EU – Page 80 – Slugger O'Toole

Seeking asylum is not a crime. The human face of detention.

Patrick Corrigan on October 29, 2010, 6:19 pm

| Readers 106

There has been much, often ill-informed, comment on the airwaves over the last couple of days on the proposed immigration (temporary) detention centre planned by the UK Borders Agency in Larne. Much has come from local residents that foreign nationals being held in secure detention might escape, might take people’s jobs, might lower property values … who knows, they might even start barbecuing swans given half the chance. Of course, the quality of the discourse was hardly helped by the BNP …

“The market obviously doesn’t believe the position at the moment”

Pete Baker on October 28, 2010, 1:36 pm

| Readers 3

Andy may fear for the children and idealists, but Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s main concern, as previously acknowledged by his Finance minister, is re-establishing lost international market confidence. And while a national consensus may prove elusive, despite the re-assurances of EU Commissioner Olli Rehn, those markets have given their initial verdict on the Irish Government’s judgement that a total cut of €15 billion is needed over four years to reduce the budget deficit to 3 per cent by 2014. The iol report has …

Political Innovation No7: Breaking the monopolies that control the way schools are designed

Paul Evans on October 25, 2010, 12:30 pm

| Readers 5

This is a cross-post by Ian Fordham – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here. I’ve been following the Political Innovation project quite closely over the last month or so and the innovation that I would like to propose represents a synthesis of many of the other ideas in this series. I work in the field of Education and in particular School Design. With a decade of significant financial investment by government (and emotional investment from teachers and parents) …

Irish Times: “For Ireland’s political class the prospect of another [EU] treaty referendum is nightmarish”

Pete Baker on October 20, 2010, 4:47 pm

| Readers 5

Whether the European Commission succeeds in introducing its proposed directly levied EU taxes, including a possible EU-wide value-added tax (VAT), in the face of opposition from a number of national governments, remains to be seen. But we’re still looking at interesting EU times ahead… In agreeing new sanctions for countries in breach of EU budgetary rules, France and Germany are now calling for a permanent bail-out facility for Eurozone countries, before the current one expires in 2013. As the Irish Times reports …

Slugger’s site moderation

Slugger O'Toole on October 15, 2010, 5:30 pm

| Readers 11

Just a quick reminder: Slugger has a comments policy. Personal insults, smears and rudeness are not supposed to be tolerated here and we try to stay on top of this with the ‘delete’ key as much as we can. Normally, Mick picks up a lot of this kind of thing, applying his patience and charm (virtues that not all of us are blessed with). But Mick’s away at the moment and not able to get involved. We know that a …

Political Innovation no6: Citizen-control of personal information

Paul Evans on October 13, 2010, 1:00 pm

| Readers 7

This is a cross-post by William Heath – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here. If the big political innovation of the moment is to give power back to people, then a good place to do it is with personal data. Whose data is it anyway? Whose health, whose education, whose identity, whose shopping history, bank details, travel plans, creditworthiness? Yet all these personal details, which affect us, are stored on hundreds of state and private-sector databases. If I …

“Ireland and Greece have no choice than ‘to do fairly dramatic things in as clear a manner as possible’.”

Pete Baker on October 6, 2010, 11:32 pm

| Readers 5

The BBC notes that credit rating agency Fitch have downgraded Ireland’s credit rating from AA- to A+ citing the recently announced cost of rescuing the Irish banking system. RTÉ adds The agency said it was cutting the rating to ‘A+’ from ‘AA-‘ due to what it called the greater than expected costs associated with the Government’s recapitalisation of the Irish banks, especially Anglo Irish Bank. The agency has put a negative outlook on the rating, meaning a further downgrade is …

“with nothing less than Irish economic sovereignty on the line”

Pete Baker on October 5, 2010, 3:25 pm

| Readers 3

Another informative entry from the Irish Times‘ Arthur Beesley’s European Diary. If you were wondering what the European Commission has in mind for those problem PIIGS, including Ireland, you could try the EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn’s recommended reading… From the Irish Times As the cost of the banking bailout approaches €50 billion, general government debt is set to rise to 98.6 per cent of GDP this year. As recently as 2007, it was 25 per cent.The upshot is that Ahern’s …

Brian Lenihan: “It is an urgent and immediate priority to reinforce international market confidence…”

Pete Baker on September 30, 2010, 4:57 pm

| Readers 9

With, as Robert Peston put it, the Irish economy “hideously and perilously balanced between recovery and Armageddon” the Irish Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan, has confirmed that the Anglo Irish Bank bailout will cost between €29.3 billion and €34.3 billion. Additionally AIB and Irish Nationwide will also require more money from the State. The development will push Ireland’s deficit to 32% for this year, according to the Minister for Finance. AIB will need a further €3bn on top of existing State funds being converted …

Service announcement: Minor Facebook / Twitter-related tweaks to Slugger

Paul Evans on September 30, 2010, 1:33 pm

| Readers 5

At the top of this post, there’s a lovely new ‘Facebook Like’ button and a ‘Tweetmeme’ link on the left. These are designed to help you flag up anything you read and like to your followers as well as giving our contributors a bit of feedback. These things only work, of course, if you’re on Facebook / Twitter. Looking at the poor quality of spelling and punctuation in the comments thread, we know that you are all crying out for …

Political Innovation no 5: Government information? Get the public to provide it!

