Making progress...

It's now about week since we lost touch with old Slugger. Since then we've had to rescue it from the clutches of a particularly nasty server. It's now with the new hosts, and mostly intelligible. He still has all his old memory. But some parts of the code have been mangled, and would mean asking people scroll down to get to the heart of the blog.

I'm still working on it (in a bumblingly, non techie sort of way), and I'm hopeful we'll have him back before long.

In the meantime, my heartfelt thanks to John, John, Joe, Samuel, Martina, Alan and David for their kind and generous support in Slugger’s hour of need. If you want to add your own support, then just hit the paypal button below. Believe me, it is much appreciated!

Rea: Sinn Fein's inaction creating a policing vacuum

Interesting that the media seems to be shifting onto Sinn Fein again over policing. Owen Bowcott in the Guardian interviews Des Rae, former chair of the Policing Board:

I have written to all the political parties to say we are available to brief them on the workings of the board.

"The policing problem is easy: it's important that every part of this community is policed and it's important we draw recruits from every part of this community," Sir Desmond said.

"Once trained they [must be able to] go back home and visit their parents without fear.

"To the extent that Sinn Féin is not on [the policing] board it leaves a vacuum in which [republican] dissidents can play their game and be a threat to police officers."

Heading towards a 'dual monarchy'?

I've no idea whether he has used this phrase before, but Barry White's reference to the necessary Sinn Fein/DUP agreement to work in office together as a Dual Monarchy reflects some privately held fears amongst liberals, on both sides, that their supposedly mutually exclusive agendas will lead to a de facto repartition of Northern Ireland (cue: Green Flag). A long way from that Shared Future some people keep talking about. Emily Moulton reports:

Trevor Ringland said the Carran Crescent development in Enniskillen, which will see Protestant and Catholic families live side-by-side, could be a catalyst for very significant change.

"We cannot have a truly modern, dynamic and successful society and economy if our community continues to be divided along sectarian lines," he said.

"No society can be vibrant and prosperous if the resources of the entire community are not pooled and if two sets of services such as schools, libraries and health centres are required due to division where one would otherwise be necessary.

"Carran Crescent has to be the shape of things to come and must only be the tip of the iceberg. Division in Northern Ireland serves no one."

Carran Crescent, which will become home to 20 Protestant and Catholic families, is the first mixed housing estate to be built in Ulster in the last few decades.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive spent £2m on the pilot scheme and there are plans for another mixed development in Loughbrickland, Co Down.

Robinson: SF's timeslip seems inevitable...

For all the talk of heated exchanges in the DUP's big consultation Peter Robinson sounded incredibly relaxed on Inside Politics on Saturday. He noted, rather laconically, that Sinn Fein's arrangements for consulting their party make it likely that the government's deadlines will slip by. He repeated his belief that Sinn Fein should ask for more time, if they need it. Deadlines, he argued were not, and never have been, his party's preferred means of closing this deal.

TG4 has put language back in Ireland's cultural life

Farrel Corcoran was involved with TG4, or TnaG as it was on the day it launched ten years ago. In a debate around language that has often become distracted on politics and an often disabling obsession with tokenism, TG4, he believes is a perfect example of how utility has succeeded when given its head:

It was never going to be easy, not just because of severe resource limitations but because of the hostile ideological environment, policed by a small number of newspaper pundits trying to shout down the message from opinion polls showing broad support for public funding of broadcasting in Irish.

It was clear by the 1980s that the old polarised ways in which we thought about Irish were changing. Insistence on a highly prescriptive sense of Irish identity, based on claustrophobic policies that held sway since Independence, began to wane, as did its opposite, the post-colonial shame that associated the Irish language with backwardness.

