119 thoughts on “Sunday’s Papers

    1. Cú Chulainn

      A very pleasant change from being attacked by psycho seagulls..!!! The editorial crew must have great craic coming up with their headlines..

      1. GiggidyGoo

        Id say the people at ALDI have a far more fulfilling job thinking up names for products that are imitations of well-known items.

        1. Cú Chulainn

          Never been in an Aldi, but I’m sure you’re right.. they might need to get even more creative next year..

          1. Janet, dreams of big guns

            they actually sell the best frozen butter croissants I have found in Ireland, a few minutes in the oven and it’s the closest to the real thing I have had here, I go just for that

          2. Janet, dreams of big guns

            oh cheers still hunting down a decent coffee, I tried some rank Kenyan Bewleys jobbie I think it was last week,

          3. Cú Chulainn

            If I can repay your recommendation: Silverskin coffee is well worth a test.. 3FE have different blends, all good, Bell Lane moondust espresso is quite delicious..

          4. CE

            So we’re all just waiting for the “psycho seagulls stole my frozen butter croissants” Star headline and then the universe will get it’s coat and cease to exist

          5. Cú Chulainn

            I’m particularly partial to a butter croissant, so thank you Janet, I shall be visiting very soon..

          6. Janet, dreams of big guns

            ” woman feeds thief to her cat while all the other seagulls watch on in horror”
            that’s the headline

          7. Lilly

            Thanks for the croissants tip, Janet. At the moment Lidl are selling fresh croissants in bags of four. They tend to be dry & I mostly end up binning two, so frozen-to-oven could be a good alternative. Not sure about the pain au chocolat, Millie. Defrosted chocolate hmm… Will give it a try though. On the coffee front, am really enjoying a bag of Badger & Dodo’s Blackwater Blend at the moment.

        2. Daisy Chainsaw

          Tesco Italian & French blends are nice. Lidl have a great range of own brand coffees, better than Aldi’s to be honest. I brought back decaf from Aldi in Spain last year because it had a strength level of 9 and most decafs are a three, which is just wee wee. Alway have a robust blend on hand cos strong coffee can always be watered down, but a mild/medium blend can’t be made stronger, no matter how much you put in the plunger pot.

  1. Formerly known as @ireland.com

    Ah, the good ole days are back, when Brexit dominates the news. A man-made, totally unnecessary, disaster!

  2. f_lawless

    First it was an unrelenting focus was on the death count. By June, the death rate was in rapid decline so the goalposts suddenly switched over to a focus on “new cases”. But even our own tainiste has recently drawn attention to the fact there hasn’t been a corresponding rise in deaths or hospitalisations.

    Now there’s a headline story about ‘Hidden Wave of Corona’ and you have to wonder why now? Of course the story won’t make it clear that Covid-19 isn’t unique in regards to long-term issues – many other viral illnesses including the flu are known to cause the same (see this well-referenced thread: https://twitter.com/HeckofaLiberal/status/1287549725567197184 ). These kinds of articles never seem to provide any solid statistics indicating how many are having this type of experience with Covid so that the reader could put the risk in proper proportion. It appears to be that the underlying aim is to perpetuate fear.

    It’s been reported in the past that pharmaceutical companies made millions worth of undisclosed payments to Irish doctors and medical institutions in order to buy influence. I think it’s reasonable to suspect that they’ve also been paying for influence in Irish media and abroad. Is it why the likes of Prof Luke O’Neill gets so much air time on RTE and yet it’s never made clear to the viewer that his own pharmaceutical company stands to make a huge financial profit from developing a vaccine? How likely is he to give a balanced opinion on the level of public risk?

    Yesterday there was a front page article in the Irish Times: “Mask key to miniising Covid deaths in Ireland” and yet not a single mention of the Government’s recent Oireachtas Covid Committee Hearing where an expert witness they called gave evidence that the current clinical evidence for the efficacy of masks in pandemics stands at next to none.

    Or what about those front page stories you’d see from time to time: ‘Company X may have vaccine ready within months” which of course would cause the company in question’s share price to skyrocket making those in the know huge amounts of money only for the story to disappear shortly after.

    1. Shayna

      Sure, conspiracy theories are rife, however, the virus can affect everyone on the planet. Boris Johnson, our nearest neighouring Leader of a … got it. Company X clearly didn’t offer it to The UK?

