Europe
“I have decided to issue licences to those netsmen who have provided undertakings to the Department not to fish…”
Evidently all those 161 publicly funded press officers were busy elsewhere… No press release to accompany the Northern Ireland Fisheries Minster Sinn Féin’s Carál Ní Chuilín’s statement to the NI Assembly yesterday. It was an update on departmental salmon conservation measures and, in particular, the Minister’s latest position on the issuing of commercial licences to net salmon. Here’s [...] more »
Euro crisis: “by the fifth instalment producers have to ramp up the violence and special effects.”
There have been some choice quotes flying around as the Greek government neared the 8pm deadline for securing sufficient private sector creditor involvement in their bond swap deal [and convincing Frau Bundeskanzlerin - Ed]. Like this quote from the Guardian live-blog at 6.59pm “if it closes at more than 90% its a triumph,” one well-briefed government [...] more »
Euro crisis: “The expectation, however, must be for a fudge.”
When 25 of 27 EU leaders signed the “fiscal compact” [pdf file] designed to enforce budget discipline within the eurozone there was a rare, and unexpected, mood of optimism in the corridors of Frankfurt Brussels. An enthusiastic editorial in the Irish Times today calls for widespread political debate about the required new economic and political architecture. …the [...] more »
‘New facts’ in abortion debate
In recent years I’ve tried to track the long slow path to easing the bans on abortion in both parts of Ireland. And while I support it, I know full well it is no magic bullet so to speak. And so in the cause of disinterested debate and acknowledging the existence of many awkward facts, I [...] more »
Euro crisis: “It might be something which would allow Greece also to at least, to some extent, get a new start.”
Have the Greek coalition partners in Government, led by the technocratic former Greek and European central banker, Lucas Papademos, done enough to meet the demands of Germany their eurozone partners? Maybe… and maybe not. As the Guardian’s live-blog noted today Jean-Claude Juncker, who is also prime minister of Luxembourg, says the Eurogroup was still missing information from [...] more »
Euro crisis: You have six days to comply…
That’s the message to Greece from Germany the EU finance ministers. Despite initial reports, prompted by the Greeks themselves, what was agreed yesterday between the party leaders there fell short of what was required – by some €300-odd million. From the Irish Times report The ministers imposed a six-day deadline on Greek authorities to comply [...] more »
Bill Clinton to host “Invest in Ireland” event in New York
As the BBC reports Former US president Bill Clinton is to host an “Invest in Ireland” discussion in New York on Thursday. Well, he’ll ”attend for the beginning of the event where he will make some opening remarks”. You get the point. *sniff* He used to have such big [economic] ideas for here… The Merrion Street [...] more »
Euro crisis: “We are not fully in control of the sequence of events…”
Having watched as yesterday’s ‘deadline’ went whooshing past their heads, Greek party leaders are due to meet later tonight to consider another draft bail-out deal – once it’s been translated into Greek… You can follow events as they unfold at the Guardian’s live-blog. Meanwhile, as promised, Frau Bundeskanzlerin has joined Nicolas Sarkozy on the campaign trail [...] more »
Look out for the (un?) intended consequences
Daniel Hannan, Daily Telegraph blogger, staunch Eurosceptic MEP and romantic unionist warms to his theme. Like most British people, I love Ireland. It’s a separate country, but it’s not really foreign. The Irish talk as we talk, dress as we dress, eat as we eat (and, tragically, drink as we drink). We watch the same [...] more »
Sarkozy: “I did not know she voted in France…”
At the Guardian’s Politics Blog, Michael White has some fun with reports that Nicolas Sarkozy has enlisted Frau Bundeskanzlerin in his French presidential re-election campaign. Although this post’s title quote, from the Wall Street Journal blogs, suggests he may already be having second thoughts… ANYhoo… From Michael White’s post We can assume that pollsters have advised [...] more »
The Scottish independence debate: the complexities start to emerge
Professor John Curtice explains the complexities surrounding the referendum questions on the Today programme. Assume two ballot papers, one on devo max, the other on independence. If you look at some opinion polls, as many as 75% -80% might vote for devo max. Let’s say fewer, say, 51% vote for independence. Which would win? The Nats [...] more »
“I loathe Ireland and the Irish.”
