jump to navigation

What you want to say – 18th May 2016 May 18, 2016

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
trackback

As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.

Comments»

1. Joe - May 18, 2016

That debate about an alleged decline in the nationalist vote in Northern Ireland. This is a tad provocative I’d say http://www.google.ie/url?url=http://www.irishnews.com/opinion/columnists/2016/05/14/news/new-nationalism-risks-going-the-way-of-new-labour-518077/&rct=j&frm=1&q=&esrc=s&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwj_z538vuPMAhWnK8AKHdFLCQQQFggTMAA&usg=AFQjCNFjSODUcpQu2JO_8SHoSZzbiI6xhg

Don’t think anyone has mentioned the collapse of the Republic’s economy in 2007 and 2008 and resultant emigration. Huge emigration of young people in their twenties from the south in the last few years. But also young (mainly nationalist?) people from the north – young lads who would have worked in the building industry, many of them.
So when one sees photos of Irish lads at a barbie in Melbourne there’s a full thirty two county selection of GAA jerseys on show.
It’s my thesis that this accounts for some of the decline in the nationalist vote and specifically for the loss by nationalists of the Fermanagh Sth Tyrone Westminster seat.

Like

Reply
2. roddy - May 18, 2016

Joe,you and I have had many spats over the years but on this issue I agree 100 % with your point on emigration.The nationalist community has always depended massively on the construction industry.When I left school in the mid 70’s 90% of my contempories would have went into building work.That has reduced somewhat in recent years but is still a massive factor in nationalist employment.Thousands of SF voters are now in Australia and even for those who are there for relatively short periods,the logistics of organising postal or proxy votes is virtually impossible due to the short window for applications to be processed.

Like

Reply
sonofstan - May 18, 2016

At least you can have a postal vote, and for up to 15 years after leaving. Just noticed this while moving my vote to my new address here

Like

Reply
3. Alibaba - May 18, 2016

I have to admit to being exasperated by recent developments.

The detail of Clare Daly’s arrest was leaked to the media in 2013. So far, the case against an individual Garda is not proven. So what? It looks like they want to bury this issue now.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/garda-cleared-of-leaking-td-arrest-details-34721421.html

And here’s what Simon Harris, Health Minister, had to say about senior gardaí and Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan in 2014 and Harris is galloping away from that now:

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/colette-browne/new-politics-fails-its-first-test-as-ministers-abandon-whistleblowers-34721248.html

I remember that Callinan called whistleblowers who brought concerns to public attention or brought them before an Oireachtas Committee “disgusting”. I remember that Shatter had a go at Mick Wallace during a TV panel discussion by mentioning some info he got about a private exchange between Wallace and a Garda that led to nothing of significance. In my view, this was moronic and despicable behaviour by both of them. But the O’Higgins Report didn’t examine these actions and instead cleared Callinan and Shatter of any misdoing in their investigations.

Mind you, Gene Kerrigan said “Both of these men [Callinan and Shatter] suffered unfair treatment by the political establishment, but nothing compared to the years of attempts to bring Sgt McCabe down”.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/gene-kerrigan/gene-kerrigan-theres-no-telling-where-this-will-end-34715747.html

And now it seems that Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan is up to antics:

http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/columnists/michael-clifford/noirin-osullivan-leaves-key-questions-unanswered-399883.html

I believed a ruse would be found to prevent O’Sullivan revealing the instructions she gave to her legal team about Sgt Maurice McCabe’s treatment. Now I discover: “According to leaked transcripts of the commission hearings, seen by RTÉ, early in the hearings Mr Smyth had said his “instructions from the commissioner” were “to challenge the integrity . . . of Sgt McCabe”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/commissioner-should-be-concerned-about-senior-garda-management-mcdonald-1.2651910

So, it seems senior gardaí stated originally that McCabe told them he had a grudge against some other police officer(s); hence the accusation of ‘malice’. But when it came to notice that McCabe had recorded this conversation and no such thing was said, the complaint was conveniently withdrawn.

Some might think cough up the names of those individuals and what action has/will be been taken against them. I wouldn’t fancy being in their spots today. We have a phrase where I come from for situations like this: caught rapah!

So, McCabe took enormous risks in the public interest and this is what he gets. Fianna Fáil, amongst others, will most likely let it move on, depending on what holes are dug out during next week’s debate. Some self-styled champions of McCabe are expressing concern about the “culture” within the police. Oh my! Ugh …

Like

Reply
4. roddy - May 18, 2016

SOS, not here in the North .The rules are different and much tighter here and there would’nt be enough time to sort it out .