    2. SOQ

      That Irish Times piece is based on modelling and we seen how wrong they all got it last time. There is zero evidence of the efficacy of masks, if anything infection rates appear to go up after their introduction. Slowly but surely people are copping on that there is an agenda at play and that the end game is mandatory vaccinations.

      Except holes are appearing, like that in real terms so far, there is no major second wave of illness and that the first wave isn’t happening in Africa at all. The most likely explanation being that Africans have previously been exposed to something similar- and are naturally immune.

      Scientists can’t explain puzzling lack of coronavirus outbreaks in Africa

      https://nypost.com/2020/09/04/scientists-cant-explain-puzzling-lack-of-coronavirus-outbreaks-in-africa/

      1. Cian

        What models were wrong the first time?

        Just because you choose to ignore the studies that show masks work, and ignore the countries that wore masks that had lower outbreaks doesn’t mean that masks don’t work.

        Perhaps there hasn’t been a second wave because of all the precautions we are all taking? “Masks and lockdown doesn’t work” also “there is no second wave”. Perhaps one of these is stopping the other?

        1. SOQ

          What models were wrong the first time?

          I assume that is a joke?

          Perhaps there hasn’t been a second wave because of all the precautions we are all taking?

          By precautions you mean lock downs and muzzles? If so then why is Sweden not going mad?

          Professor of immunology & U.K. GOVERNMENT SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR Mark Woolhouse- LOCKDOWN will come to be seen as a “monumental mistake on a global scale” and must never happen again.

          https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1320428/Coronavirus-news-lockdown-mistake-second-wave-Boris-Johnson

          1. Clampers Outside

            If they’re using quotes in context, it shouldn’t matter the media doing the reporting…. just read the source, ie quoted, material.

          2. Cian

            Right. Would I be right if I suggested that you pick and choose which experts you agree with?
            I.e. if they are saying stiff that validates your ideas you agree with them. Bit if they are at odds with your ideas then they are either wrong, corporate shills, or government shills?

          3. Cian

            Ireland 14 deaths in the last month.
            Sweden 65 deaths in the last month.
            Norway 8 deaths in the last month.

            Yeah. Sweden is a model for us all.

          4. SOQ

            @ formely- if you prefer another source then just google ‘”monumental mistake on a global scale” Mark Woolhouse’- the story is reported all over the place.

            @ Cian- Mark Woolhouse is not any old expert- he advises the UK Government- that statement is the clearest indication yet that UK will not lockdown again.

            Germany has already stated they will not either of course.

          5. Cian

            SOQ
            You jumped from masks and second wave (original post) to lockdown.

            Are your arguments so weak that you can’t defend them but move to something else?

          6. SOQ

            Another doctor speaks out- Dr. Malcolm Kendrick is a GP living in Macclesfield, England- who does not mince his words- I really had a smile on my face reading this.

            In this blog post of 4th September he addresses why in relation to CoVid-19 the use of the word ‘Case’ is wrong, how and why Ferguson’s modelling was wrong and why the current fatality rate is wrong- he predicts 0.1%.

            COVID – why terminology really, really matters

            “I know it is going to be virtually impossible to walk the world back from having made such a ridiculous, stupid, mistake. There are so many reputations at stake. The entire egg production of the world will be required to supply enough yolk to cover appropriate faces.”

            “The truth is that this particular Emperor has no clothes on and is, currently, standing bollock naked, right in front of you. Hard to believe, but true.”

            https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/author/drmalcolmkendrick/

          7. SOQ

            Yeah I know Millie but a number of people have said the same thing- that once you get into the data and the real science behind this thing, it becomes very difficult to switch off.

            It is just so bloody serious, and so wrong. I have a friend who’s lung cancer treatment was delayed by over 3 months- and for what? A virus with the same fatality rate as the flu.

          8. millie madonna

            That’s fair enough. It’s immensely frustrating when dealing with a situation like that. I think for a lot of people, the scare-mongering in the media and the ineptitude of the government – particularly of our new government – is beginning to wear on nerves. That’s not even mentioning golfgate.

