Finally got around to throwing my oar in on the Cowen portraits saga (or #picturegate, as it’s become known). (The London Times has a good rundown of the story so far if you’ve not been following it) Whatever you think of the original RTÉ news report, and the subsequent apology (note RTÉ’s first bit of [...]
March 26th, 2009 at
15:57 in
Politics (Ireland) | tags:
apology,
brian cowen,
censorship,
coverup,
gardaí,
john crown,
late late show,
máire hoctor,
naked,
national gallery,
nude,
picturegate,
portrait,
RTÉ,
today fm |
1 Comment
RTÉ’s Prime Time last night was a discussion on tax. Reporter/presenter Mark Little repeated several times Noel Dempsey‘s (and the Government’s) claim that “38% of people pay no tax at all”. That’s rubbish. 38% of people pay no income tax. But they all pay tax. VAT, or sales tax, is paid by everyone, without exception. [...]
March 4th, 2009 at
17:03 in
Politics (Ireland) | tags:
brian goggin,
budget,
decile,
fairness,
fianna fáil,
income,
ireland,
march budget,
mark little,
mini-budget,
no tax,
noel dempsey,
prediction,
rich,
RTÉ,
sales tax,
tax,
VAT,
wealthy,
widow |
No Comments
Good idea – invite the Irish blogosphere/twittosphere to a talk by Obama for America’s New Media head honcho. Bad idea – pretend you’re inviting the Irish blogosphere/twittosphere to a talk by Obama for America’s New Media head honcho, but instead have them realise as the event starts that they’re actually at the launch of the [...]
February 25th, 2009 at
22:19 in
Politics (Ireland) | tags:
animaniacs,
damien blake,
fianna fáil,
fiannafail.ie,
flickr,
good idea bad idea,
maman poulet,
new media,
rospars,
twitter,
website,
youtube |
4 Comments
Interesting listening on today’s Morning Ireland (well worth a listen). George Lee has now formally used the word “fraud” in relation to what has been happening in Anglo Irish Bank. About time too. And if Anglo have a problem with that, I look forward to them suing George Lee and RTÉ. I don’t think they’ll [...]
February 12th, 2009 at
10:24 in
Politics (Ireland) | tags:
anglo irish bank,
bank,
banking crisis,
bear stearns,
brian lenihan,
fbi,
fraud,
george lee,
illegal,
ireland,
jeff skilling,
ken lay,
michael tannin,
minister for finance,
morning ireland,
news observer,
perp walk,
ralph cioffi,
RTÉ,
sec,
securities and exchange commission,
wall street |
No Comments
Waah, waah, waah. The cries from the media (and many of the assembled public) that nobody told them there was anything wrong with the economy are becoming annoying now. They were told – but they chose to ignore the warnings. Two years ago, in January 2007 (yes, despite the media’s insistence that nobody said anything [...]
February 8th, 2009 at
11:51 in
Politics (Ireland) | tags:
2007,
banking crisis,
economic crisis,
fianna fáil,
finance,
journalism,
journalists,
labour party,
media,
pat rabbitte,
RTÉ,
ruairi quinn,
the irish times |
No Comments
Given that we’re now talking about €8bn to recapitalise the banks, wouldn’t that shift the balance so far to the State as an owner (compared to the existing shareholders) that it’s effective nationalisation? If we as a country are going to go that far, will the Government decide to go the whole hog and nationalise [...]
The so called “National Economic Recovery Talks” have collapsed. Now, all the excuses are gone. Now, it’s time for action from Brian Cowen. This day has been put off over and over again. First, with the announcement of an early budget in the summer. Then, after the Budget itself completely failed to address the problem [...]
February 3rd, 2009 at
08:58 in
Politics (Ireland) |
No Comments
Well, I did. Budget 2009 seems like a long time ago. Things have gotten a hell of a lot worse since then. But all the warning signs were there, and the Government’s failure to address them has been astonishing. Still, in February, they’re only talking about doing something. As I said back in October, what [...]
February 2nd, 2009 at
14:20 in
Politics (Ireland) | tags:
bord na gcon,
brian lenihan,
brussels,
budget,
denmark,
department of finance,
economic slowdown,
economics,
economy,
fear,
finance,
greece,
ibec,
ictu,
ireland,
pain,
prsi,
social partners |
No Comments
The Labour Party‘s 21st Century Commission has finally reported to the National Executive Committee, and the report, with a new party constitution, will now be put to a National Conference in Mullingar at the end of March. This is a great opportunity for the Labour Party to reinvent itself for a new century. I’m still [...]
As many of you will already have heard, I will be starting a new job in January. I’ve been appointed Labour Party campaign manager for the European Elections in Ireland East. Our candidate there is Nessa Childers (and yes, you do recognise the name, she’s the daughter of (Fianna Fáil) President Erskine H Childers [...]
December 29th, 2008 at
13:09 in
MBA,
Politics (Ireland) | tags:
ashford,
bray,
campaign manager,
dominic hannigan,
eoin holmes,
erskine childers,
european elections,
fianna fáil,
green party,
ireland east,
ivey,
job,
labour party,
leinster,
liz mcmanus,
MBA,
nanyang,
nessa childers,
sauder,
singapore,
ubc,
uwo,
waseda,
wicklow |
10 Comments