In the Irish Times, Brian Cosgrove takes up temporary residence in An Irishman’s Diary in the hope that, with the lifting of European copyright restrictions on James Joyce’s major works, a greater familiarity with Joyce’s ”sometimes ruthless realism” may change the nature of the “annual Edwardian charade” that is Bloomsday. From the Irish Times The devastating cultural effects [...] more »
“Ireland faces a major challenge this year with the United Kingdom.”
Some interesting speculation from Paul Gillespie in the Irish Times on the potential outworkings of an Irish referendum on greater euro zone integration. From the Irish Times Unless the UK rethinks its veto (unlikely because of the political pressures on Cameron) it will become an outsider with an interest in the euro’s survival for its [...] more »
What have the Elizabethans ever done for us?
If you still aren’t sure how to spend that Christmas book token, then AN Wilson’s “The Elizabethans” is a good candidate. This is a magisterial survey by the leading novelist, scholar and reviewer of the political literary and intellectual experience of a “glory age”, whose legacy in shaping modern Britain has only just come to an [...] more »
“What happened to them was vindictive and not only a stain on their honour but on the honour of Ireland”
The BBC’s John Waite previews his forthcoming Radio 4 Face the Facts – The Disowned Army - to be broadcast 12.30GMT on Wednesday 4 January 2012. It’s subject, the post-World War II treatment in Ireland of around 5,000 Irish soldiers who deserted their own neutral army to join the British army and fought in Europe and elsewhere. From [...] more »
“The Common Travel Area is only for the benefit of Irish citizens and British nationals”
We never did have that reasoned debate about Schengen… The Irish Times reports that a Dublin High Court judge has pointed out that Foreign tourists who leave the Republic for a day trip to Northern Ireland, without a passport or visa to enter the UK could, under Irish immigration laws, be refused permission to re-enter the [...] more »
“Very well, alone?”
Interesting to see how the future of the Union is gradually being linked to the future of the European Union and the UK’s relations with it. In a farewell interview in the Daily Telegraph, the retiring Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell places it high among the “enormous challenges.” Over the next few years, there will be [...] more »
Mario Draghi: “no doubt whatever about the strength of the euro, its permanence, its irreversibility…”
The Guardian reports the comments by European Central Bank president Mario Draghi that he has “no doubt whatever about the strength of the euro, its permanence, its irreversibility”. But then, he would say that, wouldn’t he? Meanwhile, some European countries have agreed to provide €150billion to the International Monetary Fund to cover eurozone countries’ debt – short of [...] more »
Euro crisis: “Anyone who claims to know what is about to happen to Europe is a fool.”
In the Guardian, Simon Jenkins identifies a key point missing from most analysis of the aftermath of the EU crisis summit. From the Guardian article Anyone who claims to know what is about to happen to Europe is a fool. An unprecedented collapse in world credit has hit against years of reckless state borrowing to [...] more »
Does Tory eurosceptics’ nationalism boost UK breakup chances?
The Financial Times (£) is alone today among UK national papers in spotting how the English nationalism of extreme Tory eurosceptics feeds Scottish separatism, in spite of all the fears for small nations’ survival in the gales of the eurozone crisis. First, the news story Alex Salmond, first minister and leader of the Scottish National [...] more »
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Books
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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 »
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A flexible library service for the 21st century?
Following Alan’s piece on libraries, I picked this ‘advertorial’ from Google plus this evening… about how a US county library system is cutting costs and improving flexibility in their free at the point of delivery services by enabling the whole library service act as a functioning unit as opposed to the one discrete library… read our review » -
Lessons in Cute Hoorism: “Graft was accepted, for you were taking from the British…”
I’ve been catching up on some reading, recently. Most pleasantly surprised by John Drennan’s latest opus from Gill and Macmillan, Cute Hoors and Pious Protestors… It’s early days yet, but I was struck by this paragraph, part of a dissection of Fianna Fail near the beginning: One of the more fatal consequences of our colonial [...] read our review »
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