28 thoughts on “Wednesday’s Papers

  1. f_lawless

    The covers of the Independent, Guardian and FT a classic example of British corporate media performing it’s role as a propaganda outlet for the British elite class as it so often does. A protestor in Hong Kong is shot but no context is given only the implication that the barbaric HK police are doing the bidding of the Chinese government. “Democratic” protestors = good guys . Communist China = bad guys.

    But looking at the mobile phone footage of the incident, you see that at least 10 protestors had isolated one policeman and had set upon him beating him with metal rods. In that context a fellow officer opened fire to save his colleague. Protestors retreat but throw molotov cocktail at police. Not quite the picture painted by said media outlets.
    Footage: https://twitter.com/Ozkok_A/status/1179021399513616385

    1. eoin

      True, the video suggests the protesters was shot in the shoulder whereas the media has referred to “chest”, with the obvious implication that “chest” is more serious if not fatal.

    2. spudnick

      Pro-democracy protests are hardly the expression of the tentacles of a ruling Western elite class. Of course, everything’s so simple when your default worldview is WEST=BAD, therefore totalitarian Communist regime must be the maligned good guys here.

      1. f_lawless

        Strawman arguments serve no good purpose and just make you look foolish.
        Strawman: “a fallacious argument that distorts an opposing stance in order to make it easier to attack. Essentially, the person using the strawman pretends to attack their opponent’s stance, while in reality they are actually attacking a distorted version of that stance, which their opponent doesn’t necessarily support”

  2. GiggidyGoo

    The weekly ‘Varadkar warns Boris’ line rears it’s head. ROFL. Sure isn’t Varadkar a great fellow for issuing warnings?

  3. Papi

    eoin will be making his first holy communion today so will not be posting. Sorry for the inconvenience. Carry on.

  4. GiggidyGoo

    I see Yoghan ‘teach me how to point’ Murphy is in line for a new ministership. The ‘Minister for Foggy Weather’ is a newly-created position to take care of wasters. Sure don’t we have weather every day?

    1. eoin

      He’s the minister for the Department which controls Met Eireann, which is a €25 million operating unit in the Department of Housing Planning and Local Government. Murphy will give you the top line numbers, but he won’t reveal the detail so you can’t confirm how many €250,000 a year (ex clothing. grooming allowances and expenses) celebrity weather forecasters there are.

      Meanwhile, here’s a weather service which gives you full detail on Ireland’s weather now and for the next few days which you don’t need pay a penny for.

      http://www.windy.com

      1. Spaghetti Hoop

        I like Wind.y. Gives you the visuals and stats of an entire region and lets you make your assessment.

        On the Met Eireann debate, Evelyn Cusack was interviewed yesterday about Lorenzo. She described its first stormy and potentially devastating stop to the Azores, indicating in a dismissive manner that ‘there aren’t many people there’. Nine islands, 250,000 residents. one marine tragedy already attributed to Lorenzo this week with the loss of up to 14 lives.

        Even our weather service is streaked with nimbyism.

  5. eoin

    So, where is the €5 (five) billion National Broadband Plan at and why are we about to sign the contract with a consortium featuring Denis O’Brien as the country faces into a possibly very difficult period (Brexit certainly, but it looks like Germany has entered a technical recession signalling an international slowdown which disproportionately affects Ireland with its open economy dependent on tech companies).

    Paschal Donohue said yesterday “However, the Deputy is correct that if we move into a no-deal Brexit scenario, then the country is likely to be running a deficit for a period as we respond to the consequences of dealing with that shock. If that were the case, the Government has not made a final decision on the signing of the broadband contract…The point at which we will get into a debate is when we are about to sign a contract…The Deputy asked whether there are penalties involved [with not going ahead with the NBP after signing a preferred bidder agreement with the consortium]. I understood he had received an answer on that but that is clearly not the case. I will ensure he receives a reply tomorrow.”

    So, the government isn’t being clear about when it will sign the contract. FF have asked about penalties payable to Denis & Co if the plan doesn’t go ahead. Paschal thought he had provided the info, but now says “I was apologising to him [Deputy Barry Cowen of FF who was asking questions] because the question on legal penalties had not been answered and I thought it had been answered. I will make sure he receives information tomorrow, insofar as it is available to me, to clarify where the Government stands on the national broadband plan.”

