PC94 – Slugger O'Toole

Don’t be complacent about where we’ve come from

PC94 on September 3, 2015, 4:04 am

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Politics has never really been a pick-me-up has it? But I get the distinct feeling that this Summer’s display, has far surpassed anything I have witnessed in recent years. For all those folks in Northern Ireland feeling disheartened by the latest meltdown at The House on the Hill, take a glance at some of the images emerging from the Middle East and the Mediterranean today, and you’ll almost certainly recognise the distance Ulster has come to reach an exclusively political impasse. Rather than …

The prospects for Labour, the Left and Social Democracy

PC94 on August 4, 2015, 10:38 am

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Can Corbyn win the Labour leadership election? Yes. Will he defeat the Tories in 2020? No. Despite the current transformation taking place across British politics, Jeremy Corbyn does not have the credentials to win a General Election and this is what Labour needs to seriously consider. Does it want to win elections or adhere to its historic principles? The question is genuinely difficult because the contenders are hardly a precocious bunch. While Burnham, Cooper and Kendall bitterly attempt to detach themselves …

Do we really need to bring up Sinn Féin’s ugly past all the time, Douglas?

PC94 on August 1, 2015, 6:56 am

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While skimming through The Spectator this week, I noticed Douglas Murray was deriding Owen Jones for his appearance at Sinn Féin’s Summer school. The overarching theme was the far Left are always on board with violence and Jones’ presence in Cork was all the more reproachable because ‘there is no political party in Europe as bad as Sinn Féin.’ The questionable and more importantly, provocative nature of these remarks, especially the latter, led me to believe that Murray’s understanding of the Troubles was …

Iran’s nuclear deal – Success or Failure? Or should we still be undecided

PC94 on July 22, 2015, 3:37 am

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With Parliament heading into recess and Northern Ireland descending into marching season, some of us could be forgiven for missing something of an international waltz in Vienna recently. After many months of fraught negotiations, a landmark agreement was struck between the P5 members of the UN security council, Germany and Iran, all but guaranteeing the Islamic Republic’s re-entry into global trade markets and the political mainstream. Despite the deal prompting outrage in the Middle East, the US President hailed the deal …

Islam and Terrorism – Are they inextricably intertwined?

PC94 on July 3, 2015, 3:04 pm

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Perhaps last week’s decision to write on the contentious issue of immigration was a prescient warning of what was going to happen on Friday. After all, the deluge of press coverage on immigration is not simply dictated by the mass of people seeking refuge and economic relief in Europe but generally their religion too. Of course, the religion I speak of is Islam, in whose name the perpetrators of Friday’s horrendous attacks in France, Kuwait and Tunisia claim they are …

Grexit – is it happening and what does it mean for Europe?

PC94 on July 3, 2015, 2:50 pm

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While the result of Greece’s impending referendum is likely to dictate the country’s political and economic future, the implications for global financial markets and European politics are not so certain. Given that a no vote will almost inevitably lead to Athens defaulting on its debt and a subsequent exit from the Eurozone, surely a return to the drachma signals yet another period of suffering and hardship for the Greeks? Who knows, it could be painful for any number of us …