EU – Page 53 – Slugger O'Toole

Anger may win elections but it’s useless in effecting change without policy…

Mick Fealty on February 13, 2015, 12:33 pm

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Over a week old, but still some of the best advice Enda Kenny will get anywhere in the public domain. The tailend of Tom Kelly’s column from the Irish News: Watching events unfold in Greece and the mass demonstrations of the far left in Madrid, nerves are becoming tetchy in Merrion Street. The Taoiseach is looking less Teflon like every day. He has always been the accidental Taoiseach albeit a lucky one but the forthcoming election will take more than …

Is Eurozone membership slowly strangling the Greek economy?

Mick Fealty on February 9, 2015, 9:13 am

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In these digital days it is far easier to foment a revolution than it is to find the means to sustain one. That may or may not been the the Greek Syriza party has to learn in the coming weeks. Hanging hard against German based technocrats may yet pull off some important concessions, but without cash (or rather the means to raise sufficient cash) the Greeks face a hard road to stay inside the Eurozone. Cormac Lucey, returning to the basic problem …

“…complex issues cannot always be addressed via online petitions.”

Pete Baker on February 7, 2015, 6:16 pm

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Sinn Féin, and others, agitating on behalf of “the Syriza experiment” following the recent elections in Greece, has more to do with positioning to blame the current Irish Government for the likely outcome [added link] than any professed desire for a resolution in Ireland’s favour. But there are a few things to note about the rise of the various Eurosceptic and anti-establishment parties across Europe [Who “will ultimately chose financial and macroeconomic stability over revolution? – Ed]. Perhaps… Firstly, domestic democratic pressures …

Never use memory (or lack thereof) to justify cruelty: Holocaust Memorial Day 2015

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on January 27, 2015, 3:11 pm

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For the Holocaust Memorial Day 2015, the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building, in cooperation with the Institute of Conflict Research, held a seminar event: “The Ethnics of Memory and Community Recovery”. The speakers were Daniel Greenberg and Lord Alderdice, chaired by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland, John Larkin. Lord Alderdice provided a distinction between the memory of an individual and that of a community: “The memory of any of us dies with us, but memory of community lives …

Now in power, policy will affect the extent which Syriza can continue to wing it

Mick Fealty on January 27, 2015, 2:43 pm

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World by Storm on the Greek situation… It genuinely is a situation where it is near impossible to forecast how matters pan out. Interesting to read the view of some yesterday that Syriza regards the current government as a very very temporary thing, almost a means of getting themselves into play at national level. It makes sense, but that only works, both on a political level and economic level both in Greece and more broadly in Europe, if there’s actual …

Syriza’s Victory: When populism and opportunism meets European technocracy?

Mick Fealty on January 25, 2015, 11:20 pm

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And a stunning and pretty decisive result in Greece. It appears even to have taken Syriza by surprise, leaving them only one seat short of an outright majority. Open Europe already have a good blog post outlining the possibilities: Independent Greeks (ANEL); or the centrists To Potami. The problem with the first is that whilst they firmly agree on ‘ending austerity’, they depart radically on issues like immigration (Greece is one of the EU’s beleaguered front line states in that …

“Sunday’s election could be a significant day for Europe…”

Pete Baker on January 24, 2015, 5:20 pm

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The campaign may have resembled a “political circus”, but Sunday’s general election in Greece could see the leftist Syriza, led by former communist Alexis Tsipras, emerge as the leading party – but in search of a partner-in-government [We’ve been there before! – Ed]. Indeed. Although, they could still achieve a majority… In the meantime, the Irish Times highlights a report from Standard & Poor, “European Sovereign Creditworthiness Might Diminish If Eurosceptics Take Power”. From the Irish Times report In a report assessing the rise …

Can the next EU regulation guarantee data protection for all?

Mick Fealty on January 20, 2015, 2:00 pm

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Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream One of the points made by Tim Hughes in our OpenGovNI DigitalLunch was the need for protection of data for citizens. This discussion on European Data Rights, goes live shortly… You can joinin the NI Open Government Network at tinyurl.com/OpenGovNI Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the …

MoU to allow joint exercises between British and Irish Armies…

Mick Fealty on January 20, 2015, 12:44 pm

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And it’s worth noting that after the first member of the PSNI was engaged by An Garda Siochana, Simon Coveney and Michael Fallon have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which as Michael Fisher notes… The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding will be followed by the drafting of a three-year Action Plan that will contain the detailed programme of bilateral co-operation activities for the forthcoming year and set the objectives for the succeeding two years. This may include military forces …

Does #CharlieHebdo offer the rest of us a ‘teachable moment’ on the meaning of free speech?