Deepening contact with the EEC fostered the novel idea that linguistic minorities in all parts of Europe should have a "right to communicate". This new self-confidence was put to the test in the campaigns of the 1980s to establish a Gaeltacht television service, a reaction to the arrival of S4C in Wales and to the perceived marginalisation of Irish language programming in RTÉ, where commercial pressure to maximise audience size was getting intense. Those campaigns were a direct riposte to what Gaeltacht activists rightly saw as political dithering and posturing in Dublin.

What has changed in the 10 years since the launch of TG4 and how do we evaluate its current role in Irish society?

For media critics working totally within a market ideology, with no interest in TG4's actual output, the only question has been its audience share. In fact, TG4 has managed to increase its audience each year, to the point where its share is now five times greater than when it started.

'B' is for building...

I can't believe he did that. Hat tip Piaras!

Magners leaving Guinness in the poor place

It started as a bit of prematch banter, but Huw Richards thinks there may be something in the idea that in rugby the Magners (Celtic) League is spectacularly outgunning the Guinness Premiership in England.

Northampton play Scottish Borders today, while Cardiff entertain Leicester at the Millennium Stadium tomorrow. These contests between members of England's Guinness Premiership and the Magner's Celtic League follow the opening weekend's 4-0 clean sweep in head-to-heads by the Celts.

Following on from the vicissitudes of the national team, club failures are a further blow to the confidence and self-esteem of English rugby.

There's a whole season ahead yet, so it may be premature to pronounce the death of English club rugby. Northampton seems to be turning the tables on Border Scots at least.

Hollowing out the designation system?

Ian Parsley argues that one way Alliance could prove its cross community credentials by allowing its MLAs to register "a designation of identity" - as Unionist or Nationalist, as they see fit. He argues that:

Under the current arrangements, if three Alliance MLAs designated "Nationalist" and the rest "Unionist", the party would actually hold the balance of power "in both designations". That would mean, effectively, that where the parties within each camp were split (e.g. SDLP v. SF or UU v. DUP), Alliance would decide. We would, in effect, become the most relevant party in the Assembly - *because of the designation system*.

Ireland and the blurring of historic socio economic lines

I'm reading an excellent book by FT columnist called The Truth About Markets : Why Some Countries are Rich and Others Remain Poor. It suggests that the basis of the world's (extremely limited) economic prosperity has deep roots in history, culture and geography. But it was this passage that jumped out at me after reading one of the comments on the Trimble thread:

The correlation between religion and economic development is inescapable, but the nature of the connection is controversial. Max Weber explained how belief in predestination led to austere, hard-working morality we still call 'the Protestant ethic'. RH Tawney and Robert Merton gave greater weight to the intellectual ferment that followed the breakdown of clerical authoritarianism: the opportunity to challenge established ideas and practices which is essential to the co-evolution of technology and institutions. The combination of moral rigour and free inquiry is the basis of disciplined pluralism - the defining characteristic of the successful market economy.

Apart from anything else it underlines the massive social and economic changes that have taken place in the Republic over the last decade or so. Indeed, the roots of the current situation are deeper than that. As Andrew Greely noted in his 1999 essay Religions of Ireland:

...the southern Irish work longer hours than members of the other two communities [Northern Irelanders], almost forty four hours a week as opposed to slightly under forty for the Northerners. If number of hours worked is a sign of the Protestant Ethic then Irish Catholics are the last Protestants in Europe.

Oireachtas adds blogging to list of banned activities

Here's a statement I received this morning from the head of Human Resources at the Oireachtas, Dublin's equivalent of the Palace of Westminster:

"The policy of the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas explicitly prohibits the use of our computer facilities for chat room purposes or for weblog (blog). Staff members who engage in blogging which is not related to their official duties, while using their Office computer will be subject to disciplinary action."

It follows several blog reports (here and here, and here). The story has yet to break in Ireland's mainstream media.

Let me say, straight away, Ireland is not banning its politicians from blogs. TD's like Ciaran Cuffe of the Greens and Liz McManus will continue to blog from both inside and outside parliament. Nor is it necessarily banning all its staff from reading blogs. But it says something for the power and pull of blogging that its capacity to waste people's valuable working time that it has been listed alongside porn surfing as a disciplinary offence.

