EU – Page 58 – Slugger O'Toole

#G8: Taxation should remain focused on capital and employees not where sales are generated…

Mick Fealty on June 18, 2013, 10:27 am

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Sammy Wilson’s negative comments re the Republic’s tax regime at the weekend, just before the G8 convened, was clearly jumping on board mumbling from the US Congress, and Westminster PAC… …the British government does have some leverage on the Irish Government there, because they have a £7.5 billion loan, that is a lot of leverage. They should be saying to the government in the Republic, you cannot steal tax revenue from us in this way and that is in fact …

Query: Why are the EU and Republic of Ireland flags at the Lough Erne G8 resort?

Kilsally on June 15, 2013, 7:41 pm

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Just out of curiosity I noted both the EU and Republic of Ireland flags flying at the Lough Erne resort in County Fermanagh on the local news earlier today. Now the G8 leaders countries are the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, France, Russia & Italy. Apparently the Presidents of the EU Commission and European Council also attend which explains the EU flag but sort of defies the logic of the `Group of eight`. Ireland currently holds the Presidency of the …

“Adding more weapons to this volatile situation could destabilise the entire region…”

Pete Baker on June 15, 2013, 6:42 pm

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The Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers were in a sunny Downing Street garden yesterday, welcoming that suspect package, and extolling the virtues of demonstrating “peacefully, positively, constructively” [Is that with, or without, a Thompson sub-machine gun? – Ed] Without, probably… ANYhoo, on the same day Sinn Féin released the text of what appears to be a different speech to that delivered in Downing Street by the Mid Ulster MP Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness – made at …

‘Tax avoidance’ makes the G8 in Fermanagh more meaningful to Dublin than Stormont…

Mick Fealty on June 14, 2013, 11:53 am

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Yep, and if you want a short (if a little repetitive) pen picture of what and the who of the G8, this short video from the US Embassy in London is as good a grab as any. You can see from the ariel photographs here just why the Lough Erne Golf Resort was such a no brainer to the organisers. To steal from Shakespeare’s John o’ Gaunt “it is a precious stone set in the silver sea/Which serves it in …

If Ireland north and south can commemorate the First World War together, so should the Germans alongside the wartime Allies

Brian Walker on June 12, 2013, 11:03 am

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A piece in the Indy by Matthew Norman on the UK’s plans to commemorate World War 1 has to be read quite carefully to register the satire against the (English) Culture secretary’s smiley moral equivalence approach to the vexed issue of war guilt. Were the Germans the clear aggressors or “were we all to blame?” The subject will never die. In his magisterial “The Sleepwalkers,” written last year the Cambridge historian Christopher Clarke makes the case for shared guilt after an …

Abolition of the Seanad ignores Ireland’s need for democratic renewal…

Mick Fealty on June 5, 2013, 4:20 pm

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Vincent Browne gets all academic today on the subject of the poor state of Irish democracy: We now have a form of representative democracy whereby almost the sole independent function of our elected representatives is to choose a Taoiseach, after which the government formed by the Taoiseach is effectively immune from accountability during its period in office. A government that regards election promises as disposable at will. Is it tolerable that the people are denied, effectively, any means of changing …

On the matter of uncertainty and principle…

Mick Fealty on June 5, 2013, 12:07 pm

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With all due apologies to students of quantum physics out there, Brian Feeney’s ‘poetic’ use of the Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in today’s Irish News (£) to explain the SDLP’s apparent confusion over the last fortnight is too good to resist: The principle suggests that the closer you get to establishing the position of a particle the harder it is to work out the speed of its movement [or rather its momentum – Ed]. Conversely the closer you get to working …

Harry Fitzsimons arrested in Senegal

Pete Baker on May 26, 2013, 8:28 pm

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As the BBC reports A west Belfast man has been arrested in Senegal in west Africa. It is understood Harry Fitzsimons was detained in the capital Dakar last month. Earlier this year Italian police issued an arrest warrant for Mr Fitzsimons in connection with an alleged mafia money-laundering operation in Calabria in Italy. The report also notes that the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin has confirmed his detention and is providing consular assistance to Mr Fitzsimons. When news broke, on …

“Where do the Swedes go to let out their aggressions?”

Mick Fealty on May 24, 2013, 10:01 am

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At a time of unrest in Sweden, I picked this sideways take on the communitarian social model from a good Swedish friend (almost completely proving the national cliche in the video)… 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 UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Expressing Identity — Addressing Division: CRC Annual Policy Conference 2013

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on May 24, 2013, 7:50 am

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20130520 CRC Intercultural Cities

Expressing Identity: Addressing Division Apologies for tardy posting; thanks for Mick for posting snippet by Eamonn McCann: This year’s annual policy conference of the Community Relations Council (CRC) was held in Derry-Londonderry, a fresh change from the usual Belfast venues. Indeed, the Maiden City has demonstrated leadership in community relations for many years. In his introductory remarks, outgoing CRC Chair Tony McCusker pointed out that the city easily has the most events for this year’s Community Relations Week. In regards …