Like

Reply
sonofstan - May 18, 2016

so not like Finchley then?

Like

Reply
5. Gabriel - May 18, 2016

So the minimum number to form a Dáil group is to be reduced from seven TDs to five, and it will be possible to have more than one technical group concurrently: https://twitter.com/paulmurphyAAA/status/732977192100102144

Like

Reply
6. CL - May 20, 2016

“It is very similar to late Weimar Germany,” Chomsky said. “The parallels are striking…
we are faced with a political system largely devoted to the needs of organized wealth, which leaves working people anxious, worried about the future, and, as we have seen, very angry. In essence, political elites — on both sides — have created a vacuum into which a charismatic and loudmouthed demagogue can emerge.”
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/noam-chomsky-predicted-rise-trump-six-years-ago

It can’t happen here?

Like

Reply
7. CL - May 22, 2016

Latest U.S presidential poll:

“46 percent for Trump, 44 percent for Clinton….
half of each candidate’s supporters are negative voters, saying they oppose the other candidate more than they support their own choice…”
Clinton is “losing 20 percent of Bernie Sanders’ supporters to Trump..
Clinton is only running evenly with Trump among 18- to 29-year-olds
Fifty-one percent of Americans overall see Sanders favorably, 7 points better than Clinton (and +14 vs. Trump)..
Trump now leads Clinton by 22 points among men.. Clinton’s +14 vs. Trump among women..
Trump, further, now has a 24-point lead over Clinton among whites..
Clinton’s backed by seven in 10 racial and ethnic minorities..
Trump leads Clinton among independents by 13 points,..
15 percent of Obama voters in 2012 now say they’d back Trump over Clinton.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/post-primary-rally-boosts-trump-albeit-challenges-aplenty/story?id=39265102

Just a snap-shot almost 6 months out from the election.

On Paddy Power, Clinton is favourite at 2/5. Trump is 9/4.

Like

Reply
8. CL - May 22, 2016

“British director Ken Loach’s film I, Daniel Blake has won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival….
The film explores the impact of the UK welfare system on a middle-aged widower in Newcastle after a heart attack.”
“We are in the grip of a dangerous project of austerity driven by ideas that we call neo-liberalism that have brought us to near catastrophe.”-said Loach.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36355313

Liked by 1 person

Reply
9. Michael Carley - May 23, 2016

Outbreak of sense in the Irish Times:

Is it that hypocrisy that keeps Catholics from voting for unionist parties? After all, unionism, we are told, is a wonderful, tolerant, generous, open, political philosophy, one that makes small people great. It is truly odd then that after so many years of partition and enlightened unionism that so few Catholics have actually twigged to its benefits.

I know Catholics who love their wives and others who leave them. I know devout Catholics and Catholics for whom the description “former” Catholic would not be sufficiently violent to describe how they feel about Catholicism.

I know Catholics of all shades and all sorts and all kinds of morality. And the one thing they all have in common is that none of them vote for a real, proper, unionist party such as the DUP or those awfully nice middle-class UUP ones.

That tells you all you really need to know about Ulster unionism.

“I won the election.” No, the DUP collected enough votes within its own supporters to come out in front. For now. There will be another election along soon. And another after that.

What are the chances of the DUP or the UUP finding a Douglas Hyde by then?

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/pól-ó-muirí-why-catholics-just-won-t-vote-unionist-1.2655228

Like

Reply
10. sonofstan - May 23, 2016

Has a catholic ever been elected for any unionist party in the North (leaving aside Alliance, Roddy)?

Like

Reply
sonofstan - May 23, 2016

And a subsidiary question; when googling to find out, I came across a few articles suggesting that social liberalism in SF and the SDLP was depressing the nationalist vote. This sounds like hogwash, not least the idea that the SDLP are socially liberal. Any views?

Like

Reply
Dr. Nightdub - May 23, 2016

There was one in the old Unionist Party back in the 20s / 30s, think his name was Denis Henry.

Like

Reply
Joe - May 24, 2016

Don’t know about getting elected. There was a fuss made by a prospective UUP candidate (in nth Antrim?) a few years back. She worked full-time for the party, was Catholic, and sought a nomination to run for election but didn’t get it. IIRC she said that her family had served ‘the Crown’ for generations but that still wasn’t enough to get her over the line with the members/leadership of the party in terms of allowing her, a Catholic, to stand for election for them.

Like

Reply
fergal - May 24, 2016

John Bruton?

Like

Reply
11. Garibaldy - May 23, 2016

Sir John Gorman at least SoS

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-27586331

I would say a lot of the SDLP are pretty socially liberal, and its policies are, but not on the right to choose as a party, and some individuals aren’t on other issues.

