The decision of Derry City and Strabane District Council to officially change the name of the city to Derry has been described as "sectarian" and "disgusting" by Unionists. Only in Ireland, where people get up early in the morning to be outraged, would people react in such a way. The name of the city has always been Derry or, to be precise, Doire, a name St Columcille would have recognized. There is, however, an alternative approach that takes account of the fact that N.Ireland is a divided society (and like the rest of Ireland, a society where people start every day at high doe): the city, the county, the city council and the county council (if there is one) could be named both Derry and Londonderry with both names on letter-headed paper, used in state papers, text books, O/S maps, etc., North and South. Road signs, North and South, should also be changed to Derry/Londonderry, for road safety reasons. Tourists crossing the border might wonder where the signs for Derry/Londonerry (depending on where they started) had gone and get confused.
It should not be necessary to have to suggest this.
Dail Reform
Talking about Dail reform without reducing the number of TDs by about 100 is just so much waffle. A Dail of about 40 TDs (one per county, four or five for the city of Dublin, two or three for Cork city, etc.) would be more than adequate. A Dail of about 40-50 TDs (and, essentially, one per constituency) would still ensure that TDs were answerable to the electorate but each seat would not be, as most are today, a marginal. TDs would have sufficient space in which to get the balance right between leading and listening. TDs are unable to get the balance right at the moment because there is not sufficient distance between them and their constituents, a fatal flaw that leads to disasters like the boom. Hopefully also, we will get rid of the Senate (like virtually all other similar-sized developed democracies) at the next time of asking. We don't need it. It's as simple as that.
The euro: It can't happen. It's a bad idea. It won't last.
The paper, written by two members of the staff of the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission (one of them an Irishman but I won't embarrass him by mentioning his name) and published in 2009, is critical of the views of some US economists on the euro experiment. It was meant to be an all-powerful riposte from the great European Commission. Talk about hubris!
I wonder what Bernard Connolly makes of the publication. His book, The Rotten Heart of Europe, The Dirty War for Europe's Money, which was published in 1995, warned of the disastrous nature of the euro experiment, Needless to say, The Rotten Heart, the most important publication on the EU project since 1957, it is not even mentioned in the bibliography of the hubris publication.
You
couldn’t make this kind of silliness up.
US/Iran Nuclear Deal
Press Statement 14 July 2015
The US/Iran Nuclear Deal has been welcomed by the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA). PANA, which has campaigned actively on the Iran nuclear issue, strongly welcomes the US-Iran nuclear deal.
Roger Cole, Chair of PANA, and David Morrison, Research Officer of PANA said:
"PANA welcomes the nuclear deal that has been reached in Vienna between the US and Iran. It was made possible because in 2013 the US reversed its policy and accepted that Iran would continue to have uranium enrichment facilities on its own soil, which is its "inalienable right" under Article IV (1) of the [nuclear] Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
For years, the US and its allies, including Ireland, attempted to coerce Iran into ceasing enrichment by applying ferocious economic sanctions on Iran in an attempt to force it to do so, damaging the well-being of millions of Iranian civilians in the process. Had the US accepted the right of Iran to enrichment, there would have been no dispute. Now, although the US has conceded the principle, it is insisting that for the next 10 to 15 years Iran must agree to severe restrictions under threat of
renewed and intensified sanctions. There is no justification for imposing such restrictions on a sovereign state. As a 'non-nuclear weapons' party to the NPT, Iran is forbidden to acquire nuclear weapons, but the NPT places no limits on civilian nuclear activity, providing it is under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision.
Roger Cole, Chair of PANA TEL: + 353 (0)87-26 11 597.
David Morrison, Research Officer TEL: + 44(0) 7949 925 938.
The US/Iran Nuclear Deal has been welcomed by the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA). PANA, which has campaigned actively on the Iran nuclear issue, strongly welcomes the US-Iran nuclear deal.
Roger Cole, Chair of PANA, and David Morrison, Research Officer of PANA said:
"PANA welcomes the nuclear deal that has been reached in Vienna between the US and Iran. It was made possible because in 2013 the US reversed its policy and accepted that Iran would continue to have uranium enrichment facilities on its own soil, which is its "inalienable right" under Article IV (1) of the [nuclear] Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
For years, the US and its allies, including Ireland, attempted to coerce Iran into ceasing enrichment by applying ferocious economic sanctions on Iran in an attempt to force it to do so, damaging the well-being of millions of Iranian civilians in the process. Had the US accepted the right of Iran to enrichment, there would have been no dispute. Now, although the US has conceded the principle, it is insisting that for the next 10 to 15 years Iran must agree to severe restrictions under threat of
renewed and intensified sanctions. There is no justification for imposing such restrictions on a sovereign state. As a 'non-nuclear weapons' party to the NPT, Iran is forbidden to acquire nuclear weapons, but the NPT places no limits on civilian nuclear activity, providing it is under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision.
Roger Cole, Chair of PANA TEL: + 353 (0)87-26 11 597.
David Morrison, Research Officer TEL: + 44(0) 7949 925 938.
