Kensei I can’t quite nail my voice on this one. Throwing it out in the hope that I can sharpen the argument a bit. ============== Our freedom must be had at all hazards. If the men of property will not help us they must fall; we will free ourselves by the aid of that large and respectable class of the community – the men of no property. Those were his words, but Wolfe Tone was not a socialist. It was impossible …
Just a quick one to highlight this piece by Paul Krugman, this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics. The piece is mostly centred around how he comes up with ideas for economics research, but I think much of it could equally be applied to political science. This in particular sounds like good advice for our politicians: Listen to the Gentiles What I mean by this rule is “Pay attention to what intelligent people are saying, even if they …
Fair Deal has spent some time arguing that moves on issues such as the Irish Language should wait until Nationalism has something to trade.I disagree with this for a number of reasons, not least that I’m not sure that endless horsetrading and mistrust will run a government in the long run (though the TBGBs seemed to manage it for a while…..) but the one that strikes me most is that it is an attitude that comes purely from the sectarian …
So, it would be amiss to criticise SF for a failure to produce any ideas on policing without suggesting some, so here’s a brief attempt.Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point gives a compelling account of how New York tackled its crime epidemic during the 90’s (the original New Yorker article that led to the book can be found here, and follows a similar theme). The book offers Broken Window Theory as the method for achieving a tipping point in crime. Broken …
Arggh! Nevermind Executive stalemate, Presidential elections, or the financial apocalypse, my Saturday nights have just been ruined. The legendary Skibunny club in Auntie Annies is to end after 11 years on 1 November. Easily the best playlist in Belfast and an excellent vibe is to be no more. I must have discovered more new music off the back of it in the last 6 months than from anywhere else. One offs are promised, but it won’t be the same. Gutted. …
Sinn Féin’s strategy on Policing and Justice has largely been to focus on the St Andrew’s Agreement, and policing as totemic issue to republicans. The details of that have been debated somewhat endlessly on this site already, but the key point is that this effectively reduces the argument to a semantic one split along sectarian lines.Returning to fundamentals, Republicanism must ultimately be about better government. Nationalism must be about the idea that Irish people are better equipped to govern themselves …
So, I have been elevated from a complete blackout to a top level commentator on site so I thought I better announce myself first. Mwahahahaha. Expect some technical hiccups while I work the blogging software out, and some terrible posts I will not be able to blame on anything else. On that note, perhaps Mick should consider this for the new blogging software. Edit: In response the question in the comments – I am a Belfast based Republican with no …