          9. V AKA Frilly Keane

            That’s exactly it Mill

            Nobody wants to put people at risk of getting a bad dose of this thing
            Well the vast majority
            I’m one and am going with the flow
            In terms of personal beheavior etc

            But I was in the O’Neill’s shop there earlier in my N95
            And I can honestly say it’s doing me more harm that good
            The sweating, the intensity of normal skin grease trapped
            The slobbery moisture
            Horrible
            It won’t be long before Covid Face Yeast Rashes are the new Covid Hair

            But if that’s what it takes
            Then fair enough

            But nothing adds up anymore
            Nothing makes sense or is consistent
            Only the inept management, the ongoing incompetence, and the increasingly incohesive messaging

            There is a very strong sense of
            ah but shur’ what’ll we do with all the PPE we’ve bought, what’ll we tell all the lads who have gone and filled point depots of the stuff, and how are we going to explain to Leaving Certs they’ll all have to repeat
            Larry’ll have murder and Denis won’t talk to us anymore

            with it all

            And I think you know it too

          10. Lilly

            I keep forgetting the goddamned mask. I got petrol earlier and went in to pay sans mask. I didn’t even twig when I saw the guy behind the counter wearing one. He didn’t say anything. It was only when I was back in the car that I remembered and I felt bad.

            Later I was getting a takeaway coffee. I went into the place, no mask, guy came up and said mask please. I retreated, put it on and went back in. Decided to go to the loo before ordering coffee. The loos were in a bad state, tiny with pee all over the floor (unisex, ugh). Dropped the mask on the floor and thought, I’m not picking that up! Had to do walk of shame out of the shop without the coffee. Grrr….

          11. Charger Salmons

            ” The sweating, the intensity of normal skin grease trapped
            The slobbery moisture
            Horrible
            It won’t be long before Covid Face Yeast Rashes are the new Covid Hair ”

            My god, I love it when you talk dirty.
            Yabbadabbadoooooo.

          12. SOQ

            It’s a face saving exercise at this point.

            Government- RTÉ- Irish Times etc all on the same ‘keep the fear going” page but for how long- and what happens then?

            I wear a muzzle, under the nose- the Irish way.

        1. GiggidyGoo

          Colm Henry has said that the HSE and the government was working to develop a “more nuanced deal” with individual private hospitals this winter to create a “surge capacity” to cope with any increase in Covid-19 cases.
          Odd that such a deal wasn’t developed for the last decade to cope with the increased in flu cases, the increase in waiting lists, the trolly crises.

  3. GiggidyGoo

    Nice photo of Coveney, practicing his statesman/leader look with a backdrop of the Irish and EU flags. Varadkar beware.

      1. Charger Salmons

        He’s from Cork.He’s probably casting an admiring glance at his first cousin just out of camera shot.

      2. GiggidyGoo

        Well, his Cork FF colleague made Taoiseach (or sorts), so he can’t be having that now. Maybe a heave against Varadkar (who managed to further reduce FGs TD numbers by a lot after Kenny’s big failure) will be on the cards before FG is meant to have the Taoiseach role. ( though I don’t think this government will last long enough for that to happen )

        1. V AKA Frilly Keane

          Ah would ye all stop

          Its a lickle tickle for “their” boy
          Who has been a very good boy over the whole Commissioner hoohaa

          They got Pig Fill out, and put an end to his notions of a gig even further up the food chain

          How well they knew Pig would make it so easy

          Funny how everything Pig did
          Here and there
          Even how he marked his golf cards
          Was unearthed

          Yet nobody’ll say a word about the plus ones twos
          And threes

          Suckers!

          Nothing at all to do with the soon to be Brexitted Brit PRA and FCA coming out to endorse & partner with the UK Credit Unions in the fight against sub primes, vultures and payday loan shops sharks and scabs

  4. Charger Salmons

    Irish statesman look ?
    Is he on his knees holding a begging bowl ?
    Or perhaps in the pose adopted by Irish politicians arriving into Brussels – shuffling backwards, bent over and with bare buttocks presented for ritual humiliation.
    Is there are Commissioner for Paper Clips role going vacant ?
    #theyhaveourbacks.

    1. GiggidyGoo

      You’re touching 9 out of 10 on the inferiority scale there Charger. Didn’t think I’d see the day a bean savage would take the time to post on an Irish site how inferior he felt. Maybe you should have a particular scale named in your honour.

      1. Charger Salmons

        Lesson One in the Irish diplomatic training school programme.
        How to make the BEEP BEEP BEEP noise of a reversing truck.
        Lesson Two ? How to act like a door mat.
        On graduation day they get issued with a big Please Wipe Your Feet lanyard to be worn at all times.

