EU – Page 81 – Slugger O'Toole

Growth or deficit: “Economics is the method. The object is to change the soul”

Mick Fealty on September 13, 2010, 8:53 am

| Readers 33

There’s a good piece in The Guardian from Julian Glover who says, yes, the Coalition does want cuts for ideological reasons, but then what of it? Yet ministers, by and large, hesitate before admitting this. Liberal Democrats worry about scaring their voters. Conservatives aren’t sure the country will understand their big idea. It’s easier to take refuge in the alternative truth that cuts are happening because they are needed. Even Ed Miliband issued a press release last week agreeing. From …

Anglo’s Austrian branch used to launder Mafia money?

Mick Fealty on September 12, 2010, 11:43 pm

| Readers 11

Looks like things just got a little more complicated at the end of a very complicated week for the troubled government owned Anglo Irish Bank: Banks in Austria were used to launder about 2 billion euros ($A3 billion) for the Italian mafia between 2005 and 2007, the Austrian weekly profil reports, citing Rome prosecutors. According to prosecution documents, the money was laundered through 14 accounts at Raiffeisen Zentralbank, Bank Austria – which now belongs to Italy’s UniCredit Group – and …

NI Agriculture Minister: “It is unfortunate that the EU decided to take a hard line…”

Pete Baker on September 10, 2010, 5:58 pm

| Readers 14

In a statement yesterday the Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister, Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew said Announcing the LPIS Improvement project, the Minister said: “It is unfortunate that the EU decided to take a hard line and impose a £31m disallowance for the 2004-6 scheme years at such a difficult economic time both for the Executive and the wider economy as a whole. That said, the EU decision has been made and we have to move to mitigate future disallowance.” The Minister neglected …

Unionists should aspire to the Republic’s public sector model

Mick Fealty on September 10, 2010, 2:59 pm

| Readers 8

The Dissenter takes an interesting tack of his own, inspired (if that is the right word) by the News Letter’s Unionism 2010 series. And in the process he says things that should be of interest to all constitutional camps in Northern Ireland: …the business sector is as much grounded in a dependency culture as the social sector. Nationalists cannot complain about a significant reduction in Northern Ireland’s public sector. If there is to be an all-Islands economy (one of the largest …

“While the conduct of the applicant had contributed somewhat to the delay…”

Pete Baker on September 10, 2010, 1:24 pm

| Readers 26

The BBC reports the European Court of Human Rights ruling against the Irish government in the case taken by Maze escapee Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane following the collapse of his trial on charges relating to the kidnap of Don Tidey in 1983. The iol report notes part of the ruling The Court ruled in favour of the former IRA commander in the Maze and found the 10-and-a-half-year wait from his arrest in 1998 until he walked free was excessive. The ECHR ordered the …

Political Innovation 2: The politics of buying things

Paul Evans on September 8, 2010, 12:00 pm

| Readers 8

This is a guest cross-post by Dominic Campbell – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here: Well, you wouldn’t still be reading had I called it the politics of procurement now would you? (no, stop – don’t go!). No-one who engages with government procurement comes away impressed with it. It’s a process that wastes £billions and rewards process over outcomes. Yet we all know that, deep down, it’s a symptom of a political problem. It is a system set …

“Ireland’s dependence on Europe is a one-way street.”

Pete Baker on September 7, 2010, 9:27 pm

| Readers 7

As the Irish Times reported, the Irish Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan has been in Brussels this week in meetings about the troubled Anglo-Irish Bank. He’s announced a three-month extension of the Government guarantee for short-term bank liabilities until the end of 2010. The bank’s longer term future remains uncertain. Meanwhile, the cost of the Irish State’s borrowing continues to rise Irish bond spreads widened today and yields inched above 6 per cent, rising above the peaks reached at the height of …

“it is not the first time Spain has been here”

Pete Baker on September 6, 2010, 9:29 pm

| Readers 17

The International Representative for west Belfast has been offering his unsolicited advice to the Spanish government on how they should respond to the latest statement by ETA. And an Irish Times report adds According to a Sinn Féin spokesman yesterday, Mr Adams and other senior party figures have been involved in long-running contacts with senior Basque separatist representatives in the past year or more for the purpose of helping end the conflict. He said that significant talks took place at …

Oppression through the policing of clothing

Sharon Fennell on September 3, 2010, 9:27 am

| Readers 49

France’s lower house of parliament recently approved a bill to ban the wearing of a burqa or niqab in public. People caught wearing garments “that hide the face” will be fined 150 euro and those who force women to cover up could be fined up to 30,000 euro and face a one-year jail term. Some of those in favour of the ban say it stems from the French concept of laïcité, a model of secularism which upholds freedom of and …

Political Innovation no1: Towards Interactive Government

Paul Evans on September 1, 2010, 12:00 pm

| Readers 7

This is a guest cross-post by Tim Davies – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here: The communication revolution that we’ve undergone in recent years has two big impacts: It changes what’s possible. It makes creating networks between people across organisations easier; it opens new ways for communication between citizens and state; it gives everyone who wants it a platform for global communication; and it makes it possible to discover local online dialogue. It changes citizen expectations of government. …

