Category Archives: Misc

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From top: Sir John Chilcot’s  reporton the Iraq war this morning; George Bush and Tony Blair in 2002

Oh.

Chilcot report live: Blair sent troops to Iraq before peaceful options had been exhausted (The Guardian)

Meanwhile…

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QRs4S4xoWk

What you may need to know:

1. An FBI agent (Daniel Radcliffe) infiltrates a neo-Nazi terrorist group.

2. “I’m not racist, but…” One for Daily Mail readers.

3. Speaking of which, this Farage business is like letting one go in a crowded sauna and then locking the door behind you.

4. With Now You See Me 2 in cinemas now and Swiss Army Man out in the ether, Radcliffe’s been a busy boy.

5. He can shave his head and cover himself in swastikas, but he’ll always be the Boy Scout with the unravelled prophylactic (“Ready for action”) to me.

6. Broadsheet prognosis: You’re a grand wizard, Harry.

Release Date: September 23.

(Mark writes about film and TV at ScreenTime.ie)

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From top: Justice minister Frances Fitzgerald (left) and Attorney General Maire Whelan; Anne Marie McNally

On this extremely limited abortion bill they will hide behind excuses such as the can-kicking citizen’s convention or the cowardly and disingenuous assertion that they are following the Attorney General’s advice.

Anne Marie McNally writesL

Tomorrow, the Dáil will vote on a Bill tabled by Mick Wallace – a Bill aimed at providing for abortions to those women and their families who tragically find themselves dealing with a pregnancy diagnosis of Fatal Foetal Abnormality.

It is an exceptionally limited piece of legislation – it only addresses the abortion question within strict parameters of Fatal Foetal Abnormality.

It makes no reference to abortion in the cases of rape or incest.

It makes no reference to abortion provision for those who simply feel they cannot progress with a pregnancy for myriad reasons be they relationship issues, economic reasons, mental health reasons or any other reason a woman may feel that this pregnancy is just not right for her; in her body.

Her choice about her body in her life – this Bill does not make any provision for that.

It is extremely limited you see.

In fact it is actually only an Amendment Bill in that it is seeking to amend the already exceptionally limited Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill (you remember – the one which requires a woman to be judged by a team of medical professionals as suicidal before she will be granted autonomy over her own body).

So this limited Bill is attempting to amend an already limited Bill. Yet it is likely to be rejected when it comes to voting on it tomorrow afternoon.

The limits of my patience on this issue have become far more limited than either of these two Bills.

Did Mick Wallace set out to deliberately give us a piece of legislation that was so limited it would ignore the issue of a woman’s right to choose? No, he didn’t.

He looked at the options available and he tried to relieve at least some of the most horrendous elements of the current ‘head in the sand’ Irish approach to abortion.

The approach that makes you sit in a room and listen while a father tells the story of how a DHL courier delivered ashes to him from Liverpool Maternity Hospital after he and his wife were forced to travel there following a fatal foetal diagnosis.

Or the woman who haemorrhaged on the Ryanair flight home following a procedure she’d had because of a fatal foetal diagnosis.

Mick Wallace’s Bill is an olive branch into the abyss of the raging abortion debate to try and insert some basic humanity. Yet it will most likely fail.

And why will it fail?

It will fail because too many politicians across the divide will make grandiose speeches, and in some cases personal, emotional and passionate speeches but when it comes down to pressing that vote button, they will vote it down.

They will hide behind excuses such as the can-kicking citizen’s convention, or the cowardly and disingenuous assertion that they are following the AG’s advice.

Shamefully, some of them will talk about flood gates and the worst among them will say there is no such thing as fatal foetal abnormality.

As they procrastinate and make their excuses, women and their families will board planes and boats (the lucky ones who can afford to) and they’ll make the heart-breaking journey to the UK or Europe to be shown compassion and to obtain the medical treatment they both want and need.

It is not just scandalous it is also a direct contravention of Human Rights legislation but far be it for that to have any bearing on good auld Catholic Ireland.

We’ll ship them off and pretend we don’t see them as our Oireachtas sits down to vote on Thursday and when the majority have voted against human rights, compassion, medical choice and bodily autonomy, they’ll saunter out of the chamber into the canteen, onto the plinth or off home for the weekend, content with a good weeks work done and never casting a second thought to the impact their vote has had.

While the no voters go merrily about their day, Irish women will have emerged from their procedures in foreign hospitals facing an arduous and heart-breaking journey home to a country that has no respect for them.

A fine Republic indeed.

