Slugger O'Toole

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Latest comments from the.digger.notes (see all)

the.digger.notes has commented 12 times (0 in the last month).

1. Comment on Killing unifies both Catholic and Protestant opinion
   on 5 April 2011 at 5:09 pm

   Am somewhat bemused and slightly angry at Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister’s remark that he will not be attending constable Ronan Kerr’s funeral tomorrow in Beragh.
   The reason he gave for his non attendance on BBC Radio Ulster Talkback show today was because of doctrinal differences. He also said that the TUV would have no official representation at the funeral.
   God knows I steer clear of the sectarian cesspit of NI politics but would someone please ask the TUV leader whether he has ever stepped inside a mosque or synagogue or has refused to do so because of ‘doctrinal differences’?
   I would like to know the answer to this.
   Or is it only me that feels his refusal to go to Beragh is because the service is being held in a Roman Catholic Church.
   Constable Kerr is good enough to die for his community but not be recognised by the ‘good’ Christians inside the TUV because he was a catholic.
   Would the TUV leader and his party representatives feel soiled by attending the service?
   We need to know and put this sectarian blusterer in his rightful place – the dole queue.

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2. Comment on Apparatchiks Beware… tweets may cost money
   on 10 March 2011 at 9:33 pm

   oneill:
   Repeating the offending remarks may also constitute action from our legal friends.

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3. Comment on Stoicism where are you? (the fear of a unflushed poo)
   on 29 December 2010 at 7:21 pm

   cynic2
   Just to correct Cynic2 Unite is not calling for the unemployed to work for their benefits, the union is opposed to this, but it calls for a national emergency programme to pay volunteers the union rate for the jobs in helping clearing up this mess. Whether its heavy snowfall, flooding or burst water mains. There’s plenty of experienced people, 15,000 joined the dole queue this year alone in Northern Ireland, who are willing to volunteer as long as they get a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. If we want a decent civic society then we have to act decently to those who are less well off.

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4. Comment on Stoicism where are you? (the fear of a unflushed poo)
   on 29 December 2010 at 5:59 pm

   Unite issued statement today but NI press has not picked it up.
   It read:
   A UNITE the union spokesperson has expressed sympathy with those experiencing difficulties with their water supply and placed the blame firmly at the feet of Northern Ireland Water.
   “The company has been caught out after forcing nearly 300 redundancies since 2009 and this has severely tested the company’s frontline capacity to deal with inclement weather conditions such as flooding and heavy snowfalls.”

   Likewise Unite issued statement on snow early last week which read:

   PAY THE JOBLESS TO CLEAR THE PATHWAYS

   UNITE the union has called for emergency funding to organise a national appeal for jobless volunteers to help clear the pathways of snow and ice with the reward of agreed union rates of pay and no impact to their benefits.
   Irish Regional Secretary Jimmy Kelly said: “The inclement weather, particularly in many rural towns and villages is having a catastrophic effect on the local economy.
   “What’s needed is a national and a rational plan to clear they byways and highways. Therefore, give the unemployed a chance of earning an early festive and New Year present with a call to organise volunteers in each council area.
   “We, as a society, might learn that there is a lot of valuable work that could benefit our people as against forced unemployment that benefits no one”.
   “We know the types that will turn this idea into a negative, the neo-liberal economists who supported the failed baking system and their supporters, the social commentators, who will call upon those who are unemployed and facing a hopeless future ‘to work for their benefits.’ This idea is totally unacceptable to Unite – the union supports a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.”

   Again cynicism in local media meant they refused to release it! A Daily Mirror journalist contacted the union saying ‘a great idea’ but no-one in government would instigate it therefore it was not a story worth following up.

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5. Comment on Stoicism where are you? (the fear of a unflushed poo)
   on 29 December 2010 at 1:26 pm

   This is the future. Get used to it or change it. Your choice. Simples

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6. Comment on You can have your own avatar on Slugger…
   on 17 May 2010 at 5:21 pm

   test

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7. Comment on After the elections: Labour must get its ‘soul’ right with C1s, C2s.
   on 13 May 2010 at 3:44 pm

   I agree that the C1 and C2s are the forgotten demographic that Labour must return to its fold. I feel that by engaging properly with its core base Labour would gain the 5% lost to the BNP. Living in the pockets of the City and media moguls must be a thing of the past and New Labour and is supporters whether in the Blair or Brown camp must swept away and left only for history to judge. Capturing the disenfranchised on the Liberal-Dem side is also a challenge Labour must meet without alienating it core base. A balancing act surely but with real passion and commitment in its heartlands will see an invigorated Labour Party through. Otherwise it will face being in the shadows for years.