Launching the ‘Political Innovation’ project

Mick Fealty on August 31, 2010, 2:10 pm

| Readers 16

When bloggers meet, I often find that old allegiances (be they left right, or Unionist/Republican) often dissolve into a different political spilt. Those of us who imagine that we ‘get’ the read-write web against the political colleagues that we have who, we believe, fail to foresee the possibilities or the threats. I’ve occasionally witnessed left-right-and-centrist bloggers in (non) violent agreement with each other – not about political direction, but about what is possible in harnessing the power of the web. …

Ireland’s credit rating now lowest since 1995

Pete Baker on August 25, 2010, 9:33 pm

| Readers 4

The Irish Times has some of the political reaction to the increasing cost of the Irish state’s borrowing following Standard & Poors decision to downgrade Ireland’s credit rating to AA-. And a BBC report notes S&P cut the rating one step to from AA to AA-, its lowest since 1995. This follows clearance earlier this month for an additional injection of 10bn euros into Anglo Irish Bank. The agency now forecasts that net government debt – the sum of all …

“If the [EU] Commission asks what progress has been made… the departments will be exposed”

Pete Baker on August 20, 2010, 10:34 pm

| Readers 8

BBC NI’s Mike McKimm reports on five years of failure to act by the Northern Ireland Departments of the Environment, and Agriculture, following a formal written warning from the EU Commission in 2005 over the plight of [protected species] horse mussel beds in Strangford Lough [added link]. A Freedom of Information request was involved. The ministers concerned did manage to summon the press for a photo-opportunity on the issue in January 2009. But that’s about the only activity we’ve seen. From the BBC report Again …

What Ireland did right (and what it needs to do)…

Paschal Donohoe on August 14, 2010, 8:24 am

| Readers 17

It is difficult to believe now that one country recently sent 19 delegations to Ireland to study how well our economy was managed. The revelation that our model of economic management featured positively in political and economic discussion in countries including Estonia, Greece and Scotland may also come as a surprise. As we survey the ruinous aftermath of the collapse of a property and banking bubble, it is salutary to read that ‘Ireland turned out to be the first country …

“some of the draft Bill’s restrictions to the freedom of assembly are not proportionate or necessary”

Pete Baker on July 14, 2010, 4:41 pm

| Readers 8

We’ve seen opposition from the Orange Order’s Grand Lodge, and from Queen’s University law lecturer Vicky Conway, and from Newry and Mourne Council [Adds – And from Residents Groups]. And, as wj pointed out, the Committee on the Administration of Justice [CAJ] have published their submission to the consultation on the Sinn Féin/DUP drafted Public Assemblies, Parades and Protests Bill [pdf file]. Here are some extracted paragraphs from the submission [pdf file] On “Disproportionate Restrictions to Freedom of Assembly” Although we recognise the particular difficulties surrounding parades …

Euro Crisis : Soros on the Euro’s deficiencies and what needs to be done

Mack on July 9, 2010, 9:00 am

| Readers 4

Excellent George Soros essay on NyBooks – The Crisis & the Euro. In it he forensically examines the structural issues with the single currency, points out Germany’s critical role within the project and how they have been making bad policy decisions, and how this threatens political and social stability within the union. All is not lost, as he outlines three steps that need to be taken (cleansing the banks, huge monetary stimulus to offset fiscal tightening, European infrastructure investment funded …

Euro Crisis: Greece restructuring it’s debts

Mack on July 8, 2010, 11:28 am

| Readers 3

Fancy word for default. Spotted by John Dizard in the FT, and neatly summarised by Yves Smith on Naked Capitalism below. Greece is imposing (at least) a 19% haircut on holders of state hospital bonds. This hasn’t yet gotten the attention it merits because it’s bonds issued by particular government bodies (in this case, the Greek state hospital system) and the investors aren’t big Eurobanks but suppliers. Old outstanding coupon bonds are being replaced with zero coupon bonds. The relevant …

Slugger’s comment thread rebuild – redux

Paul Evans on July 1, 2010, 2:22 pm

| Readers 8

You may recall that – a few weeks ago – I posted an idea on how we can add value to Slugger’s comments thread. It met with a mixed reaction, and while some of you liked the idea and saw possibilities in it, there were also some extremely perceptive objections. As a result, we have ruled the idea out of bounds. We are keen, however, to try and give Slugger more of a community dimension for a number of reasons, …

Irish MEP: Facebook makes you mad, so let’s have a law against it…

Mick Fealty on June 23, 2010, 3:10 pm

| Readers 5

Of all the political parties in the south, Labour is one of the ones which ‘gets’ t’Internet most. But I wonder if Labour MEP Nessa Childers‘ question seeking a written answer in the European Parliament ever saw the desk of leader Eamon Gilmore? There is certainly no sign of it on her blog. Adds: Clare Minnock seems to be the only member of the MSM (well, the Carlow Nationalist at least) to pick up the story and she treats it an …

Euro crisis: “The commission is the economic government of Europe.”

Pete Baker on June 16, 2010, 12:58 pm

| Readers 4

The BBC has a country-by-country guide to the EU austerity measures, including the bickering France and Germany. And, as the Irish Times reports, EU Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, lays down the law Amid intensive debate among European governments around measures required to reinforce the euro’s foundations, Mr Barroso said some of the member states needed to be reminded that the commission was “the economic government of Europe”. France and Germany have been at loggerheads over the scale of the measures …