Category Archives: Politics

from the Dail to the White House and back via Downing Street and elsewhere.

com_linz_06_640 com_tai_01_600An anti market capitalisation art/game project by Big Hope, what sez:

The name Commonopoly is paraphrased from Monopoly, understood both as the economic term and the name of the well-known board game. Unlike Monopoly, the goal of Commonopoly is not the exhaustion, through monopolization, of a virtual stock of goods, but rather the expansion and preservation of a self-propelling sustainable system of recycling, production and distribution. The word ‘common’ employed in the name originates from the notion of ‘the commons’, that is, the resources such as air, water, public space etc. that by their nature contradict attempts at private ownership. Commonopoly is a model of a system where resources are held in common, avoiding their depletion.

Exchange, collaboration, mutual trust.

The long Winter evenings will just fly by.

(H/T: Spaghetti Hoop)

19/4/2007. Ian Paisley Junior in Dublin

Ian Paisley has defended claiming more expenses than any other MP, describing them as “unavoidable costs”. Mr Paisley received total costs of £232,042.33 to April 2013, according to figures released by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) yesterday. Of this, £131,837.76 went on a payroll for his four full-time and two part-time staff, while £69,943.21 went on parliamentary expenses. These include £24,904.13 on accommodation, and £45,039.08 on travel and other expenses.

It kind of puts Michelle Mulherin in the ha’penny place.

But then again, she doesn’t have to travel to the mainland.

Ian Paisley defends having highest expenses claim by any MP (Rebecca Black, Belfast Telegraph)

Previously: No Wonder She Was So Happy

Albert Gonzalez/Photocall Ireland

nationalsecurityJohn Sullivan (above) writes:

We traveled to [Bourbon Street] New Orleans for Southern Decadence and came across this. It was actually a practice protest for the festival the following day. Got to love their signs though! I have been called many things but never a threat to National Security!

9677035325_5c160a6591_oJaplandic writres:

After all the banks admitting that they are using legal letters to satisfy the government’s criteria for long-term mortgage arrears modification – and the deafening silence from the Central Bank on this – I felt it was worth a quick recap on the last four years of Governor Patrick Honohan’s tenure.

READ ON: Fade To Grey (Japlandic)

_69641392_image(5)best

A mural of soccer legend George Best is being replaced by a painting of a UVF gunman and the quote ‘Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed‘ in Sydenham, East Belfast.

The Best mural was created in 2010 with the help of Belfast City Council’s Peace III project with a grant of £1,500 to cover materials which itself, replaced a UVF mural at the time.

George Best mural replaced by image of UVF gunman (BBC News NI)

bush

Loyalists held a protest in Bushmills on Saturday rather than attend the opening of an art project on which they had been working for 18 months – because it was being unveiled by a member of Sinn Fein.
But in spite of the protest the Peace Three art project of a cow was opened in the Millennium Park by Moyle District Council chairman, Sinn Fein councillor Cara McShane and DUP vice chair of Moyle council Robert McIlroy.
Last night chairman of Bushmills Residents and Environmental Forum, Derwyn Brewster, said they had asked councillor McShane “that if she was coming along, not to be speaking in Irish and not to take the limelight and to be low-key”.

 

Loyalists boycott own art project (Gemma Murray, Belfast News Letter)

Krug081613krugman1-blog480He’s back.

Kenneth Thomas analyzes the latest attempt to claim that Ireland is a success story — is this the third or the fourth time around? — and concludes that the modest fall in unemployment is all about emigration. Actually, we can reach the same conclusion by going straight to employment data (above).
This is not exactly a policy triumph.
The one sense in which Ireland has made some progress is that it has somewhat reassured bond investors that its population will continue to sullenly acquiesce in austerity; as a result, Irish 10-year rates, while still at a large premium, are now 60-80 basis points below those of Italy and Spain.
But the repeated invocation of Ireland as a role model has gotten to be a sick joke.

Dude.

It’s Friday.


Ireland Is The Success Story Of The Future, And Always Will Be (Paul Krugman, New York Times)