Most of us who run moderately successful blogs can confirm that the big numbers come to us during the working day. In the Republic this is possibly exaggerated by the poor quality of its national roll out of broadband. One international company recently had to review its offer of a laptop and high speed broadband access to its employees, when a large number of them had to refuse on the basis they could not access it at home.

Clearly Leinster House feels that keeping staff on task is an important priority. But in using such a sledgehammer to crack a specific nut, it is also cutting them off from one of the major innovations in the way knowledge and information is transmitted. It is not inconceivable, for instance, that this same human resources department will be blogging all its messages to its staff, within a very short period of time.

Blogging is not about subversives sitting up half the night and day in their pajamas pushing out spikey missives about what's wrong with the world. It is just one intimation of a flatter, knowledge-driven world in which crucial connections are made quickly and transitively. Nor is blogging the definitive endgame. A ton of smart new collaborative applications are already in use or being developed. Flickr, Delicious, Digg, even YouTube all follow on and build on the networks established through the intitial blogging revolution. In the case of The Times of London and the Daily Telegraph, its technologies beginning to become embedded in its key online offering.

It is unlikely that the good burghers of the Oireachtas (Leinster House), who can already read the Guardian Unlimited or the BBC News with impunity, will face disciplinary proceedings for reading this blog (or the Editors Blog), since the focus of the directive appears to be on the act of blogging, rather than just reading them.

But this is a read/write revolution. If organisations blunt the capacity/opportunity for their members employees to engage in online communitication, they are, ultimately, also blunting their longer term capacity to function in this new, networked world. Those of us who care about the health of Irish democracy, will be hoping for a rapid change of mind on what looks to be a very hastily thought out policy.

Best postcard views...

My cousin Paul sent me this competition to find the UK's favourite view. Vote for your own choice, but I'm going for this one of the Antrim coast.

Still working on getting Slugger back...

I'm guessing you don't really want to know the details of Slugger's travails over the last few weeks, but the upshot is that we're in the process of moving the site. Last time we did that, it took 12 hours, this time, I'm doing it myself and its been in process, on and off, since five o'clock yesterday (I blame Pete for the big long posts). I'm trying to get this done asap. This time we'd like to put back up plan in place, so that we can avoid such instances in future.

In meantime, if you'd like to help (you are not one of those kind and generous souls who have already send a donation): feel free to hit the tip jar. Size doesn't matter, its the gesture of support that counts.

Shorts job losses larger than expected...

Angela Eagle tells the BBC that they did not tell her about the job losses at Bombardier when she visited last week on a trade mission to Canada. However, it seems, there were strong intimations of this as early as 8th August. The jobs are not being cut so much as being shifted to Mexico. It is a pattern we might expect to see repeated, as lower end functions get pushed out to take advantage of the cheaper labour costs of the developing world. The question is whether NI can follow the example of the Republic and the south east of England, and move its private sector up the food chain?

Trimble and the peace process....

That discussion on Doughty Street TV the other night on Trimble and the peace process is now online.

Does the media drive the agenda?

Vincent Browne raises his old bete noir (subs needed): why does no major Irish media outlet not support "a radical restructuring of Irish society to achieve a far greater level of equality than exists"? But is it true that the fourth estate always leads the political agenda? Aside from a tiny Sinn Fein rump of TDs, in the Republic there is no political mainstream party that is credibly pushing the line that Vincent outlines.

So my point is not that opinions other than the one which holds that a radical restructuring of Irish society is essential are unsustainable or are morally objectionable. I am merely noting that none of the mainstream media will reflect that position. They all converge around the prevailing "common sense" - that aside from some marginal imperfections, the structure of society is fine.

