Slugger O'Toole

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Latest comments from malairt (see all)

malairt has commented 74 times (0 in the last month).

1. Comment on Only a fool would call the Scottish independence referendum at this distance
   on 10 January 2012 at 12:35 pm

   That’s a great post – thanks very much. I had never thought of the Quebec example in that way before but you’re right, there’s a parallel there. If I remember correctly from the 90′s campaign, the view of the Canadian Unionists was that Canada as an entity would be much weaker if Quebec left the Union, not only in the economic sense, Quebec being the manufacturing powerhouse of Canada, but in the loss of strength that comes from being a Union of disparate parts.

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2. Comment on Why the Tories are constitutionally all at sea in Scotland
   on 9 January 2012 at 1:36 pm

   @ tuatha

   the 276k vote for the Tories that I referred to was for the 2011 Assembly elections, not the Westminster elections.

   As the turnout was only 50% (which is sad), 276k was a significant figure, nearly double the LD’s. Right of centre thinking is still alive and kicking in Scotland and not the exclusive preserve of England.

   @Barnshee – England won’t be able to keep the Jocks out as I assume that the First Minister will make sure Scotland is part of the EU before cutting ties with the UK.

   I don’t agree that the reasons for Union are gone – I fear though that one determined man with no hidden agenda is leading Scotland to a divorce that is in no-one’s interests. Regrettably, Unionist politicians of all parties appear to be unable to take Mr. Salmond on and put forward a coherent story about why he’s wrong. Fiddling about with the referendum is just that, fiddling about

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3. Comment on So Northern Ireland is not having it so bad after all? (Yet).
   on 9 January 2012 at 1:06 pm

   Well, that’s me told. Becoming a bit personal this but let’s keep going.

   No, I don’t see anything wrong with an aspiration to move up, pick whatever your favourite definition of up is. I wouldn’t like to be still living in the 2 up 2 down mid terraced I started off in, thanks.

   I think few would agree with the notion of infinite expansion, certainly not in the economic sense. People are ever hopeful though that while the crunch might come it won’t be now – that’s why we have bubbles and why 25% of the adult population still smoke. You’ll never manage to wipe out the eternal optimism of the human race that it won’t happen to me.

   I’ve never supported the dead money argument although I can perhaps see how Old Mortality can interpret that from what I’ve said – if you’re paying more money in interest than you are in rent, then I would agree that renting makes more sense. Even I as a humble economist can see that. From what I see of the property market, at the moment renting is more expensive than buying as landlords take advantage of a tight market and tighter mortgage lending conditions and crank up the rate.

   We’ve wandered off-topic a tad. I still think that despite the figures quoted by Mick, NI is skating on very thin economic ice: one item of evidence for which is a housing market that is dead and a housing valuations down say 30% or so from their peak.

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4. Comment on So Northern Ireland is not having it so bad after all? (Yet).
   on 6 January 2012 at 3:25 pm

   If the housing market is dead it makes it very difficult for people to move if they lose their job or indeed if they get a promotion and want to move to a nicer house or better area. I think the UK is treading on thin economic ice: huge debts, huge deficits year after year, government expenditure around 50% of GDP, unemployment growing and a private sector struggling to borrow for essential investment. The paralysed housing market (outside the South East) is only one consequence of a dire situation.

   I wouldn’t agree that it’s only the financial illiterate who bought into the housing bubble of 06 and 07. If you want to buy a house to live in you have to buy at the rate of the time – you don’t have any choice. Well OK you can rent, but that’s not a choice that many want to make, watching serious chunks of money disappearing into someone else’s pocket every month and living in a place with someone else’s choice of kitchen equipment and beige decor. I’m also surprised to see Londoners picked out as financially sophisticated and wonder where that notion comes from. As far as I’ve seen, Londoners are no better or worse than anyone else at deciding at which point in the property cycle we’re at at the moment. The astonishing thing is what people will buy in order to get a foothold in a market that seems to defy gravity.

