapegoat. And she has the cheek to lecture others about reality. How can she keep churning this out week after week?
Though even if they don’t, the public sector unions show every sign of managing the total meltdown of the Irish economy very well by themselves, thank you very much, as they engage on a nationwide work to rule to protest against reality… sorry, I mean pay cuts introduced in the last Budget.
In second place, Aengus Fanning, for a fawning introduction to an interview with Ray McSharry, that peddles the same old lies about the Celtic Tiger being the result of his anti-people cuts of the late 1980s.
THERE is a story that gives us a clue to Ray MacSharry’s character, to the man who, as Minister for Finance, laid the foundations in 1987 for the economic miracle of the following 20 years, the Mac the Knife who seemed to thrive on unpopularity.
In first place, Cathal MacCarthy, for giving yet another outing to the Muslim birth-rate scare story.
The French have decided to double-bluff the Islamic fundamentalism that uses that country’s freedom to publicly display symbols of its own religious intolerance and issues the kind of long-term threats designed to be picked up by anyone who cares to glance at the tables of Europe’s birth rates and the religious affiliations therein.
And a special mention for trying to spin the Tory tradition of playing the Orange card as an exercise in progressive politics while not knowing that Cameron was not part of the Tory-UUP-DUP talks on which the story is based.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Turgid was invented as a word to describe that man’s style of writing. It reads like a leaving cert essay.
I find it hilarious that those who worry about the low birth rate in western europe and the high birth rate of immigrants are the same people who in other venues want immigrants to drive down wages in the name of competitiveness, and also feel no desire to reform a system which makes it very difficult for women to have kids. For example does the low german birth rate have anything to do with the fact the most german creches close early and also close for lunch – effectively rending a creche pointless. But rather than suggest any meaningful societal reform McCarthy misses the point. If he is so gung ho against immigrants he could start to tackle the screwed up system that keeps european birth rates low.
But that would be a bit too radical for a leaving cert english student wouldnt it. A bit too useful an idea to come from the Sindo.
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The Sunday Independent exemplifies everything that is wrong with this country. This John Paul Mc Carthy lad they’ve been giving space to recently reads like a Roy Foster clone. Increasingly there is very little variation in the WASP new-right monotone of the O’Reilly Rags; God I can’t wait ’till INM go bankrupt.
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Muslims in continental Europe (mostly north African) tend to be far more moderate than Muslims in Britain (who are chiefly of Asian extraction). 35% of French Muslims believe homosexual acts are acceptable, half say they find fornication acceptable and the vast majority of French Muslims are non-practicing; Muslims of Algerian descent (the predominant French Muslim demographic) tend to be the most secular (only 6% practice). The Institut National Etudes Démographiques reports that just 23% of Muslims in France join public prayer at least five times a year, which isn’t much different from the proportion of Catholics who attend seasonal high services.
Islam has no problem with birth control and birth rates in Islamic countries have been steadily declining. Iran now has a TFR of only 1.7 (compared to 6.5 at the Revolution) which is lower than many European countries. In the UAE, Tunisia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Lebanon, the TFRs have already sank to near-European levels. Algeria and Morocco have TFRs of 2.4, but are also quickly dropping to European levels. The UN World Population Prospects Report predicts that TFR in Indonesia (the world’s most populous Islamic country) for the years 2010–15 will drop to 2.02.
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Well played Garibaldy
John-Paul McCarthy is an idiot. He simpley gets fact after fact wrong. I think his analysis is piss-poor too but I suppose that is open to debate.
Harold Wilson was a premier in the 60s not the 70s. That enough should see him sacked.
However how the Tories cosying up to unionist parties would see “an united Northern Ireland” also literally beggars belief.
Shane – I’m not a big fan of Foster but he is approximately a million times more credible than McCarthy, whose only credentials are that he is an Irish Unionist.
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Harold Wilson was a premier in the 60s not the 70s.
Wilson got back in again in Feb 1974 until he retired in 1976.
What’s more interesting is that he fails in his list of Tory achievements to mention Margaret Thatcher’s authorship of the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
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In that cae I am the idiot.
re AIA – that pissed off the unionists of course, so prob doesnt count as an achiecement in McCarthys eyes.