And the media-led agenda will reflect that "common sense". The debate will be about who best can manage this "basically okay" society and what marginal reforms are necessary to correct the imperfections. The view that there is something inherently wrong with the structure won't get an airing, aside from the obligatory genuflections towards "balance" which will allow the occasional representation of that viewpoint before the main debate resumes.

And that media-led consensual agenda will result in either the re-election of the present Government or the election of a government that, policy-wise, is inherently no different.

Outage continues...

I'm slightly disadvantaged in my attempts to get Slugger back up and working in that I'm in London today, primarily to give a talk about blogging and Web 2.0 to an international NGO. I have had a few generous offers of help, and am confident we can get back fairly quickly. Thanks to both Joe (a very regular donor to Slugger) and John for their kind help. It is much appreciated.

Trimble interview and discussion...

You can catch David Liddington, Donal Blaney, myself, and Iain Dale on Doughty Street TV tonight at 10pm

Oh dear...

Sorry for the outage today. We have another episode of the mysteriously missing template(s). I'm trying beg borrow and steal enough tech wisdom to get us back online. But it may take some time. You can help by throwing something in tip jar.

Here's Tony, while Slugger is down...

test

Unionists envious of Republics roads infrastructure?

Donegal man Mark Tighe has been finding out what Unionist public representatives in the west of Northern Ireland think of the vast improvement in the roads infrastructure just over the border in the Republic.

"When we started our service 25 years ago the only good road was in the north from Lifford to Aughnacloy," said James McGinley, who operates daily coach services from Donegal to Dublin. "It's the total opposite now. Lifford to Aughnacloy is the worst bit."

Dubliners are the laziest...

What the rest of the island have long suspected of Dubliners: they have the cushiest jobs in the country. They are:

...putting in just over 34 hours a week, or six hours 52 minutes a day — the lowest in Ireland, according to a new survey. This is almost one-and-a-half hours less than those living in Munster, and Connacht and Ulster, who are clocking up almost 36 hours a week, or seven hours 10 minutes a day, at work. Leinster residents outside Dublin work, on average, seven hours, four minutes a day, or 35 hours 18 minutes a week.

Jan Battles reckons this may owe as much to the time spent in traffic jams on the way into the office as anything else.

Telling it like it is

I really like this piece from Alan McBride from yesterday's Sunday Life.

There are so many people, myself included, who feel they have a right to pontificate on the whys and wherefores of Northern Ireland.

Alan McBride is in a completely different category. Having lost his wife and father in law in the Shankill bombing, he has set out changing the world he lives in. Although he would be happy enough with 'one small step', he has the courage to speak out and ask for the politicians to take good big leaps.

He writes:
In my opinion this argument from the DUP is wearing a wee bit thin. If the Agreement has not delivered the kind of society envisaged, that is not necessarily the fault of the UUP. Of course they made mistakes, but when apportioning blame the DUP should look a little closer to home. Is it not the case that the DUP (as always) took the cowardly way out? Rather than get around the table and negotiate the strongest possible deal for unionism, they ran away, preferring to stand outside the process and undermine it at every turn.
They have become masters at this kind of political manoeuvring and it seems to be paying dividends for them electorally.
But what have they delivered? In spite of an election manifesto promising a stronger type of unionism and an end of concessions to Sinn Fein/IRA, the DUP have delivered nothing.
Rather than providing the unionist people with progressive, forward-thinking leadership, they have yet to demonstrate that they have anything relevant to offer.
It's easy to sound tough and principled when you don't actually have responsibility for governing a divided country.

He makes the same point that is now starting to sound like the Northern Ireland themesong. Indeed who needs a national anthem when we can all sing "We elected you now come and lead us"

Would I Spy?

Several of todays papers are making the claim that Martin McGuinness has been a British Agent within Sinn Fein and the IRA.



The Sunday World story is front page news and declares that "McGuinness was Brit Spy." According to the Sunday World, Martin Igram, the former handler from the Force Research Unit supports his claim with documentary evidence.

