There’s one face-saving way out of FG for Kenny — the Presidency
By Matt Cooper
Friday, October 08, 2010
ENDA Kenny should run for President instead of Taoiseach. That could solve a lot of problems for him, for his party and for his country.
The issue of importance to me is the relative size of the Labour and Fine Gael in the next Dail.
I believe that Fine Gael’s bank policy and recovery jobs policy (Richard Bruton’s website) is clearly better worked out, safer, realistic and more likely to work. I would have acted to guarantee BoI and AIB on 30 september 2008 had I been forced to make the choice at that time and in those circumstances. I thought that Labour was simply wrong then and Nothing has changed my mind. Just read Professor Honohan’s report and make up yopur own mind.
The issue that some interpreters of political numbers ignore is regression towards the mean. Parties that experience large gains or falls in opinion polls or elections usually do worse or better respectively on the next occasion. So Labour will likely fall a bit in the next polls if their true value is less or continue the same or increase if their support is truely on the rise. Here is a view on the FG experience.
‘I never dared be radical when young,” wrote Robert Frost, “for fear it
would make me conservative when old.” He was right to worry. The World
Values Survey, a study of 136,000 people in 48 countries, has found that
the old Marxist idea of false consciousness is alive and well – but that,
deliciously, it is self-professed Lefties who do not realise quite how
Right-wing they are. These middle-aged socialists may have voted Labour,
and marched for CND, but their views on redistribution show that they are
keener on keeping the wealth than sharing it.
Below is a copy of an e-mail from a local resident who is opposing a Meteor mast on a pub on Ballygall Road in East Finglas/Glasnevin area. It shows what I was referring to previously about the local Labour Party which actually disappoints me because this is not the activity of the usual Labour people in other constituencies. However, it is consistent with the populist anti-intellectual behaviour obvious for many years which is electorally highly successful. It is a microcosm of what is wrong with Irish politicians and Irish politics. It makes relevant Churchill’s observations in the quote on Fermanagh and Tyrone.
Read more
The London Times published an essay on administrators and their
prolikeration with markets in gthe NHS.
April 30, 2010
Scalpel! This NHS red tape needs removing The internal market has been a
costly disaster. Let the professionals manage medicine Jonathan Waxman
It’s election time, apparently, and our glorious political classes are
marching forward on the massed ranks of the electorate with banners that
claim that their party, only their party, will save the NHS. Politicians
clamour to praise its world-class status and laud the dedication of nurses
and the skill of its doctors. And all parties are united in the view that,
despite the need for austerity measures, frontline staff and services will
not be cut. So where are the savings planned? Watch the hand and not the
mouth.
Read more
For those Irish Labour people who think I have lost it, I have not. British
Labour is an authoritarian party with imperialist tendencies – look at Iraq
and Afghanistan. Ask yourself, how many places across the globe have the
British a military presence and then ask yourself why?
The Liberal Democrats should be supported for opposing further extensions
of the biometric passport passports to include finger prints when the
current version of e-passport which stores 16 facial measurements on a chip.
Regulation of closed circuit TV
Measures to stop Councils spying on people
Prevent unfair extraditions to the United States of America
Stop school children being finger printed at school without parents’
permission
Restore the right to protest by reforming the Public Order Act to safeguard
non-violent protest.
Reform the libel laws – corporations would have to show damage and prove
malice or recklessness to mount a successful court challenge against
journalists.
Scrap communications data base that will store information on everyone’s
emaila dn internet use and including on line games and facebook.
Labour is a huge threat to civil liberties because they propose a central
data base known as the interception modernisation program to store details
of phone calls, text messages, emails and internet use.
Currently data protection says that data should only be collected if it is
necessary and proportionate.
The Tories ( Conservatives) want to scrap ID cards, curb DNA databases and
cutback on official powers of entry to the home.
Conclusion – Liberal Democrats get the Bill vote on these issues.