Greece
Alexis Tsipras may be one of the few PMs in Europe who knows what he's doing and he is
under far more pressure than most. Contemptible little creatures like Junker are
blowing their top (and revealing their terror of the consequences of Grexit
despite all the ballyhoo about ring fencing, which fools nobody) but Tsipras
appears to be a remarkably calm character. He clearly has a Plan A and a Plan B.
I don't know if Grexit is Plan A or B but assuming the referendum goes ahead and is carried he will be able to keep Greece in the euro, if that is Plan A. If the vote is "no" he can pull Greece out of the euro. Syriza is very like Sinn Fein in that it is not prepared to compromise, which is why he can't do a deal with the troika or pull Greece out of the euro without a referendum. Syriza can, however, be outflanked and would be by a "yes" vote. A "no" vote would be even better and would silence the idiots in his party who won't let Tsipras do a deal but want to stay in the euro.
I suspect Tsipras has been working since his election to force a situation where if Syriza and the Greek people really want to stay in the euro the changes that they are going to have to make to their economy and society will require a referendum. The Greek Government will have to bring in experts wholesale from Germany and the like to restructure their public administration. Changing Greek culture will be much more difficult. Tsipras and his colleagues will have to focus on that. Tsipras must know that changing Greek society isn't on, which is one of the many reasons, I suspect, he privately favours Grexit.
Tsipras must be appalled having to deal with tenth raters like Junker and Kenny. It is fascinating to listen to them berating a PM who is attempting to pursue his country's national interests. They expected him to behave the way most EU PMs behave nowadays - they put the "project" before their national interests and responsibilities.
In addition to the collapse of leadership at PM level in the EU, there is the added problem of the decline of political parties. The reason political parties, particularly those of the "left" (as opposed to the left) like SF and Syriza, won't compromise is that modern government is driven largely by globalization. PMs have bought into that and political parties have too but they have to find a way to justify their continued existence. To do that, they have to give the appearance of fighting the good fight and to avoid been outflanked by other groupings, who likewise have little or no integrity and no wish to achieve anything in government. We have seen that sort of behaviour here with bin charges, the property tax and now water charges. All are reasonable elements of what will eventually be a new rates system or a local income tax system. Bin charges and the property tax have settled down (though only after Revenue was given the power to take the money out of people's bank accounts) and water charges will to, and for the same reason. The various "anti" campaigns have been useful for the parties of the "left" in keeping their votes up but have achieved nothing and are not consistent with what left wing parties believe anyway.
Labour remains the only party of the left here but they have (perhaps) permanently dirtied their bib by going into government with FG. In Greece, the Socialists are utterly compromised by cronyism and corruption. Hence, the arrival of the headbangers, here and there.
I don't know if Grexit is Plan A or B but assuming the referendum goes ahead and is carried he will be able to keep Greece in the euro, if that is Plan A. If the vote is "no" he can pull Greece out of the euro. Syriza is very like Sinn Fein in that it is not prepared to compromise, which is why he can't do a deal with the troika or pull Greece out of the euro without a referendum. Syriza can, however, be outflanked and would be by a "yes" vote. A "no" vote would be even better and would silence the idiots in his party who won't let Tsipras do a deal but want to stay in the euro.
I suspect Tsipras has been working since his election to force a situation where if Syriza and the Greek people really want to stay in the euro the changes that they are going to have to make to their economy and society will require a referendum. The Greek Government will have to bring in experts wholesale from Germany and the like to restructure their public administration. Changing Greek culture will be much more difficult. Tsipras and his colleagues will have to focus on that. Tsipras must know that changing Greek society isn't on, which is one of the many reasons, I suspect, he privately favours Grexit.
Tsipras must be appalled having to deal with tenth raters like Junker and Kenny. It is fascinating to listen to them berating a PM who is attempting to pursue his country's national interests. They expected him to behave the way most EU PMs behave nowadays - they put the "project" before their national interests and responsibilities.
In addition to the collapse of leadership at PM level in the EU, there is the added problem of the decline of political parties. The reason political parties, particularly those of the "left" (as opposed to the left) like SF and Syriza, won't compromise is that modern government is driven largely by globalization. PMs have bought into that and political parties have too but they have to find a way to justify their continued existence. To do that, they have to give the appearance of fighting the good fight and to avoid been outflanked by other groupings, who likewise have little or no integrity and no wish to achieve anything in government. We have seen that sort of behaviour here with bin charges, the property tax and now water charges. All are reasonable elements of what will eventually be a new rates system or a local income tax system. Bin charges and the property tax have settled down (though only after Revenue was given the power to take the money out of people's bank accounts) and water charges will to, and for the same reason. The various "anti" campaigns have been useful for the parties of the "left" in keeping their votes up but have achieved nothing and are not consistent with what left wing parties believe anyway.
Labour remains the only party of the left here but they have (perhaps) permanently dirtied their bib by going into government with FG. In Greece, the Socialists are utterly compromised by cronyism and corruption. Hence, the arrival of the headbangers, here and there.
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