The Sunday World claims to have obtained a transcript of a conversation that Ingram claims is between McGuiness and his handler. Again, according to Ingram, McGuinness was known as agent J118. Martin's brother Willie is alleged to have been agent J119.

Ingram told the Sunday World "The most significant thing for me in this transcript is the fact that McGuinness's handler is the driving force behind the human bomb campaign." This is a reference to the human bomb campaign waged in the early 1990's where indviduals were forced to drive a bomb to a destination and effectively became unwilling suicide bombers. The campaign was largely centred in the North West and Ingram's claims appear to suggest that there was a determined effort to keep this type of campaign away from Belfast and the East coast.

Many of us are well familiar with the claims that there is a high level mole in SinnFein, and indeed for qutie some time some very high ranking names have been bandied about.

From my perspective, if there was any truth to this as yet unfounded allegation, the questions I would have would be much more focused on who drove the peace process, when and why. Unless there is a satisfaction among members of SF that the process belongs to them, to the rank and file, there is a real and present danger of increasing defection to splinter groups.

These are dangerous allegations by the Sunday World indeed, and the fact that they have been printed appears to suggest that they are confident about their sources and their substantiation.

Sinn Fein are calling the claims nonsense, so we must just wait and see what transpires over the next few days. As the Chinese tell us, we are indeed blessed to live in interesting times.




I am having trouble posting the links to this story, but good resources are at indymedia.com and breakingnews.iol.ie

Is Europe coming for our pints?

Spiked online has a leaked EU memo defining the social costs of drinking alcohol as "passive drinking". The document is expected to shape an EU Commission document on alcohol later this year.

If you go down to the beach today

http://www.goodbeachguide.co.uk/

The Good Beach Guide, published by the Marine Conservation Society came out on Friday. I've pasted the link, as its quite an interesting and informative site.

The good news is: 8 beaches have been recommended, an increase on 6 beaches in 2005.

The bad news is: Newcastle in County Down was issued with a warning, and its water quality was judged to be poor as a result of the discharge of raw sewage. The MCS said "Northern Ireland Water service was responsible for 23.5% of all water pollution incidents in 2005, but are now due to spend £420 million in wastewater treatment works and sewer network upgrades"

The beaches on the recommended list are: Tyrella, White Rocks (Portrush), Cranfield, Crawfordsburn, Helen's Bay, Murlough (near Newcastle) and 2 at Magilligan.


So, if you go down to the beach today, mind how you go. It's not always seaweed you're stepping over, it seems.

Looking through a rose glass but darkly

It's too easy to retain an innocent and rose coloured view of the Ireland of yesterday, when times were good, men were men and the women stayed at home.

Having spent most of my childhood there, I have some experience of many of the issues that we so studiously avoided at the time. I will look at the Ferns Report at some time in the future, but its important to realise that other vulnerable people were exploited, of whom we've heard nothing, and whose voices will be forever silent. There is still a story to be written of the treatment of older people in care facilities in Ireland in the middle of the last century. When I was a 'ward maid' in Dublin in a particular facility, I witnessed cruelty and inhumanity on a daily basis against old and vulnerable people that haunts me to this day.

But the one that is still rattling on, and continues to reflect the ability of those in power to exploit is the scandal of Michael Neary at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, in Drogheda.

As a student midwife, I recall so vividly a day that this man was going to do the ward rounds. Well in advance, we were sent around to all the women, whose beds formed a U-shape down the walls and across the bottom. There were probably about 30 or so in the ward, and we had to pull their nightdresses above their 'bumps' to their chest, and the sheet down to just below. I remember standing in the doorway and surveying the pink bumps, all sizes and shapes, like so many melons in a row in a field.

Neary entered the ward, with his coterie of medical and nursing students and a great silence fell upon us. He made his way from bed to bed, never speaking except to the Sister, feeling, probing and grunting. About half way down, he came to the bed of a young mother, who broke the stillness and asked 'Doctor, is my baby alright'.

