November, 2010

Believe me, I’m a politician. I mean I WAS a politician.

Rheumatoid arthritis is not a funny thing to have – three of my sisters suffer from it, and suffer is the word – so I’m slow to turn negative towards Dermot Ahern of Fianna Fail, who says he’s not running in the coming general election in the south, because he’s suffering from it. Rheumatoid arthritis, […]

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Believe me, I’m a politician. I mean I WAS a politician.

Rheumatoid arthritis is not a funny thing to have – three of my sisters suffer from it, and suffer is the word – so I’m slow to turn negative towards Dermot Ahern of Fianna Fail, who says he’s not running in the coming general election in the south, because he’s suffering from it. Rheumatoid arthritis, […]

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How much should you earn?

The VO is going a bit mad these days. And before you say ‘Nothing new there, then’, this is mad with a financial twist. Fresh from giving out stink about the cost of B and B for big-shots in the public service, today the Organ is focusing on the pay of top managers in the […]

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How much should you earn?

The VO is going a bit mad these days. And before you say ‘Nothing new there, then’, this is mad with a financial twist. Fresh from giving out stink about the cost of B and B for big-shots in the public service, today the Organ is focusing on the pay of top managers in the […]

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Behind closed doors

   It’s a laugh, a good, belly-clutching laugh, because most of the time most of the people we elect as our representantives live in a different world. Even people as admired as Mary McAleese do things you or I wouldn’t do in a thousand years ( Mary caught a government jet from Dublin to Belfast […]

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It was a bit like the economic crisis, wasn’t it? We saw the Donegal South-West upset coming but it still was a shock to the system when it arrived. The figures tell the story: Fianna Fail’s vote share has gone from 50% to 21%, Sinn Fein’s 21% to 40%. Almost but not quite a see-saw […]

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It was a bit like the economic crisis, wasn’t it? We saw the Donegal South-West upset coming but it still was a shock to the system when it arrived. The figures tell the story: Fianna Fail’s vote share has gone from 50% to 21%, Sinn Fein’s 21% to 40%. Almost but not quite a see-saw […]

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Brian, Bill and the faceless men

It’s a long way from Bill Clinton to Brian Cowen. Clinton is revered by most people in the US as the man under whose watch they enjoyed eight years of unrivalled prosperity, Cowen is detested as the man under whose watch the twenty-six counties plunged into an economic pit. Clinton was famed for his ability […]

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Brian, Bill and the faceless men

It’s a long way from Bill Clinton to Brian Cowen. Clinton is revered by most people in the US as the man under whose watch they enjoyed eight years of unrivalled prosperity, Cowen is detested as the man under whose watch the twenty-six counties plunged into an economic pit. Clinton was famed for his ability […]

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Good God – it’s Gilmore!

Rage – that’s the word of the moment in the south. The people of the twenty-six counties are consumed with rage that their government has screwed up so spectacularly and that it’s costing them, the people, so dear. The Irish cock-up that’s rocking all of Europe has three layers: the gobshites, the incompetents and the […]

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