    So, is Denis about to walk away with 10s of millions and not even have to buy a shovel? That sounds about right for FG.

    1. eoin

      BTW, it’s not yet available on the Dail transcript but didn’t Micheal Martin ask Leo yesterday when the NBP would be signed. Did he get an answer?

  6. eoin

    RTE has obtained info from the Dept of Justice to state that there are 1,300 people including 275 children in 33 hotels across the country. These 1,300 people are seeking international protection. The State is paying around €100 per night per person in an hotel. That’s €130,000 a day or €4m a month.

    RTE doesn’t ask the seeker of international protection from Zimbabwe how she arrived in Ireland. She will almost definitely have paid a trafficker.

    Meanwhile the Department of Justice has failed to provide figures for international protection seekers for August 2019. The figures for July 2019 showed 445 people came here in that month alone. That’s €1m a month we need pay just for those people arriving in the 31 days of July. The top two countries for asylum seekers to Ireland are Georgia and Albania.

    We are being robbed blind. And the numbers coming from Albania and Georgia suggest there is something more than government inaction at play. Someone is making a LOT of money out of this.

    1. some old queen

      How they got here is a valid question to ask because we are a small island on the furthest part of the EU- so at least some arrive here by choice. It would also be very interesting to see what grounds these people are claiming asylum.

      According to the stats linked below from the Irish Refugee Council, Albania (99%) has the highest first instance rejection rate followed by Georgia (97%) and Nigeria (94.4%). What about second instance and deportation?

      I personally think the key to this whole issue lies with more transparency from the DOJ. I am quite certain there are absolute horror stories in there, but also- scammers. From start to finish the whole system operates under a veil of secrecy which does no one any favours and is being exploited by the far right.

      One group who are definitely on the gravy train is legal- as with most of the courts they are in no hurry to process these claims because they are on a very nice earner.

      https://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/republic-ireland/statistics

    2. Catherine costelloe

      Yes, money is indeed the root of all evil. Police in Nigeria freed 19 women and newborn babies from a Lagos baby factory recently. Girls and women (15 -24yrs) abducted , impregnated by captors and then babies sold on. 400 boys and men ,in chains and scarred from beatings were rescued in Kaduna , — purported to be an Islamic school . Money can be better spent on country of origin than cooped up in an Irish hotel room.

      1. some old queen

        As above Catherine- I wonder how many of these people are claiming persecution.on the grounds of LGBT for example- Sylva Tukula is not the only one- some of the countries listed are very trans and homophobic so some defiantly are.

        Instead of the left screaming racism at every chance, maybe somebody could start telling these people’s stories- they don’t have to be identified to do so of course- although the fact they would not want to be identified is in itself- telling. This is already happening in the UK of course.

        1. eoin

          Sexual orientation isn’t one of the five grounds for seeking international protection.

          “The definition of a Convention refugee states that a claimant’s fear of persecution must be “by reason of” one of the five enumerated grounds – that is race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group and political opinion.”

          1. some old queen

            Surely membership in a particular social group would cover it? It is a very vague category to begin with but when you look at any of the countries listed- it wouldn’t be hard to prove LGBT persecution.

            And again there is another question- why do these people want to live here as opposed to say- the UK?

          2. eoin

            That is the category which those claiming international protection for sexual orientation persecution claim, but it’s not clearly in international law that LGBT persecution is covered by “social grouping”

  7. ReproBertie

    Nice to see Britain’s unelected tea-boy taoiseach rolling out all the Sasamach hits from the past three years. FIrst he copied May’s failed trip round the EU capitals to sow division, with similar results, and now it’s the “accept this vague deal or we’ll destroy our own economy” line.

      1. ReproBertie

        He’s bluffing as usual. He has no way around the Benn thing which is why he wants the opposition to call an election and spare him having to go crawling back to the EU for an extension.

  8. Gabby

    In the Daily Telegraph is Boris rolling up his shirt sleeve to get a compulsory school vaccination?

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