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Books
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Hearing the Other Voice from the Grave: Why Should we Listen to David Ervine’s Stories?
Ed Moloney’s Voices from the Grave: Two Men’s War in Ireland has received considerable attention in the press and in the public realm since its publication earlier this year. Although the book relates the experiences of the Provisional IRA’s Brendan Hughes and the PUP/UVF’s David Ervine, much of the discussion has focused on Hughes’ stories [...] read our review » -
Help me with the West Wing: Essential viewing or Party Political Broadcast?
Having somehow managed to avoid watching a single episode of the widely praised West Wing TV series I was delighted to discover the entire Box set in my Christmas stocking – and with enough spare time over the holidays to give it a good lash. But with 10 episodes of the first series under my [...] read our review »
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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 »
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Comment on Pay your rates by credit card: you pay 2% extra. Pay by debit card: LPS pay 29p.
on 14 May 2012 at 3:24 pm
My experience in a work context was that the RCA were completely and utterly clueless. Rates bills would go unpaid for years becasue they didn’t keep proper records, and were unable to make any modifications without completely screwing it up. That said since the change to LPS, they seem to have got a little better.
I don’t think it would be be that hard to string them along for months or years.
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Comment on Licence fee freeze leads BBC NI slashes top journalist jobs…
on 11 May 2012 at 11:15 am
As far as I am aware the Nolan show is not part of current affairs so sacking him would not have much impact on the funding available for journalists in the newsroom.
As a number have noted, the problem with this approach is that those who are good will take the package as they know they can get a job elsewhere and you’re left with the lower quality staff (or they end up back at the BBC as freelancers being paid twice as much!)
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Comment on Pay your rates by credit card: you pay 2% extra. Pay by debit card: LPS pay 29p.
on 11 May 2012 at 10:57 am
Perhaps an even bigger disgrace is that you get a discount for paying in full – which effectviely makes rate a regressive tax as only the relatively well off are likely to be ale to afford to pay up front leaving to poorer to pay extra – disgraceful behaviour from a government department,
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Comment on Executive planning to cut the ties that bind the NI press to government revenue spend?
on 4 April 2012 at 12:59 pm
I think the report says 20% rather than 20 (through that’s still 12 newspapers).
Nevertheless, it’s hard to judge if this is a good thing or a bad thing. 60 newspapers for such a small place seems an awful lot. If a city the size of London can’t even sustain one paid for newspaper its hard to see how 60 papers can survive in NI.
Of course with no effective opposition at present, one can argue that the press are the only people holding the government to account, and that a loss of regional papers with in the long run reduce the numbers of journalists and their quality.
At the same time I find it hard to beleive that all 60 of these are doing much if any serious investigative journalism that would have any impact on Stormont at all. The majority are likely to be local papers of the weddings and agricultural show variety. That’s not to say there isn’t a role for these, but the number does not seem sustainable with or without what effectively amounts to public subsidy.
Obviously the hope is that a consolidated sector less dependent on public funding will be better able to do its job in holding the government to account. As you say though, the question is – is there enough cash to do this?
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Comment on Is a reformed and elected Lords a serious ‘come back’ opportunity for the SDLP?
on 28 March 2012 at 4:25 pm
A totally undemocratic institution that actually does a pretty good job in scrutinizing the executive and legislation – certainly better than most upper houses.
The perennial problem of how to make it more democratic without diluting the good work it actually does.
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Comment on Micheal Martin: Ahern to be expelled for “conduct unbecoming a member of Fianna Fáil”
on 23 March 2012 at 11:10 am
It’s all a bit token isn’t it.
Perhaps MM would consider disbanding the entire party as its sole reason for existence seems to have been to facilitate this type of corruption.
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Comment on Budget 2012: Cutting top rate tax, raid on pensioners and postponement of debt repayment schedules till after #GE15
on 21 March 2012 at 4:07 pm
Though as you’ve noted here http://sluggerotoole.com/2012/03/20/can-the-chancellor-unlock-those-mountains-of-corporate-cash/ companies have plenty of cash. A cut in corporation tax isn’t going to encourage them to spend it is it.
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Comment on “Jedward will now represent Ireland…” – Redux
on 28 February 2012 at 4:42 pm
Fair play to them. 2 utterly untalented individuals are raking in the the cash for doing more or less nothing.
In a couple of years they can get a normal haircut and no-one will recognise them.
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Comment on Sinn Fein’s human rights agenda for the Republic’s constitutional convention…
on 28 February 2012 at 4:39 pm
“the extension of voting rights for northern citizens and citizens in the diaspora”
The other danger of this of course a total warping of democracy when you end up with more voters outside the country than in it.
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Comment on Football eligibility row illustrates unionism’s inability to respect ‘The Other’ tradition
on 13 February 2012 at 4:13 pm
Historically, the reverse was also true as all Irish citizens born before 1949 were entitled to British subject status and a British passport – so up to about 1989 – if one considers goalkeepers can play to about 40, the IFA was also able to select players born anywhere in Ireland.
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