Mick Fealty on January 12, 2015, 12:19 pm

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The terrible events in Paris this week have unleashed, amongst other things, a lot of good journalism, and some pretty decent responses from brother and sister cartoonists. So, here’s a quick round up of some of the best. – In the US the Je suis Charlie motif has been popular but highly moderated by an essentially liberal reponse to the graphicness of the cartoons themselves. David Brooks in the New York Times for instance… …this might be a teachable moment. …

Thoughts on the Charlie Hebdo murders

Turgon on January 11, 2015, 6:45 pm

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This blog is purely a personal view (somewhat confessional) but I wondered if I was alone in it: The attacks on Charlie Hebdo were utterly appalling. The idea of terrorists attacking innocent defenceless people making a satirical cartoon is dreadful: a gross perversion of any decent religion or ideology. So why is it then that I am annoyed despite myself, not just about the attack, and I condemn it utterly, but also about the international outcry which has followed? Certainly …

Open Society at a crossroads in France

Paul Evans on January 10, 2015, 2:14 pm

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The attacks on Charlie Hebdo, followed by the targeting of Parisian Jews has laid the frail state of France’s ‘Open Society’ bare for all to see. Jewish businesses and synagogues are staying closed for their own safety and the far right Front National is, ironically, poised to benefit from an attack on free speech.

The home of the European Enlightenment is at a crossroads.

A measured media response to the Charlie Hebdo atrocity

Kris Nixon (Belfast Barman) on January 7, 2015, 4:19 pm

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I utterly condemn the individuals who today attacked and killed innocent civilians at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris today. It is horrific and unprovoked and I would if the opportunity presented, would happily press the “on” button for their electric chairs. Also, I am an atheist. I would like you to keep that in mind please throughout this piece. You may have seen a lot of people calling for a response to the killings, printing the cartoon on the …

“The brinkmanship that seems inescapable on such occasions has become self-indulgent and self-important too”

Pete Baker on December 31, 2014, 3:57 pm

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The Guardian’s editorial on the Stormont House Agreement has some pertinent things to note about Northern Ireland’s latest deal. Although, if, as they claim, “the glass is half-full” it is also, by definition, half-empty. From the Guardian editorial The talks came very close, after 11 weeks of discussion, to falling apart, as earlier efforts under the chairmanship of Richard Haass had in fact done. It is good that the same did not happen this time. Yet there is precious little else …

The Corporation Tax cut experiment – lessons learned from The Azores

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on December 27, 2014, 3:02 pm

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The rocky outcrop of The Azores has been talked about more than is usual in Northern Ireland in recent months and years. This isn’t due to its sudden explosion in popularity as a holiday destination for the good burghers of Ulster, but because of a 2006 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Communities. This decision concerned Portugal allowing its autonomous regions to reduce the rate of personal and corporate taxes by 30%, which the territory of The …

Questions arising for Sinn Fein from Tuesday’s Spotlight programme..

Mick Fealty on November 28, 2014, 2:17 pm

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I’m just pinning these videos from the Sinn Fein end of Mandy McAuley’s two part Spotlight, with minimal comment in part because I haven’t worked out what to think on the matter, and because I want to hear what you guys think. It’s worth doing so just to isolate the scale of that end of the problem. Firstly, there’s a wholly owned private company Research Services Ireland (£700k): Secondly a party bill for secretarial work of £3.7m: Then there are …

Joseph Ruane on ‘Ireland’s Crises: North-South Intersections’: From the Taming of the Celtic Tiger to the Rise of Sinn Fein in the Republic

Gladys Ganiel on November 24, 2014, 5:10 pm

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Professor Joseph Ruane, Visiting Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin and Professor Emeritus University College Cork, presented the 25th John Whyte Memorial Lecture last week at Queen’s on ‘Ireland’s Crises: North-South Intersections.’ Ruane’s wide-ranging talk focused primarily on crises in the Republic of Ireland. Ruane described the Republic as a ‘multiple interface periphery’ because it is small ‘regional’ nation looking outwards to multiple ‘cores’, such as the US, UK and EU. Its position as a multiple interface periphery means …

On the continuing failure and decline of binary choice in democratic politics…

Ian Parsley on November 20, 2014, 10:05 am

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Of all people, it was perhaps Jeremy Paxman on his retirement from BBC Newsnight who put his finger on the problem causing such disillusion with politics – it is the nonsense that all politics is binary. He said in an interview that it was utterly ludicrous to suggest the Conservatives have all the answers to the country’s woes and Labour has none of them; and equally ludicrous to suggest Labour has all the answers and the Conservatives none – and …

Across Europe most policy issues are merely symptoms of “citizen disconnect”…

Mick Fealty on November 18, 2014, 12:06 pm

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“Th’ whole worl’s in a terrible state o’ chassis” Captain Boyle, Juno and the Paycock We’ve been getting lessons from all over Europe in the old new wine in old bottles constitutional problem arising in almost every state. Voter volatility in Britain and Ireland mean that the customary parties of government will struggle in their respective upcoming general elections to hit 30% and 25% respectively. The causes are only partly party political, more greatly economic and hugely constitutional, both formally …

Young people want civic education in Northern Ireland schools

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on November 15, 2014, 3:46 pm

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Young people want civic education in Northern Ireland schools #CoffeeClub at #SDLP14 conference by Allan Leonard for Northern Ireland Foundation 15 November 2014 Stratagem organised another set of sidebar coffee club conversations at the SDLP annual conference, Ramada Inn, Belfast. For the second time, I had two flipcharts with blank sheets to fill out the good, the bad and the ugly lessons from the Northern Ireland peace process. I commenced the discussion uncertain whether or not the responses would be …