He stopped and stared at her, spoke in the ear of the Sister and walked to the next bed. Sister turned to the patient and hissed, "You are only a patient, you never, never address Mr Neary to his face". I left Drogheda after 2 months, deciding midwifery was not my bag.

It wasnt until 1998 that 2 student nurses took the very brave decision to challenge Neary's behaviour and ask to have his record of caesarian hysterectomies reviewed, due to what they felt was an abnormally high rate of such procedures. http://http://www.irishhealth.com/index.html?level=4&id=5111

Neary was suspended by the Irish Medical Council in 1999, and was struck off in 2003. A Public Enquiry was established by the Minsiter of Health in 2004, and the Report was published in February of this year. An apology was issued by the Government in March to the women who were affected, with Bertie Ahern telling them that he was appalled. The Harding Clark Report into the scandal also identified that 44 of the 129 relevant patient charts had gone missing, and the entire issue is being referred to the Gardai.

There are many complex layers of issues in the Neary story. Lack of accountability and training were certainly 2 of the areas identified in the report. The idea of other colleagues not finding it strange for such a shocking level of this procedure being carried out is also one that calls into question the idea of medical solidarity at all cost. The impact of blowing the whistle on such a tale is also going to have to be considered seriously by the powers in Dublin.

But more than anything, it highlights the utter disregard of a Male surgeon for his vulnerable female patients.The arrogance and lack of concern for these women, their lives and their futures make this a disgraceful episode in Irish history.

Finger-pointing or problem solving?

The pattern of sectarian attacks in Ballymean has already seen the loss of one innocent life. However, when the PSNI Ballymena DCU Commander, Terry Shevlin, said sectarian attacks in Ballymena were a "two-way affair" his comments were attacked by Sinn Fein representatives, Monica Digney and Philip McGuigan.

The PSNI have now released figures of the sectarian attacks in Ballymena DCU between April 05 to March 06 . There were 133 sectarian incidents, 57% of the victims were Roman Catholic and 43% were Protestant. Nationalist representatives (SDLP and Sinn Fein) are refusing to accept what the latest statistics show.

These new figures still mean that in the Ballymena DCU, which is 21% Catholic, a Catholic faces a 2.7 greater chance of being a victim of a sectarian attack than a Protestant. However, the last released figures of atacks were for 1 March 2005 - 31st August 2005, detailed 42 sectarian incidents, 67% of victims were Catholic and 33% were Protestant, so it appears attacks on Protestants have grown.

However, why is a statistical debate the priority for some civic leaders in Ballymena right now?

Blogger goes off on one...

Well here's a good reason to mind what you say on line, blogger or no blogger. Charles Johnson, the dogged blogger behind Little Green Footballs has charted in minute detail what may turn out to be the first UK scalp by a big US blogger. This time, the person under suspicion is not a journalist, but another blogger at the Guardian's Comment is Free site. Charles has the details, chapter and verse. Thanks to David for the heads up!

Ireland: Eurovision 1972

Brave attempt two years after Dana won Ireland's first Eurovision. Great start. Pity about the rest of it.

The core problem?

Is sectarianism our core problem or is it a culture of violence?

I was asked this yesterday and have been thinking about it ever since. As you think about it look at a sample of recent news. In Ballymena, scene of a vicious sectarian murder, thugs fired at an ambulance in the Dunclug estate as it came to the aid of those in a house under attack. In Londonderry, three teenage girls have been ordered out of the country. In Newtownabbey, an african family considering leaving after a series of racist attacks. These attacks have persisted despite support from the local community and church to the family and the parent of one perpetrator taking their own child to the Police. The latest edition of the Shankill Mirror features a sectarian slashing on the Ardoyne Road (the prominent CCTV didn't act as a deterrent to the attackers) and attacks on taxi firms from Protestant areas at Bawnmore. Yesterday a knife amnesty was begun.

Violent crime is growing throughout the UK and BBC magazine asks are we becoming a more confrontational society?