Bad news for Sweden as the social model slowly unravels…

Mick Fealty on May 23, 2013, 2:28 pm

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One of the big challenges for all the Scandinavian countries (or at least those without oil reserves to fall back on) has been how to cope with waves of immigration. It’s particularly challenging for what has been remarkable homogenous societies like Sweden. Now it seems a politically unwatched pot is boiling over. Really, not good. After decades of practising the Swedish model of generous welfare benefits, Stockholm has reduced the role of the state since the 1990s, spurring the fastest …

Azerbaijan Presidential Inquiry over Eurovision Vote

Pete Baker on May 20, 2013, 11:12 pm

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Denmark may have won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, due to last year’s winner, held in Malmö, Sweden, but Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev is reported to have ordered an inquiry into why his country, apparently, failed to provide any points to their neighbour, Russia. Russia gave maximum points, 12, to the Azerbaijan entry. From the BBC report Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Russia, Polad Bulbuloglu, disclosed that President Aliyev had ordered an investigation and votes were being recounted. He said that a …

Radical Independence & The Jamaican, Ugandan & Pakistani UKIP candidates

Kilsally on May 18, 2013, 11:18 am

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With all the furore over the Radical Independence protest at the UKIP press conference in Edinburgh (ahead of the Aberdeen Donside Scottish by-election on June 20) I couldn`t help but notice the rather vociferous use of the words Nazi, Racist, Bigot, Scum & Fascist aimed at Nigel Farage. The Belfast News Letter website has a good video of Farage talking in the Edinburgh pub prior to the protest. The protest has been deemed largely a student protest and sure enough two …

UKIP: We’ve proved we can get votes in Wales, England and Northern Ireland…

Mick Fealty on May 17, 2013, 4:45 pm

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Fascinating little line here (h/t Malc) from Nigel Farage: “We’ve proved we can get votes in Wales, England and Northern Ireland. We’re still untested in Scotland,” he [Farage] said. “We’ve not had an opportunity to test Ukip policies with the Scottish people for a very long time.” Asked about Ukip’s chances, he was optimistic. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we did quite creditably.” Malc writes: My recollection is that UKIP’s entire electoral presence in NI amounts to: — …

If you live in a glass house, don`t throw stones…at UKIP

Kilsally on April 29, 2013, 7:46 am

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Much ado about Ken Clarke`s comments on `UKIP clowns, closet racists and fruitcakes` over the weekend. It is amazing however what turns up when you Google various configurations of the words Labour, Tory, racist, nazi & BNP. For example, BNP leader Nick Griffin’s father was a Welsh Tory aide to Ian Duncan Smith in 2001, who discussed ‘voluntary repatriation of immigrants’ . Add to that a raft of Labour and Tory members defecting to the BNP and vice versa, lots of …

Icelandic dinosaurs, elections and the fate of their crowd-sourced constitution … and a link to equal marriage

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 26, 2013, 5:00 pm

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Slugger should take a look at Iceland more often. An article in yesterday’s Guardian described intriguing democratic and constitutional processes. About a third of the North Atlantic island’s population live in the capital city of Reykjavík, another third live in the greater Reykjavík area. Apparently two thirds of the island’s population are on Facebook: Iceland can be a petri dish for democratic ideas, according to the mayor [Jón Gnarr who formed the Best party] … “Reykjavík and Iceland are perfect …

Political Drama: What Drama?

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on April 24, 2013, 10:52 am

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20130417 Political Drama IMG_2009

As part of its 15th anniversary celebrations, Stratagem hosted a political drama film and discussion event at The MAC. Stratagem Director, Quintin Oliver, explained how he was motivated by a gift request from his son for a box set of the West Wing series. “He said it would be educational. I realised it was as much for me as it was for him,” Quintin said, making him ponder why there wasn’t a similar political drama series for “the Hill, in …

Margaret Thatcher roundup (1): Britain’s growth in wealth and poverty

Mick Fealty on April 9, 2013, 11:16 am

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Listening watching the reams of coverage on Margaret Thatcher, whether you loved her or loathed her, she certainly had impact. I’ll come back to her contentious Irish legacy later, but first a round up on today’s coverage… – Richard Branson covers his back somewhat over some of the warrior queen’s more extreme social interventions and claims: She really did set the groundwork for entrepreneurialism and business in Britain. She will go down in the history books as somebody who made …

One more domino for Labour: Nessa Childers’ ‘resignation’…

Mick Fealty on April 5, 2013, 10:46 am

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The European Parliament is a sort of parallel universe. So the news that Nessa Childers has left the parliamentary Labour Party is an odd creature to process. As she says in her presser: Labour Party members, who have lost the whip, are immediately expelled from the PLP but retain party membership. Members of the European Parliament cannot be bound by a National Party whip, their mandate is in the European Parliament. But her rhetoric is clear enough: “I think there …

The grapes of Rathlin Island…

Mick Fealty on April 1, 2013, 7:17 am

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The following feature piece should have been published under the byline Beck, but we’ve been having problems getting the site to behave itself. As a business venture, it might seem like something that would elicit a unanimous “I’m out!” from the Dragons’ Den, or it could put you in mind of an enterprise that Ted Crilly may well have undertaken to swell the parish coffers on Craggy Island. But for French native Rosie Planc, her Irish vineyard is no laughing …