Profile for Scaramoosh
This user has not yet written a description
Latest comments from Scaramoosh (see all)
Scaramoosh has commented 376 times (0 in the last month).
Advertise
-
Books
-
Of the Old North and other Vanished Kingdoms..
I’m currently trawling through Norman Davies’s fabulous new tome – “Vanished Kingdoms” – Five stars in the (London) Telegraph’s review from Ben Wilson: All the nations that have ever lived have left their footsteps in the sand,” writes Norman Davies. “The traces fade with every tide, the echoes grow faint, the images are fractured, the human [...] read our review » -
Do Words Matter?: Book Review of Political Discourse and Conflict Resolution – Debating Peace in Northern Ireland
I share many of the concerns of Andy Pollak, whose recent post ‘My Response to the Slugger Begrudgers’ zeroed in on the ‘relentless flow of negativity’ of some Slugger commentators. Pollak’s post was largely concerned with the medium of the blog. Indeed, I think the anonymity of the online world encourages extreme discourse and allows [...] read our review »
-
A Political History of the Two Irelands competition…
It’s not often we get free things to give away to our readers, but courtesy of Palgrave Macmillan we have a nice paperback copy of Brian M Walker’s excellent history of partition of the island and how identities shifted in both the north east and the south and west: as most of the territory that [...] read our review »
-
Comment on This is getting interesting…
on 18 April 2010 at 2:36 pm
For those wishing to chart the trajectory of the “yellow revolution” this site is a must read;
http://www2.politicalbetting.com/
P.S. The deal clincher for Clegg is the youth vote.
Millions of teenagers and your twenty somethings, who last week believed that politics changed nothing, are suddenly presented with the opportunity to set of a political revolution. They do not care that Vince Cable is described as being dangerous by a Tory City backer, or that Liberal Democrat policies are described as being silly by the other two parties. They are the Facebook and Twitter generation and cannot be rounded up like sheep.
Vis a vis the next debate; Clegg wins it on his parties stance vis a vis the Iraq war and Afghanistan. They might try and go for him on Europe, but any such attack will be seen as sour grapes and will have the Tories being portrayed as swinging to the right; something posh boy has worked hard to prevent.
Go to comment
Comment on Clegg bubble boosts Brown
on 17 April 2010 at 1:31 pm
Oh yes, this is a short term thing, just like the early “Obama blip.” Let’s actually wait and see how things play out, rather than indulging in spurious predictions. Nobody saw this coming, and nobody knows what the real mood in the country is.
The only certainty is that Cameron has blown it, and if he is to score points against Clegg in the next debate, he is going to be forced to move to the right, something that is going to significantly undermine the air-brushed middle of the road image that he has built up for himself over the last three years.
Before the debate the odds were as follows; Conservative Majority 1.75; No Overall Majority 2.68; Labour Majority 17.0.
After the debate :Conservative Majority 1.83; No Overall Majority 2.54; Labour Majority 17.5.
Within twenty fours hours of the debate:Conservative Majority 2.10; No Overall Majority 2.14; Labour Majority 19.5.
Money talks – if you are so sure that this is a blip and the that the Tories recover once “we all come to our senses” then put your money where your mouth is.
Go to comment
Comment on North Belfast election shock
on 17 April 2010 at 1:22 pm
The Nick Clegg of Ulster politics.
Go to comment
Comment on The real meaning of Nick Clegg
on 17 April 2010 at 4:20 am
Odds on overall Tory majority now greater than Evens as YOUGOV poll puts the Liberal Democrats in second place, and beliefs go that Cameron is stuck in the middle,as he may have to swing to the right if he is to manage to take a pop at Clegg in next debate (undermining his long molded middle of the road persona);
http://url.ie/5s4j
Go to comment
Comment on “He was just following orders…”
on 16 April 2010 at 12:10 am
Pippakin
Are you drunk?
Go to comment
Comment on Money isn’t everything…
on 8 April 2010 at 3:37 am
http://url.ie/5o28
Go to comment
Comment on West Belfast, social depravation and that fouled-up-in-the-works poverty strategy…
on 8 April 2010 at 3:31 am
Gerry knows that if he took the people on planet West Belfast out of poverty, he would never again be
able to play the oppressed card and they would all vote SDLP.
Go to comment
Comment on “There is no quick fix nationalist route to a ‘New Ireland’.”
on 7 April 2010 at 4:40 am
The Catholics in the North were abandoned by their fellow Irishmen at the time of partition. It took Gerry and his mob twenty five years to realise that they are still not wanted, and that their best and only hope was compromise (stasis).
The dissidents, who I believe to be led by people raised on council estates in Dundalk and South Armagh, hark back to 1916 and ignore every change that occured on the island in the interim; they ignore the fact that the cute hoors have robbed and pillaged dear old Mother Ireland; they ignore the fact that the dear old Church was nothing more than a perverts charter; they ignore the fact that the country is at the mercy of criminal drug gangs.
And hey, why face upto reality, when you can get a couple of pages in the Sunday Tribune every couple of months; no questions asked.
Truth be told, the entire country is something of a joke; essentially lost at sea.
Go to comment
Comment on Radical reform in the Republic is neither imminent nor necessary: try voting
on 4 April 2010 at 10:42 pm
The Republic is a failed state; with failed political parties; crumbling foundations and devoid of any collective vision.
There is no doubt that in a bygone age the bankers, property developers and priests would have been strung up by the roadside.
That this has not happened can be attributed to a number of factors; first, because the revolutionary spirit has been eroded by blind materialism; second, because those that are still prepared to resort to arms remain under the delusion that they are the true government of Ireland and that it is their mission to achieve Irish independence.
A vote for Fine Gael, Labour or Sinn Fein does not represent a revolutionary act. It will not free the Irish people from what lies ahead; paying off their debts for the next thirty years.
Go to comment
Comment on The Celtic Chernobyl
on 2 April 2010 at 3:55 am
ah sure no, c’mon lads, jasus, it’s not that bad (head in the sand);
The IMF estimates total Irish bank losses through 2010 could reach 35bn (20% of GDP). The government has already provided 11bn in state aid and conservative estimates suggest that it could be on the hook for 24bn. This is compared with a falling tax base of 30bn and a fiscal deficit already running at 12% of GDP.
At the height of the boom the Anglo Irish Bank lend a consortiumj 170m to acquire the Racing Post – this deal more than any other epitomised the fact that Ireland’s bankers were nothing more than a bunch of punters that bet heavily and lost.
The time is ripe for revolution.
Go to comment