Weekend blues

I feel like a pioneer, and that wouldnt be one of the catholic ones that avoid alcohol. It feels very different writing on this site, and I will just take a deep breath and try it.

Well, its a Bank Holiday weekend here in Norn Iron, and the Police are starting a clamp down on dangerous drivers. Pity they hadnt been on the A1 last night when I was driving home from Belfast after my exam. (thank you for asking, it was fine)

I was really shocked by some of the antics of drivers on the road. At one point, I had 2 boy racers driving past me and overtaking each other like it was Kirkiston. I know I am starting to advance in years and find the yoofs a bit hard to take, but these guys were nothing more than an accident waiting to happen.

As I got closer to Banbridge, I came upon another old geezer who was either having a slow heart attack or was very very drunk. Weaving in and out of lanes, head drooping onto the steering wheel, a proper hazard he was.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've hung up my keys and leaving Bessie in the driveway for the rest of the weekend.

Speaking of which, the Blues on the Bays Festival is on in Warrenpoint this weekend and is always a sure thing. Van Morrison is scheduled to play at the weekend, and if the weather holds up he should surely sing "Wouldn't it be great if it was like this all the time"

Can we have our old Slugger back...

It's ironic, but this latest disaster is both self inflicted, and eminently repairable. However it also demonstrates the limitation of Slugger's happy amatuer status. For all our awards and multiple expressions of goodwill, we cannot continue our high levels of service without backing from a serious software player.

Money is not the issue (though donations always welcome): service is. There is an opportunity for an ambitous, future curious company to team up with Slugger and not simply get us back to where we were, but to help us push the boundaries of Web 2.0 in Northern Ireland.

If you are in the business and willing to chat, drop me a line at mick@mickfealty.com and let's talk.

Google economics/development application

Google's being clever again. This gapminder tool is a great time waster if you are even vaguely curious about the rest of the world. If you want to know what effect wars have on an economy, then highlight Rwanda and watch its fortunes over the last thirty years. Or highlight UK and Ireland, press the animation and witness the Republic overtake the UK on GNP. More at gapminder.org (just scroll down).

House price boom continues...

Despite rising prices in Northern Ireland buyers from the Republic are taking advantage of lower rates north of the border to find affordable housing.

Hoboing in the thirties...

Great memories of the 'hobo ride' to California by 93 year American professor, Theodore Sarbin. Apparently getting past the state border into California was the toughest part. How times change, with economic good fortune.

Bookclub: Pope's Children

The second of our bookclub choices is David McWilliams sharp witty survey of the breakneck rush towards affluence in the Republic, the Popes Children. It charts the sheer industry and hard work of the Stakanovite "Decklanders", and the new middle class (former working class) Irish who hunt new markets from NE England to Bulgaria in which to sow the excess equity of their often fairly modest Dublin properities. Previously: Pity for the Wicked.

Towards political breakdown...

David Adams in today's Irish Times, reckons (subs needed) the play being rehearsed at Stormont is high political farce. It's all to do with that committee, which:

...will serve only as a platform for rehearsing, without room for question or explanation, the mutually incompatible and now boringly familiar party positions. Though one might have imagined it scarcely possible to further limit the potential for agreement, Paisley then managed to do even that. He also declared that neither would he be having any more dealings with Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey because of the UUP's recent co-option of PUP leader David Ervine into its Assembly grouping.

For Sinn Fein's part, he argues:

It has been argued as a positive that there is a short-term incentive for Sinn Féin to reach agreement, because ministerial positions in a Northern Ireland Executive would give a boost to their upcoming election campaign in the Republic. For the rest of us, an Executive formed solely, and temporarily, to facilitate the electoral ambitions of a single party would not constitute political progress. But even aside from that, Sinn Féin has no need to go to the bother. Playing the role of the thwarted peacemakers, at which they excel, will serve the same purpose.