    2. Brother Barnabas

      hehe × 17.4 million

      brexit-fanboy talks about “ritual humiliation” at the hands of the EU

      1. Charger Salmons

        It’s moved on fast from ‘ Hogan resigns so we must have another Irish trade commisioner to look after our Brexit interests ‘ to ‘ Lads, have we got another failed 2nd-rate politician for whatever crumbs Ursula chucks our way ‘ .
        Heh x #BEEPBEEPBEEP

        1. Brother Barnabas

          itll be the easiest trade deal in human history, they assured us

          the ruling toffs are patting the plebs’ heads again, charger

          who’s side on you on?

          heheheh

          1. Cú Chulainn

            Absolutely.. like when a group of selfish toffs sell you a line, wrapped in a flag, that you are better because you’re British .. and because you’re British you’re too stubborn to use democracy to change course and avoid a disaster on a life and generational changing scale. Britain is about to lose the war. Maybe it will be better for that in 50 years.

          2. Brother Barnabas

            question then, I suppose, is whether the manipulation and distortion of democracy is still democracy – or is it anti democracy?

          3. bisted

            …there are few types of democracy more pure than referendum…try as they might though, the English only had the Welsh vote with them, Scotland and NI voted remain…the overall result was reinforced in the UK national elections…now is the time to acknowledge that and work towards independence…

          1. Charger Salmons

            Soon to be named by who ?
            You’ve posted this three times so far but you’re obviously too gormless to come with one yourself.
            I don’t waste my time with unoriginal amateurs.

          2. Charger Salmons

            Poor attempt in fairness.
            The secret is to put some thought and humour into your effort.
            I think you’d be better off sticking to your soon-to-be-named line until someone cleverer comes along.

          3. GiggidyGoo

            I thought the abbreviation would be quite humourous.
            The thought behind it obviously hit home.

            Still, you’re reading very high on it.

          4. Burgess, snip, snip...

            How about the whimsical ‘Poppy Puff Paranoia Scale’?! Mrs Poppy Puff, being a paranoid puffer fish in a sailor suit and stars in Spongebob Squarepants.

            The scale of course is measured in flakes….. because of course is should….

  5. SOQ

    Really interesting piece by a guy called James Altucher about how the pandemic has changed NYC.

    New York City is dead forever

    https://nypost.com/2020/08/17/nyc-is-dead-forever-heres-why-james-altucher/

    Of course it is not just in NYC this is happening, it is all over- including Dublin. Working from home can increase productivity and cut employer costs while at the same time, employees are also saving both time and money- a win win.

    I expect people are going to ask themselves some serious questions as to if they really want to back to ‘the old normal’. The sitting in a car or standing on a crowded stuffy train for two hours a day for example- so much of our lives were taken up commuting- and it was downright miserable.

    1. Charger Salmons

      On the plus side in Ireland it’s going to sort out the wheat from the chaff in the hospitality sector.
      People won’t forget the restaurant jobsworths who made eating out feel like you were committing a crime.
      Or the rip-off merchants who hiked their prices.
      Hopefully the places that have always been bad will simply go to the wall.
      Passing through Blighty a few weeks ago it was noticeable how many services have upped their game knowing that an economic hurricane is heading their way.
      And although it’s not the sort of place I’d normally be seen dead in it appears Tim Martin’s Wetherspoon’s got out of traps fast and early.

      1. SOQ

        Speaking of rip off merchants- quite a trend in the UK of restaurants upping their Mon – Weds prices to take advantage of the half price government offer I believe. And a few establishments doing a roaring trade without ever serving a single meal?

        As for the service industries- those which catered for office workers are going to be worse hit. They already had big overheads and even if some do manage to reopen, if the work from home trend continues, then they will see a dramatic decrease in footfall.

          1. Janet, dreams of big guns

            my mum washed my mouth out once with that, I can’t be smelling it now,
            bit like cognac and white chocolate, sickened myself on both of them, now even the smell burke

      2. Brother Barnabas

        sad thing is that itll be the smaller, independent pubs, cafes, restaurants that go to the wall; bland, insipid chains will be better able to weather it

        towns, cities will be a lot less interesting once this is all over and done with

      3. GiggidyGoo

        Weatherspoons do a breakfast much in the same vein as Little Chef. Plenty of beans but scrimp on the hash browns, sausage and bacon. Sure no wonder you brought them into the conversation.