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8. Comment on Slugger Stratagem Election Breakfast – what they’re talking about this morning
   on 7 May 2010 at 10:47 am

   Attended the election aftermath event this morning and entered the political bubble that is Slugger. Shocked to hear ‘independent journalist’ Eamonn Mallie condemning Northern Ireland workers for staging protests after NIPSA General Secretary Brian Campfield spoke of how the main stream media seem to have taken amnesia pills as to who is to blame for the current financial crisis.
   Mallie said the unions should not have their members on the streets as it was ‘unpatriotic’ in these times. Sorry, Eamonn we have a process on industrial action to protect jobs, pay and terms and conditions – it’s called democracy. Workers are not dragged onto the streets they vote for the action they decide to take.
   Last night Northern Ireland got rid of the Tory blow-ins who bought up the Ulster Unionists with a cheque – but as the saying goes there’s nothing worse than an Irish Tory – he’ll do a better job of keeping the natives down then the English can!

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9. Comment on Robinson scores a palpable, if tactical, hit with the Daily Telegraph
   on 5 May 2010 at 6:01 pm

   NORTHERN Ireland is being strangled by government-funded programmes, which actually hurt the people who deserve it – the rich.
   Paying higher taxes, having to deal with abuse from the homeless or soon to be (once the mortgage companies get fired up by a Tory win and recoup their losses) and the indiscipline of unemployed proles with their binge-drinking and over breeding, Ulster’s rich truly have it tough.
   Hope, however, comes with privatisation.
   Let’s go the whole way and privatise the ‘Big Society’ and have a zero tax policy.
   The privatisation of government-run or controlled programmes allows for competition, innovation, and for the rich to finally have an advantage (because of their superior intellect, the rich will be able through privatisation thrive much easier than the simple, child-like brain of the poor or the buffer zone that is the middle class).
   Privatisation of the following can solve everything and anything:
   CIVIL LIBERTIES
   Who decides to tell you what your rights are – land grabbing, expenses driven politicians or you?
   If you choose the individual to determine what a person can and can’t do then privatisation of civil liberties is the answer. Let corporations and by proxy the people, judge what’s best for them. Corporations already know what citizens of the ‘Big Society’ want. They tell us so through their adverts. Under these new values, everyone will be able to do everything, unless it interferes with Coca-Cola, as it has shown in Colombia where it shoots trade unionists, or selling of cell phones. Unless the market decides that your behaviour is wrong, then you can do whatever you want. If the market decides that your actions are hitting profits then you will be hunted down and eliminated.
   So, to give everyone an equal start and the same starting point, let everyone over the age of 10 carry a handgun.
   The wealthier you are the bigger gun you can buy and you can even employ an army to protect what’s yours.
   SCHOOLS
   It is well known that schools for the great unwashed in Northern Ireland do not function. Only the wealthy are passionate about their offspring wellbeing
   As we need to cage the proles offspring, we can’t have our grand avenues and shopping ‘malls’ clogged up with street urchins and the Roma, it doesn’t look good on corporation brochures, therefore basic primary education is essential and for this the adult proles (working drones) will have to pay or have their children indentured for life to the service industries. The prole kids can learn essentials such as sewing, stitching, cooking, changing plugs, serving food etc the list of chores are endless.
   Cancel secondary education altogether as the savings made on building and labour costs, refurbishment and teachers’ pay are immense. Also we do not have to worry about examination failures and the lack of qualifications. Private companies running schools for rich kids is much more sensible. The rich kids will not even have to sit the 11+. Therefore immediately solving the latest education wrangle plaguing Northern Ireland.
   Corporations needing qualified employees will have to pay and train their own. The market decides which subjects are taught.
   PRIVATISING GOVERNMENT
   Northern Ireland is currently beset by problems and one of the biggest is democratic government and how anyone can run for office. Instead of doing away with it completely, just put government in the hands of corporations. A trusted corporation can run for office, a corporation can create new legislation; a corporation can do anything it wished. If the corporation gets above itself we stop buying the corporation’s products or services. When profits decrease, the corporation will listen to us. Corporations rely on the consumers to support them and help them innovate and foster a better tomorrow – except for the poor, immigrants and ‘indigenous’ groups.
   HEALTH SERVICE
   Insurance corporations run the health and social care services. It will mean that services in health and social care consumers (previously stakeholders and prior to that the sick and injured) will only get what they can afford. A social engineering scheme on a grand scale – it’s also an effective way of culling the population – only the strong survive – so if you don’t get rich and quickly, you have to bite the bullet literally as it may be the cheapest option (note: Going one better than the Chinese method – not only will you have to pay for the bullet but add in the executioner’s time for your final bill).
   ROADS
   All roads are privately owned and toll charges apply to pay for their upkeep. Corporations also decide who can travel on their roads. Travellers will therefore be banned.
   SOCIAL SECURITY
   The rich are tired of the government trying to take their cash and having to employ accountants in order to evade and avoid paying taxes. They feel any money gathered is being given to old, sick and the work shy. These people are probably poor to begin with. Let the market decide who deserves money and who doesn’t. Let there be no retirement. Pull yourself up by you own bootstraps and stay up there until you’re dead, then you can rest all you want!
   WAR
   The next logical step from privatising government is privatising war. In many respects, it’s a stronger idea than having companies run government because privatising war leads to fewer consequences. For example, Raytheon goes to war with Iran. Raytheon hires its own army/band of mercenaries, uses it own technology and equipment, and the consumers aren’t expected to support it one iota if they don’t want to, unlike when the government forces us to pay taxes to stop the Al-Qaeda threat or whatever. If a war is unjust, vote using the pound in your pocket – if you are lucky to have one. Stop buying Raytheon products and watch a war end – this is a much better system than the current one of United Nations and NATO and all this other bureaucratic structures getting in the way of slick corporations. Let the market choose what wars to support!
   My first suggestion would be Goldman Sachs against the financial regulators. A bunch of volunteers and mercenaries can clean up the City by vaporising the regulators and then cleaning the ash off the streets.
   HUMANITY
   Overpopulation is a problem – so to paraphrase satirist Swift – we can even have home-fed babies – for the rich to add to their culinary delight!
   The future belongs to corporations – no tax, no responsibility and no accountability. A perfect future … for some.
   Simples.

