‘sup?
Jason writes:
“Found this little fella at the side of the road in Dundrum [Co Dublin]. Luckily my sister is a budgie expert so I knew who to call and she is nursing him back to full strength now. He is blue with two very distinctive darker blue marks on his cheeks. Would love to see him returned to his family.”
Anyone?
In an interview with the Observer, the Irish singer says his country’s controversial policies – which help multinational companies avoid billions in tax – have “brought our country the only prosperity we’ve known”.
The 54-year-old says that Ireland’s economy is dependent on attracting multinational companies – including Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon – with tax avoidance strategies, including a loophole dubbed the “Double Irish”, the use of two Irish companies to lower the effective tax rate.
Bono said: “We are a tiny little country, we don’t have scale, and our version of scale is to be innovative and to be clever, and tax competitiveness has brought our country the only prosperity we’ve known.
“That’s how we got these companies here … We don’t have natural resources, we have to be able to attract people.”
Bono, who describes himself as a “natural social democrat”, said Ireland had benefited from “more hospitals and firemen and teachers because of [our tax] policies”.
Previously: We Get To Carry Each Other
And There Won’t Be Snow In Africa This Christmas Time
“U2 Is In Total Harmony With Our Government’s Philosophy”
Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland
Don’t be alarmed now.
It’s Just some messers.
Stephen’s Green, Dublin this morning.
Thanks Colin Harmon
.@Gladwell: “Why are cats so resolutely against pulling their weight in the war against terror?” #TeamDogs #NYerFest
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) October 11, 2014
FIGHT!
Newly-elected Roscommon South-Leitrim TD Michael Fitzmaurice
He said he had travelled the byways and boreens of Ireland over the past seven or eight years and had met the ordinary people of Ireland, who he believed want the political system changed. The new TD said he had a vision and wanted to be able to look his children in the eye and tell them he had done something. People who were fed up of how politics works could stay at home shouting at the telly “but some of us have to lead the way and get up off our arses and do something,” he said.
Commenting on the outcome, Mr [Luke ‘Ming’] Flanagan [MEP] said a seed had been planted and “if I were Enda Kenny I would be very worried”.
Michael Fitzmaurice wins Roscommon South-Leitrim by-election (irish Times)
(Pic: Guardian)
Meanwhile…
Newly elected Dublin South West TD Paul Murphy
“We can be so proud of our campaign. We spread confidence and hope about fighting the water charges to so many people, while our opponents just echoed the scaremongering of the government. We politically criticised our opponents, while they engaged in personal mudslinging. We significantly deepened the base of the AAA [Anti-Austerity Alliance] in West Tallaght in particular, while they were reduced to trying to keep us out of ‘their’ area….”
(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
Bull Island just now.
(Thanks Stephen)
Cerandor writes:
Someone was overly keen to get to the House of Prayer and Miracles near Glasnevin this morning…
Scenes from today’s anti-Irish Water protest in Dublin including the first glimpse at the recently released ‘Joan Phone’.
UPDATE: Organisers say 100,000 attendees, Gardai say 30,000.
Thousands Protest against water charges in Dublin (RTE News)
(Thanks MyDestinationDublin and Buzz O’Neill and Fluffy Biscuits)
(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
