On October 7th, last year, the Irish Times delivered its damning verdict on the British Government’s handling of Covid-19. “Fantasy as Policy”, it pronounced. “What is clear”, the paper said, “is that the British prime minister has not lost his capacity for nonsense – his speech was full of Churchillian bluster and exceptionalism about the […]
Countries across Europe saw anti-lockdown protests take place at the weekend with demonstrations in France, Spain, Italy Denmark amongst other nation states. In Denmark, protestors describing themselves as “Men in Black” protested in Aarhus, the country’s second largest city. The demonstrators chanted “Freedom for Denmar” and “We`ve had enough,” as they marched, claiming that the Covid-19 restrictions […]
After a long string of humiliations regarding vaccine supply, and then political chaos following the erection of a customs border on the island of Ireland, the EU has now desperately attempted to back-track by revoking Article 16. But is this really enough for the bloc to save face? The past few years have not been […]
The headline most other media outlets seemed to take away from the Taoiseach’s comments yesterday was that lockdown would go on past March 5th. But that’s not really news, is it? Most of us had guessed that already. No, the far more significant news was in the small print: Micheál Martin said he did not […]
Another glorious victory for the European Union, was the subtext of Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen’s tweet yesterday claiming that the EU had secured an extra nine million vaccines from AstraZenica for the first quarter of this year. The announcement came, of course, just a few days after the EU had to engage in […]
Two new reports have highlighted that, while the world’s richest people have made billions during the pandemic, the number of people living in poverty has doubled, with the equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs lost across the globe. The International Labour Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency, says that 8.8 per cent of global working hours […]
The decidedly unWoke American socialist Upton Sinclair once declared: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” Sinclair wrote scathingly about conditions in the Chicago slaughterhouses of the early 20th century. His adage might equally perhaps be applied to some of those who have […]
Not, just so we’re clear, €47,700 for every taxpayer in Ireland. Not €47,700 for every adult. Not €47,700 for every citizen. Nope. Forty seven thousand, seven hundred euros for every man, woman, and child resident inside the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland: The Government finances can absorb a forecast 17 per cent spike […]
In a move that will surely unsettle those who are already concerned about civil rights intrusions, mobile phone carrier Three has confirmed that it is now providing data about its customers’ movements to the government so that it can monitor compliance with the Covid-19 lockdown. The movement data – where and when people travelled – of some 2.4 million […]
Amidst all of the panic induced by the moves towards restricting travel to Ireland from overseas, several things appear to catch the attention. RTÉ’s Primetime made a big show of “calling out” people arriving back to Dublin on flights having either been on holidays as tourists, or as Spanish students and others who live here and […]
The Taoiseach’s decision not to rule out this year’s White House St. Patrick’s Day trip is incomprehensible and represents a classic case of self-preservation during a global pandemic, according to Deputy Mattie Mc Grath. The Rural Independent TD described the decision to “plough ahead” with the trip to the White House as “completely irresponsible”. “The […]
When a snail is threatened, it has one response, and one response only. It cannot run, because it is a snail. It has no weapons, because it is a snail. Unlike some tropical animals that can change colour, or confuse or dazzle a predator, a snail has no ability to use subtlety or disguise or […]