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10. Comment on David Cameron talks to Mallie, with just thirty six hours to go…
    on 4 May 2010 at 7:56 pm

    THE editor and management at the Belfast Telegraph seems to have got the run of themselves believing that the Tories are already in power and trying to force editorial staff to work extra shifts on the night and morning of the election (11pm to 5am) with no extra payment to bring out a special edition!
    But before a grievance procedure could be set in place and lodged with an industrial tribunal with NUJ members claiming the company was not only breaking custom and practice by not offering remuneration and, more importantly, driving a horse and cart through working time regulations, the Sun newspaper stepped in and told the Belfast Telegraph management – ‘Oy – hands off our print times’.
    Management at Bel Tel were warned earlier that the Sun would be seeking to utilise their contracted print time at the Bel Tel to tell readers ‘We won it for Dave’ special edition headlines, but the editor and O’Reilly-led neo-liberal management cronies decided to ignore it.
    They decided to dust down their ‘Billy-big-balls manuals’ to give the staff a kicking.
    And they also forgot one thing – the Aussie-born but now American citizen nom-dom media magnate Murdoch calls the shots.
    The O’Reilly family and their management team have the blanket of failure wrapped round them having sold off the London Independent group for a £1 to Russian oligarch – Lebedev – with an extra £9.5m payment to the former KGB officer to seal the deal.
    Times may be hard for the multi-millionaire O’Reilly’s and their management catamites at the Bel-Tel but demanding staff to work beyond their contracts without payment, access to food or safe transport home shows you where their true Tory supporting hearts lie.
    Unfortunately for the little D(i)Cs there is a bigger shark in the sea and he’s called Rupert.

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