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sorry – I forgot to comment upon how the twat talks about the moral superiority of unionism, and his concernc over the insecurity of unionists is strangely unmatched by any concern over the plight of unionists.
I really think he deserves first place… :_)
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And Mr. McCarthy uses the term “Pan-nationalist Front”.
Pure Conor Cruise O’Brien.
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a tattered one indeed in comparison to the Conservative record which can point to the enormous contribution the Balfour brothers made in settling the land question in the 1890s
Yes, McCarthy is a buffoon. That would be “Bloody” Balfour of Coercion Act ‘fame’; maybe next week he can follow up with a piece lauding Strom Thurmond’s ‘enormous contribution’ to Civil Rights?
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By the way, I think that the Virgin Jody Corcoran’s front-page piece deserves an honourable mention; apparently a public sector worker has become an “unwitting” (their regretful words) pawn of the evil trade unions, who neglected to mention when describing how they lost the family home that her husband is unemployed too (how this changes the fact that her paycut left her unable to pay the bills, only the Sindo and their readership know).
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One cute line in Cathal MacCarthy’s otherwise mindless piece of xenophobia:
“I wonder will we be more honest than the French and just say we want it banned because it unnerves us ever so slightly”
By that logic, surely “we” should be calling for the Sunday Independent to be banned. I find the views expressed there far more unnerving than seeing a woman wearing a burqa or niqab.
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Should we ban the Sindo?
I say yes.
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Eilis O’Hanlon. Cripes. How many years has she been learning the trade now?
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Just out of curiosity, what is it about the “Muslim birth-rate scare story” you find objectionable? While I don’t subscribe to the England-will-be-a-sharia-state-in-10-years philosophy, what increase in their population would be enough to scare you?
@Hons.English Class,
to turn your point that “those who worry about the low birth rate in western europe and the high birth rate of immigrants are the same people who in other venues want immigrants to drive down wages in the name of competitiveness,” around, why is it the same people who want large numbers of immigrants AND insist that wages will not be driven down as a result?
If the motive of the pro-immigration lobby is to drive down wages, then why do Socialists not oppose immigration, on the grounds that it harms the working class?
On your other point, I agree entirely, we have created a system which reduces the incentive to have children, and this is not a good thing.
@Shane, while there’s no doubt your facts are correct, I would like to see them compared with the situation in, say, 1979, where moslems in Europe were far more secular than they are today. many young muslims are wearing veils today while their mothers -and grandmothers – never have.
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Tim,
The easiest thing to do is to direct you to these things.
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cool. thanks
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Tim,
“@Hons.English Class,
to turn your point that “those who worry about the low birth rate in western europe and the high birth rate of immigrants are the same people who in other venues want immigrants to drive down wages in the name of competitiveness,” around, why is it the same people who want large numbers of immigrants AND insist that wages will not be driven down as a result?
If the motive of the pro-immigration lobby is to drive down wages, then why do Socialists not oppose immigration, on the grounds that it harms the working class?”
There are 2 lobbies IMHO.
The first lobby is those who want cheap labour and dont give a damn about the labour
the 2nd lobby give a damn about the labour. The Socialists would fit into the second part.
The second lobby suits the ambitions of the first but only by accident. It does so from a good intention but the effect is the same. businesses get all the cheap labour they could possibly want.
Its not beyond possibility that the socialist party might doo something for positive reasons which ultimately only helps big business fill jobs by paying crap wages rather than paying decent wages.
I think one point needs to be repeaed here is that the claims that some how or other there is going to be a takeover is scaring of the highest order and shoould be laughed out of court.
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Is the historian John-Paul McCarthy unaware of the Tory role in encouraging, inciting and funding armed rebellion against a home rule settlement from 1912-14?
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If I didn’t know better, I’d speculate (especially given his
review of the Hanley & Millar LR) that Mr. McCarthy might
be a pseudonym of a certain former WP member. 😉
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Yeah that’s what I thought too, but I’ve been informed by someone who knows better that he is indeed a real person, who has fallen completely in thrall to the great EH and channels his worldview. Easy mistake to make, the madness of his articles is very Harris – the Lost Revolution review where he implied that Mick Ryan was a fictional character invented by Hanley and Millar was something special alright
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