   Falling house prices are only good news if you have no stake in the property market. Otherwise you’re watching your hard earned investment disappearing into thin air, reducing your wealth or even worse submerging you in the morass of negative equity. Everyone does need somewhere to live, I agree, and I think the vast majority are bought as homes, not investments. Although you need someone to invest otherwise there’d be nothing to rent, gumming the market up further.

   I’m not sure how you prevent a housing bubble – go back to the late 70′s and early 80′s and ration credit? Bubbles are a feature of the way we function as a society.

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5. Comment on Why the Tories are constitutionally all at sea in Scotland
   on 6 January 2012 at 12:03 pm

   Ah – I wasn’t quite fast enough I see. The above post was aimed @ Into the west 11:41

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6. Comment on Why the Tories are constitutionally all at sea in Scotland
   on 6 January 2012 at 12:01 pm

   I don’t think that’s quite right. In fact it’s derogatory rubbish. You’re conflating English and Tories as if they’re one and the same, which of course they’re not. 276 thousand Scots voted Conservative at the Assembly elections, nearly 12% of the vote.

   If you ask English peole why they would like the UK to continue, you’ll find that the main reason is that they’re conservative – they don’t like change. What we’ve got works so why change it. It’s the same reason the monarchy endures and why there’s no proper formal constitution – what we’ve got works. So Scotland can remain part of the UK for as long as the Scots want it to be: I sincerely doubt there’s any enthusiasm for ejecting Scotland from the Union. Money doesn’t come into it, otherwise you’d salami slice the UK until all that’s left is Wessex with maybe Mercia.

   I don’t understand your last line. Ignoring the offensive nature of the words used – defeated over what?

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7. Comment on So Northern Ireland is not having it so bad after all? (Yet).
   on 6 January 2012 at 11:41 am

   The housing market’s absolutely knackered though. In the crescent where my house is in Bangor no less than 7 houses are up for sale (out of about 40). For houses of fairly similar size and condition, prices range from £299k to £395, I guess depending on the desperation of the vendors. One of them’s been up since mid 2008 and I’ve watched the price slide year after year, obviously missing the boat each time as the market lurches further downward. These houses started 2008 valued at £400 – £450k.

   Output figures are only one measure of economic health: a paralysed/dead housing market tells a story of a society treading on very thin economic ice.

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8. Comment on NI Water: Another Chief Executive resignation?
   on 5 November 2011 at 3:54 pm

   Sorry Mick.

   @Ms. brrokvent

   Who are you thinking of that was brought in to effectively be Trevor’s boss when he was head of procurement? When he had control of both parts of purchasing, his boss was Katherine Bryan. And when G&S purchasing was split off to join the PPP’s as Commercial Directorate his boss was still Katherine Bryan.

   If you mean the Steria contract, that’s interesting. There were many with doubts about that contract but I wasn’t aware that Trevor was one of them.

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9. Comment on NI Water: Another Chief Executive resignation?
   on 5 November 2011 at 12:51 pm

   And following Nevin’s link through MacKenzie to Paul Priestly, you find that Paul is no longer in the NICS but is advertising himself as a “Project finance and business development consultant”. And drafter of letters presumably.

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10. Comment on NI Water: Another Chief Executive resignation?
    on 5 November 2011 at 12:22 pm

    That must be the first positive statement I’ve seen on Laurence MacKenzie. I think that the coverage MacKenzie got on this website was not only warranted but only a fraction of what could have been said on a website that allowed more playing of the man. [text removed by request - Ed]

    I have to disagree on your comment about the Executive Committee – Trevor wasn’t promoted to the Exec, he was already on it MacKenzie created a new Exec by simply truncating the old one through telling half of the members not to turn up at the Exec meetings anymore.

    As for recognising Trevor’s abilities, Katherine Bryan and Chris Mellor had tremendous admiration for the man as demonstrated at each Exec meeting.

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