        1. Charger Salmons

          The fact that you know the difference between what’s in a Wetherspoons’ and Little Chef breakfast is a bit of an own goal you chump.
          Which is why I’m introducing a new award after the runaway success of the WINKY WOO-ometer.
          It’s for those Irish people on here with an unhealthy obsession with the mainland.
          And you are its first recipient.
          This one is called Anglophobes R Sad Eejits.
          Or BOTTY-ometer.

          1. GiggidyGoo

            I had little choice back in the day when money was short but to eat sometimes in Little Chef as I drove the motorways in the UK. I always told the server to give me a 1/4 portion of beans, as I didn’t want to leave the bean savages short. Weatherspoons – I had a pint in one, and sure enough their breakfast was still on the table – very cheap and cheerful. I didn’t have one mind, but beans was a staple there.

            But as regards unhealthy obsessions – judging by today’s posts so far, it sure looks like you have one big time for Ireland (EU).

            You Sure Have Inferiority Troubles

  6. Charger Salmons

    There are several pubs I know that we’re selling off four month old kegs whose doorsteps I will never darken again.

    1. GiggidyGoo

      Several Pubs / Four month old kegs? Heresay, or have you that much time on your hands?
      By the way – the cost of unused kegs falls on the brewery, not the publican, as they promised to take back the beer and issue credit notes, so I call bullology on your post.
      Unused beer goes into the manufacture of fertilizer.

    1. Charger Salmons

      Apparently, and I swear this is true,Chief Superintendent Steve Graham of West Midlands Police says there is no suggestion that the stabbings in Birmingham where one man was killed and seven others injured by a random attacker were “motivated by hate”
      This is what happens when police become neutered by fear of offending someone.

      https://twitter.com/PA/status/1302554143039672320

  7. GiggidyGoo

    The Times reporting that Darragh O Brien is proposing an affordable scheme for people earning up to €90,000.
    As in his 2018 proposal https://www.independent.ie/business/personal-finance/property-mortgages/couples-earning-up-to-90000-may-avail-of-new-affordable-housing-scheme-after-budget-37335667.html

    From that 2018 newspaper article “The scheme, which is central to Budget negotiations, will see local authorities buy houses from developers before offering them at significantly subsidised rates to first-time buyers. Local authorities will retain a stake in the properties until the home is sold or bought out by the property owner.”

    Central to Budget negotiations? Confidence and Supply? That’s two years ago, and…..nothing. Apart from announcing it again.

    1. Formerly known as @ireland.com

      What amazes me is that 40% or more of the American population think he is worth voting for.

        1. Nigel

          Oh dear, now they have you defending Tony effing Abbot, I can only assume simultaneously calling Abbot bovinely stupid is some last shred of supressed dignity subconsciously kicking out.

        2. Formerly Known As @ireland.com

          @Charage, Abbott got voted out of his seat by his own constituency. That takes a lot to achieve. You are welcome to him. He is a wrecker, the mad monk. Your juvenile Aussie references are very poor. Any chance of something less obvious, ya drongo.

      1. Nigel

        If their aim is primarily to punish the country for electing a black ‘socialist’ president, they’re getting exactly what they want.

        1. bisted

          …who was Obama punishing when he bombed Libya back to the stone-age and restored open slave markets…I fear you are mixing up ‘socialism’ with ‘national socialism’…

  8. Nigel

    ‘The eastern Arctic Ocean’s winter ice grew less than half as much as normal during the past decade, due to the growing influence of heat from the ocean’s interior, researchers have found. The finding came from an international study led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Finnish Meteorological Institute. The study, published in the Journal of Climate, used data collected by ocean moorings in the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean from 2003-2018.’

    https://phys.org/news/2020-08-arctic-ocean-winter-sea-ice.amp?__twitter_impression=true

  9. Rosette of Sirius

    Speaking of wheat from chaff was in the city earlier and interesting to see so many British high-street retail stores and concessions in the midst of their respective fire sales. Chaff indeed.

    1. Charger Salmons

      Well you don’t say which city but if it’s in Ireland and you’re celebrating difficult retail conditons which will likely lead to job losses amongst the many Irish people employed with those companies then your priorities are a bit skewed.
      When a major retailer like Debenhams or Marks and Spencer pulls out of any high street anywhere the knock-on effects are palpable.
      Ireland is going to need as much inward investment as it can get in the coming years.
      Be careful what you wish for.

        1. Charger Salmons

          You’re trying just that bit too hard bro.
          Keep it up if you want but without originality you’re just a rubbish U2 tribute band.

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