Sinn Fein's only real concern is to ensure the DUP takes full blame for the inevitable failure, and that won't prove too difficult.

Northern Ireland slipping in political ratings?

Lindy McDowell is not impressed with the Scottish First Minister's pitch for a return to devolution; nor his approach to 'tackling sectarianism'. She speculates that Northern Ireland has slipped in the order of global priorities:

Come any political crisis, hand of history development or seismic decision day and you can bet your rising rates bill that someone sufficiently 'on message' will be bussed in to shower us with more inspirational prose than a Carole Caplin lifestyle guide.

It's a barometer of where we now stand in global priorities that having worked our way down from an American president all we get these days is a Scottish First Minister.

Who next? The chairperson of Lower Witterington parish council?

Spoon fed parliament...

If you've trundled all the way from sluggerotoole.com, I'm afraid there is no news on the broken code, and we don't as yet have a new commenting facility here, though I am working on it. To cheer you up, here's a nicely caustic piece from Brian Feeney in Wednesday's Irish News, who argues that it is all top down and no bottom up.

Spies in the da blog neighbourhood...

Not exactly hot news off the press, but this former MI6 is playing cat and mouse with his former employers on his blog. "Martin Ingram" is the most prominent figure from the spy world in Northern Ireland.

Three clever strands of pension policy...

Nice summary in the Economist of the new pensions initiative, which it lauds as a devilishly clever piece of government (subs needed). It picks out three primary strands:

"First, the state-pension age will start rising from 65—the age for men now and for women by 2020—to 66 between April 2024 and April 2026, earlier than the date of 2030 suggested by the commission. It will rise by a further two years to 68 in 2046 rather than in 2050. This marks a reversal in policy. In December 2002, when the commission was established, the government explicitly ruled out a further increase in the state-pension age.

Second, the basic state pension, which has generally risen with prices since 1980, will be linked to earnings, which rise faster, in 2012—just a bit later than the commission's preferred date of 2010. This reform has been the most politically contentious part of the package: Mr Brown initially opposed it on grounds of cost. Although the commitment is subject to affordability, Mr Blair's camp believes that the chancellor will be unable to renege on it, not least because the policy enjoys strong support among Labour MPs.

Third, in an ingenious policy innovation, retirement saving will be boosted by enrolling employees into a national scheme of personal retirement accounts. The scheme falls short of compulsion for workers since they can opt out. But if they stay in, as many are expected to, their employers must contribute as well."

In summary, it praises the Turner Commission for clearly flagging up difficulties and allowing the government to take apparently tough decisions (raising the pension age first set in 1925), and allow other useful benefits to flow into the wider system (re-establishing the link with earnings, and encouraging independent saving).

Finally it notes: "galling though it may be for hyperactive politicians, they can often achieve more by doing less".

And here comes the brickbats...

Since any effective long term decision by 'the committee' now rests upon arriving at a 'consensus' the DUP have effectively disarmed it from endangering its current negotiating position, or undoing any private understandings with the governments in the past. Alisdair McDonnell is not happy for one:

"We have warned the Secretary of State that there is little point in a committee if the real action is going to be elsewhere," the South Belfast MP said.

"There is little point in all parties working the committee if the British Government is going to be negotiating side deals with the DUP behind everybody`s back - like the over 100 secret deals they gave the DUP with the December 2004 Comprehensive Agreement.

"We are disturbed at the manner in which Secretary of State pandered to the DUP yesterday by assuring them that negotiations would not be in the committee - but would be with the governments instead."

Down again...

On the day my pension age went up to 66, Slugger got ill and took to bed. It happened last night when I was footering about with some important code in the index file. I'm going to do a few posts for those who know about this old place, but I'm hopeful we'll be back up before too long (famous last words???).

Non dirty dancing continues at Stormont. Although it seems that after late night negotiations the DUP may have got its way over bullet proofing the changes it wanted from December 2004, and its business as usual as the two governments interlocute the latest series of discrete negotiation.