Anne Marie McNally is a founding member of the Social Democrats. Follow Anne Marie on Twitter: @amomcnally

Rollingnews

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Brian writes:

Hey, I know you normally don’t do this but its worth a shot.. Was at Castlepalooza for the first time.. Had a good time, lovely festival but on Sunday we returned to our tent and the front flap had been slashed .. There were some valuable items in the tent that could have been taken, but instead a bag with some t shirts and phone chargers was taken out and kicked around the campsite.. mindless stuff.. managed to recover a couple of things from the ground and the lost and found but the bag is missing.. so if you happened to ‘find’ a black CabinZero 44L bag (above) with a Ryanair tag on the top handle and think that it might have rained bags (!),  it would be nice if you could return it.. we’re going to have to replace the borrowed tent, so bit of a disappointment for what was otherwise a lovely experience.. Thanks campers.

aer lingus

Hello you.

Brian Carey writes:

I realise you don’t normally do this but I’ve had no luck anywhere else so I thought your readers might be of assistance.

I flew with Aer Lingus on Sunday last ( July 3) from Toulouse to Dublin and left my phone in the seat pocket of seat 7B.

When we contacted Aer Lingus, they were ‘unable’ to ask either the flight crews on the plane or the cleaning crews to see if the phone is still in the pocket.

It has to be found by someone and then logged as lost. So far, no luck, so I would greatly appreciate if you could ask any broadsheet readers who are flying Aer Lingus to check seat pocket 7B (and 7A & 7C just in case), or even better, if anybody knows they are on Aer Lingus plane St Mel, EI-DER, to check the seat pocket.

We know the plane was in Verona today and is going to Pula this evening. Many thanks.

Anyone?

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From top: Joe O’Toole; Xavier Leflaive, Gritta Nottelman and Peter Peacock of the government’s expert commission on water charges.

“People voted a certain way, Leinster House is not prepared to grasp that particular nettle, so we have to find a solution that will have enough sugar on it to make the medicine go down easily.”

Joe O’Toole on Newstalk Breakfast, June 30, 2016

Paul Murphy TD writes:

Joe O’Toole has been forced to resign as chair of the supposedly neutral expert commission not because he believed its job was to add enough sugar to make water charges, but because he gave the game away.

In his resignation statement, he declared:

“I am comfortable with the fact that I put my views honestly and transparently on the record. It is regrettable that my straight-talking has caused difficulties for others but in that regard I am unlikely to change anytime soon.”

Anybody who pays attention to politics will know that the establishment of ‘independent’ commissions to look into things is the oldest trick in the book. The aim is usually to take heat out of an issue in order to be able to return later to it.

The issue of the expert commission on water charges is no different. The government has faced a mass movement of opposition on water charges – with significant protests, a mass boycott and that reflected in the general election.

The result is a Dail where about 70% of TDs have a mandate to end water charges and abolish Irish Water.

Yet, Fine Gael in particular remains committed to bringing water charges back and Fianna Fáil is far from committed to really oppose them.

So between them, they agreed the proposal of suspension of water charges and the establishment of this water commission to ‘look into it’.

It, as Joe O’Toole let slip, has a predetermined outcome, which will be some form of water charges.

The ‘experts’ will have spoken and we will be told by large sections of the media that it is deeply irresponsible not to go along with water charges.

Who are those experts?

Well many of them are connected to water privatisation.

That includes Xavier Leflaive of the OECD who has previously written that

“Water pricing can be used to signal scarcity and to create incentives for efficient water use in all sectors (e.g. agriculture, industry, domestic)”,

Peter Peacock who is chair of the Customer Forum for Water Scotland, and Gritta Nottelman who works for a private Dutch water company.

This elevation of supposedly neutral experts is of course a part of the technocratisation of politics, what Peter Mair described as the “hollowing of western democracy”.

We have had a thorough debate on water charges over the past years. People engaged in street meetings, in mass protests, in campaigning organisations.

They then spoke – decisively, in protest, in a majority of people boycotting and in the general election.

The problem the government has is that they spoke the wrong way and therefore a way has to be found around them.

Right2Water has agreed a further major national protest on Saturday,  September 17.

This will be an opportunity for a renewed call for the attempts to subvert the wishes of people to end. The so-called expert commission should go.

The bullying from the European Commission should not be heeded.

The Dáil should simply act to abolish water charges and Irish Water and provide for the necessary substantial investment in water infrastructure paid for through progressive taxation.

Paul Murphy is a TD Anti Austerity Alliance. Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulmurphy/AAA

Earlier: Glug

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This afternoon.

Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

The Pro life Campaign protesting Mick Wallace’s fatal foetal abnormalities private members bill on abortion.

They claim those supporting the bill are doing a “real disservice to families of babies with life limiting condition, particularly those who have been pressured to abort their child”.

Top from left: Aifric Ni Fhloinn, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Cora Sherlock, Emma Sisk and Lorraine Mc Mahon.

Earlier: Unconstitutional Deference

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