Like

Reply
12. Michael Carley - May 23, 2016

My employer is openly looking for strikebreakers for a couple of days:

http://bath.web.ucu.org.uk/2016/05/18/2235/

Like

Reply
13. roddy - May 23, 2016

Gorman was an ex British army officer who would have had nothing in common with his Catholic fellow citizens .He would have been the type of “kethlic” so beloved by the likes of John Taylor who would have used him as an example of how “many Roman Kethlics” wanted to be British.”

Like

Reply
sonofstan - May 23, 2016

On the other point, Roddy, are traditional Catholics being put off by the ‘liberal agenda’? Sounds to me like the kind of disavowal you get from right wing labourites here about how labour needs to answer the ‘legitimate fears’ about immigration amongst the White working class ( who are savages, of course, but what can you do?)

Like

Reply
14. roddy - May 23, 2016

I canvassed hundreds of houses recently and never once did anyone mention “the liberal agenda”.People who would have religious reservations about SF’s secular take on “moral” issues ” seem to leave this aside and vote anyway.The vast majority of “church going ” catholics that I know would be of the”a la carte” variety and never listen to the Bishops when it comes to voting.

Like

Reply
sonofstan - May 23, 2016

Thought so.

Like

Reply
15. CL - May 23, 2016

On May 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th 2016 at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. a large gathering of civil society will take place to challenge the entrenched power of the corporate/political complex.
http://csrl.org/

Like

Reply
16. sonofstan - May 23, 2016

England become more segregated, with fear, suspicion and distrust between ethnic groups. Buried in the report in the Guardian:

““We know that people who live in closed communities are more fearful of other and more likely to be prejudice to people from other backgrounds,” added Cantle. He said that anti-extremism measures, including the anti-radicalisation scheme “Prevent”, had “overwhelmed the work on cohesion” since 2007”

Which will surprise no one who has been briefed on that spectacularly stupid strategy.

Like

Reply
WorldbyStorm - May 23, 2016

Yeah. Completely agree. It’s not immigration alone, or economic competition, it’s also in part due to a massive over-exaggeration of the propensity to radicalisation on the part of Muslim communities by govt. the press, commentators, etc. And small wonder UKIP is banging the anti-immigrant drum.

Like

Reply
sonofstan - May 24, 2016

Headline in our local rag this week: ‘what’s really going on in our mosques?’ – substitute ‘synagogue’ or ‘Catholic church’ for mosque and ask yourself if any paper would run it….

Like

Reply
WorldbyStorm - May 24, 2016

Almost impossible to see how.

Like

Reply
17. Jim Monaghan - May 24, 2016

It looks like both the AAA and the PbP have gone their separate ways in launching mini parties. Not even an effort in making the spurious election unity a reality. What a cynical crowd of people run these groups.

Liked by 1 person

Reply
18. sonofstan - May 24, 2016

Quite a diverting image BTL in the Guardian:

“EU states are going to have the resources, the time, and the will to be constantly rounding up Brits and deporting them back to the UK? can you imagine it, Brit Camps dotted across the continent, full of UK citizens awaiting deportation”.

Like

Reply
sonofstan - May 24, 2016

And this is somewhat boggling:

“There is a clear correlation between education and attitudes to the EU referendum (in the YouGov polls there was a Leave lead of about 30 points among people who left school at 16 and a Remain lead of 33 points among those who were in educated beyond the age of twenty. This is partially to do with age, but it remains true even within people of the same age) so samples are too educated or not educated enough it could easily make a difference”.

From UK Polling Report.

Like

Reply
CL - May 24, 2016

Probably a class aspect to this given the differential access to education. Those most damaged by market fundamentalism and austerity are turning to the Right; seen also in the Trump phenomenon and in the recent presidential election in Austria.

Like

Reply
19. Dr. X - May 24, 2016

It’s a quarter of a century since the Horn of Africa country of Eritrea gained its independence, after thirty years of struggle.

http://qz.com/691016/eritreans-are-still-waiting-on-freedom-25-years-after-independence/

It turned out that the struggle for freedom did not end there.

Liked by 1 person

Reply
20. fergal - May 24, 2016

Continuing in the series- more fine gael than the fine gaelers themselves I see Senator Kevin Humphries belives that jobsbridge was a success story but the good side was never really reported on. Just like someone said here a few weeks back- it was a comunications problem- same reason why Labour lost 30 seats out of 37..
Ah well not to worry Brendan ‘who speaks of Syriza now Howlin will save the day

Liked by 1 person

Reply

Leave a comment