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Books
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Death of Dolours Price – opens up possibility that her taped oral history will be published (or not)
Tweet Dolours Price – sister, mother, bomber, prisoner and a thorn in Gerry Adams’ side – died in her Malahide home on Wednesday night. The Guardian’s Ireland correspondent Henry McDonald writes: Price was involved in a car bombing at the Old Bailey in 1973, which injured more than 200 people and may have led to [...] read our review » -
Friday afternoon thread: Why confession works in a world of ‘cheaters’…
Tweet This is really worth watching… It suggests the very Catholic option of opening a new page by having a confession process does in the longer term help people to behave better… Presented by Dan Ariely, author of The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves. read our review »
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“Unionism Decayed 1997-2007″ by David Vance: book review
Tweet I initially wrote this when the book was first published three years ago; whilst certain elements of it now sound dated, its basic premise that the period of 1997-2007 was a period of irreversible decay for Northern Irish Unionism can still be argued as a valid opinion. My own feeling is that it did [...] read our review »
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Comment on #G8: Taxation should remain focused on capital and employees not where sales are generated…
on 19 June 2013 at 7:00 am
Mick
Thanks for the Robert Shapiro quote:
£”The ability to develop ideas is the single most critical factor and source of wealth and growth for advanced economies today, replacing physical assets and this is what Ireland needed to focus on.”
And the UK pays 10% corporation tax on patents.
So if we fill in the ‘valley of death’ between idea and saleable product, and build expertise in testing and certification, we might have an economy.
So what does an ideas farm look like?
Lots of people getting together and talking?
We have the hotels for the coffee breaks and the roads and budget airlines to get people home to all those spare houses afterwards, so what’s the problem?
Unlikely combinations are a good source of ideas. Old sectors, new technologies, immigrants, academics and business people.
Like speed dating for strange singles.
Add big questions like: How do we get water and energy at the places that need it?
THe £ was a typo but looks right so it stays in.
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Comment on “Adding more weapons to this volatile situation could destabilise the entire region…”
on 16 June 2013 at 9:24 am
Societies with a lot of spare young men are prone to violence and disorder. Unermployment is endemic in the middle east. Adding weapons could make a big bloody sectarian mess.
It could be more productive for the G8 to have a whip round to pay Harland and Wolf to build some water super tankers. Ireland has so much water we can rely on surface water in lakes etc. Most countries have to drill for it.
The leaders only have to look out the window to see it, or step outside to feel it.
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Comment on ‘#G8 development dividend in the balance’ – 5 issues to watch
on 15 June 2013 at 8:54 pm
“But real scrutiny demands that the registries are accessible not just to tax authorities, but to civil society, journalists and the wider public.”
But would this leave families vulnerable to robbery kidnap and ransom demands?
In many countries £10,000 could attract a gun gang.
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Comment on “Adding more weapons to this volatile situation could destabilise the entire region…”
on 15 June 2013 at 8:25 pm
Martin is very well qualified to give the warning.
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Comment on Query: Why are the EU and Republic of Ireland flags at the Lough Erne G8 resort?
on 15 June 2013 at 8:15 pm
Adds a bit of colour?
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Comment on For the sake of the future, the Assembly needs reform
on 15 June 2013 at 3:45 am
Morpheus
“Where does the UUP fit into that aquifer.”
Like yourself I had mentally left the UUP out of the centre.
Perhaps their ‘intra sectarian outbidding’ and TUV can keep keep the DUP usefully boxed out at the extreme. As the Paisleyite party the DUP are stuck there anyhow. Nesbitt’s gang are beholden to the Orange, so will fail any NI leadership or public order test.
Enter Judge Naomi Long Dred.
Bad form for Irish sons to argue with someone who looks like their mum.
Politically this is wee buns. All Alliance has to do is go down to Dublin and make a fuss about it. The voters they want have all been to the airport and will vote yes why not.
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Comment on NI21′s chair Tina McKenzie on why she got involved, party labels and Alliance
on 14 June 2013 at 10:16 pm
“But ultimately Alliance has no choice other than to unleash attacks.”
Some good gouging and mud wrestling would open up political space in the middle, where SFDUP cannot get traction.
All we need now is a labour party.
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Comment on For the sake of the future, the Assembly needs reform
on 14 June 2013 at 8:46 am
If so-called centre parties were to set out an agreed programme for government (and common criticism of SFDUP) we could all take them more seriously as opposition to SFDUP, but they do not, so we must not.
Having SFDUP in government long enough to get sick of them, perhaps in the implementation of the real changes of welfare reform and austerity, may be our best chance.
Reform may have to follow a change in voting patterns.
Electorates end up fickle.
In italy they voted for a party set up by a comedian.
Here we voted for parties set up by a religious zealot and a catholic boys gun club.
And the opposition cannot get them out? What a laugh.
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Comment on On political reform: “the present time of crisis is exactly the time to act”
on 11 June 2013 at 12:10 am
If some people are given a job as an honour they usually try to do it well, so the trick could be to write the right job description.
And perhaps give them seven years to learn to do it well. Why seven? Ten years past retirement might have too many in dotage.
Half should be women, of course, which is well on our way to a revolution around here.
Perhaps former members of the dail should be kept out?
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Comment on See that #fleg in Enniskillen? Well, now you don’t…
on 7 June 2013 at 9:53 pm
Identity schmadentity
Hope we get some goths and punks along to the G8
A rainbow flag or two would be nice.
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