Gerry Lynch

Trouble at t’Mill for Frau Nein?

Gerry Lynch on May 21, 2012, 11:33 pm

| Readers 43

With most major developed economies struggling badly since 2008, Germany has seemed to be the calm centre of everything. The leader of any other industrialised country would pinch themselves if they had to deal with Angela Merkel’s problems. Germany shrugged off double-dip recession fears in late 2011 as its economy powered ahead again in 2012. Germany’s unemployment rate declined to 7% in May, its lowest level since shortly after reunification. Labour market reforms have fuelled growth in relatively insecure service …

Europe’s Super Sunday Provides Few Clear Answers So Far

Gerry Lynch on May 7, 2012, 11:44 am

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Yesterday saw a vertiable smorgasbord of elections from across Europe, with high profile elections in Greece and France potentially marking a watershed both for those countries and Europe as a whole. Elections in Serbia and Armenia were no less vital for the future of two of the poorest countries in Europe, while voters in the Germany’s far northern state of Schleswig-Holstein had much to say about the future of Angela Merkel and the possible emergence of the Pirate Party as …

Sanctioned ‘Gay Cure’ Psychiatrist on Board of Organisation Behind ‘Leper’ Conference

Gerry Lynch on January 17, 2012, 11:05 pm

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Controversial Belfast psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Miller, recently sanctioned by the General Medical Council, is a member of the Board of Reference of Core Issues, the controversial Lisburn-based counselling and advocacy organisation which teaches that homosexual practise is sinful and has been associated with controversial techniques including claims to be able to change sexual orientation in certain circumstances. The sanctioning of Miller may prove particularly controversial as Core Issues’ Board of Reference is stated on the organisation’s website to be an …

Interview with Occupy Belfast and situation on Royal Avenue

Gerry Lynch on January 16, 2012, 8:25 pm

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In my recent piece on politics and the internet here, I noted that Occupy Belfast had not done much during its short existence other than occupy Belfast's officially sanctioned haunt of leftists, Writers' Square. Alan in Belfast also had a Slugger piece up over the weekend noting that Occupy were not exactly catching the imagination of the man on the Antrim Road omnibus. Occupy activists must have enjoyed reading those pieces, knowing they were about to occupy one of Belfast's …

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, It Will Be On The Internet

Gerry Lynch on January 13, 2012, 10:04 am

| Readers 55

I walk past the Occupy Belfast protesters opposite St. Anne’s Cathedral nearly every day. It would be easy to sneer at them. They have some rather nice tents out of Decathlon, that well known bastion of anti-capitalism, and they seem to have a lot of fun. Not only are they not occupying anything more than Belfast’s new-but-now-traditional venue of left-wing protest, but they aren’t even properly persecuted. I can’t remember the last time I saw a cop there, let alone …

Only a fool would call the Scottish independence referendum at this distance

Gerry Lynch on January 10, 2012, 8:02 am

| Readers 125

“Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled – Scots, wham Bruce has aften led – Welcome to your gory bed. Or to victorie!” Punditry is not an art that suits the modest. Anyone asking people to take time and trouble to read their writing, let alone expecting them to pay for the privilege, is usually best advised to claim some sort of special knowledge or insight that repays the time invested in reading their thoughts. In that context, I suppose I …