Paul Evans on September 27, 2010, 4:24 pm

| Readers 7

This is a cross-post by Lauren Currie – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here. For too long, policymaking has been monopolised by civil servants, self-serving pressure groups and sensationalist journalists. We get a vote once every four or five years and we’re expected to be satisfied with that. Public services are too important to get lost in headline issues, and too big to leave to those who have the time and energy to write letters or sit on …

NI Agriculture Minister: “I know that I am not alone in that concern among member states.”

Pete Baker on September 27, 2010, 3:54 pm

| Readers 12

The Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture may have sought £100 million to cover the eventual total disallowance by the EU Commission for the maladministration of EU funds but, as RTÉ reports, the Minister, Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew, has told the Assembly that “the Department is taking the necessary steps today to take a case to the European Court of Justice” challenging that disallowance. From the Minister’s press release The Minister delivered her statement to set out her Department’s position in regard to …

Robert Peston: “the Irish economy is hideously and perilously balanced between recovery and Armageddon”

Pete Baker on September 27, 2010, 12:13 pm

| Readers 8

As John has noted, the Irish government is teetering on the brink of a lost confidence vote. And the Anglo-Irish Bank’s credit rating has just been significantly downgraded by credit agency Moody’s, just as the Irish Finance Minister prepares to reveal how much more that bank will cost the state tax-payers. But a change in government won’t change the fundamentals. And, everyone’s hero, Robert Peston spells out the scary reality All of which is to say that the banks and the Irish state …

“The pressure is on to re-establish lost market confidence.”

Pete Baker on September 22, 2010, 4:57 pm

| Readers 11

With Irish Government bond yields still above 6%, the Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan, has told the Oireachtas Finance Committee that an estimate for the cost of the Anglo Irish Bank bailout will be published by the end of the month. This will “reassure the public and the markets that the costs of restructuring Anglo, while huge, are very manageable,” he told the Oireachtas Finance Committee. We’ll see… Meanwhile, as some are talking up yesterday’s bond auction, the Irish Times‘ Arthur Beesley had …

German foreign minister: “German-French relations are absolutely stable.”

Pete Baker on September 18, 2010, 10:33 pm

| Readers 7

While frustration is taking hold in Europe over financial matters, there appears to be a [distracting?] diplomatic row brewing over France’s repatriation of Roma immigrants. The BBC’s Gavin Hewitt noted a “fierce row” between the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, following condemnation of France’s actions by the EU Commission. The French President, Nicolas Sarkosy, then invoked the support of German Chancellor, Angela Merkel – only for that alleged support to be denied. But, as a BBC report noted The BBC’s …

Cheap flights explained

Paul Evans on September 18, 2010, 11:26 am

| Readers 88

I probably wouldn’t usually use Slugger to just post up funny things seen on the internet, but seeing as ‘budget’ airlines business practices and the politiking around City Airport have been a theme here, I thought you’d enjoy this from Fascinating Aida: Paul EvansLiving in London, working as a trade union official in the film and TV industry (opinions my own). Author of “Save Democracy, Abolish Voting” (published by Demsoc in November 2017). Personal website with link to other writing …

Political Innovation no 4: See Change – opening policy research to the public

Paul Evans on September 17, 2010, 12:00 pm

| Readers 11

This is a guest cross-post by Ivo Gormley – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here. Although Government claims to want our participation and wants us to appreciate its policies, it hides the evidence on which it bases its policies in fat documents and reports that are hard to read and only available free at special events at think-tanks around Whitehall. If we want participation in politics in a way that goes beyond choice we need to share policy …

EU: “And frustration is taking hold.”

Pete Baker on September 17, 2010, 11:39 am

| Readers 4

The Irish Times‘ Arthur Beesley with an update on the situation in Europe. From the Irish Times article One way or another, most of Cowen’s senior counterparts in Europe are on the hind foot politically. Merkel’s room for manoeuvre has been circumscribed ever since she lost her majority in the upper house of parliament; Sarkozy’s popularity has collapsed; Silvio Berlusconi administration in Italy is teetering; and José Zapatero is haunted by fear that his reprieve from the markets may prove …

“The weakest link? Maybe it’s best not to ask that too loudly.”

Pete Baker on September 14, 2010, 2:13 pm

| Readers 5

The Irish Times‘ Arthur Beesley has been asking some ‘stupid’ questions in Brussels about the Irish Government’s plan for the Anglo-Irish Bank and its dependence on Europe. From the Irish Times Investor types who lend billions to Ireland want final figures for the Anglo wind-down; the Government can’t provide same yet, its credibility over the bank is in some doubt anyway and Europe anxiously wants the brouhaha to quickly go away. But will it? Can it? When people do talk …

Political Innovation no 3: Assertion-flagging: for less partisan, prejudiced blogging

Paul Evans on September 14, 2010, 12:00 pm

| Readers 9

This is a guest cross-post by Andrew Regan – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here. Most political bloggers are motivated to fight what they see as bigotry, prejudice, and ill-informed, unjustifiable assertion. This is a fine and noble cause, because the spreading of false beliefs – without the evidence to support them – is bad for all of us, as is the displacement of informed argument by mere rhetoric. All the more so when the perpetrator is powerful …