Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Killer Rabbit or Pat Rabbitte? – Preference?

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A Web Link to Monty Python’s Rabbit Assassin :

Killer Rabbit

And now for something ostensibly harmless, but in fact deadly :

Web Link :

Pat Rabbitte

[he] opened up on Keaveney with a high-octane attack on the TD last Friday morning, describing his defection as “self-indulgence”.
“Any single member of the Labour parliamentary party could have gone pirouetting on the plinth, parading their struggle with their conscience saying: ‘Watch me as I agonise about this decision’,” Rabbitte said.
He lambasted Keaveney as “courting the media to save his own political neck”.

Deputy Keaveney’s Reply :

Rabbitte Played Man, Not Ball

Appearing on The Late Late Show, Mr Keaveney — who is still chairman of the Labour party despite his expulsion from the parliamentary ranks after voting against the Social Welfare Amendment Bill — said: “There has been a lot of reckless commentary from senior figures in the Labour party in the last 10 days.

“Pat was playing the man and not the ball. It was a fine performance from Pat Rabbitte but at the end of the day it was an attempt to deflect from the fact that we had made a volte face.”

 

British Trotskyism Until 1949 on Mastermind

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We wonder is this a spoof? How many questions did you get right? Happy Christmas and give the 2013 New Year a fab welcome!

Update, Stephen’s Day, December 26 2012 :

Definitely this is genuine, not a spoof :

Mastermind – First Round Heat 21/24

Practically a photo finishThe BBC’s inscrutable campaign to sabotage the original Mastermind show continues. For at exactly the same time that the show began tonight on BBC2, a version of Celebrity Mastermind, featuring David Tennant, and Screamin’ Davina hosted by John Humphrys made up a small segment of the Comic Relief Extravaganza. Coincidence ? I should cocoa.If you missed the original and best, then its a shame, since it was a great episode tonight, and the tension for me was heightened by the fact that I know two of tonight’s contenders. Howard Pizzey took part in the 2007 series of blessed memory, and achieved the unenviable feat of scoring a massive 29 in the first round, but still not getting to the semi finals. Howard had no luck whatsoever last year, so my fingers were resolutely crossed for him.

I also know David Porch, in as much as David is a ‘face’ in the pub quiz circuit between Cardiff and Bridgend. We’ve played against each other in many quizzes. Eagle eyed viewers might also have spotted David playing for one of the teams in Battle of the Brains a couple of weeks ago. David , who is new to Mastermind,was answering questions on the films of Sidney Poitier. It was a virtuoso performance too, and these questions were no picnic. 14 and 1 pass sounded like a pretty good score to me.

Paul Moorhouse is not someone I know personally, but he is not unknown in Mastermind circles. This was, I believe his third Mastermind performance, having made the semi finals in both 2000 in the Radio 4 Mastermind competition, and the 2004 series. It seemed to me that he had some very long questions on his subject of British Trotskyism, so 12 points and no passes was not by any means a bad return. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by tomasoflatharta

Dec 24, 2012 at 3:11 pm

Legislate for X – Repeal 1861 Act now – Repeal 8th Amendment to Constitution

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An Irish Government finally agrees to legislate for abortion – a very significant victory for women, a practicfal example of the power of mass mobilisation politics – NEVER AGAIN

United Left Alliance Statement :

Legislate for X – Repeal 1861 Act now

Repeal 8th Amendment to Constitution

The ULA welcomes the government’s declaration that legislation for the X Case ruling of the Supreme Court in 1992, despite a delay of twenty years, will finally be brought in next year. There is no need to delay however, in the repeal of Sections 58 and 59 of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. This piece of repressive law, retained from the time of British rule, makes abortion a criminal act with severe penalties for women and doctors. We call for the immediate repeal of this legislation. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by tomasoflatharta

Dec 18, 2012 at 10:12 pm

Violence in the USA

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image

Meanwhile USA Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Belfast, commenting on Union Jack Loyalist Riots ……. Please add your own sweet words!

Written by tomasoflatharta

Dec 18, 2012 at 9:50 am

Abortion Legislation Again

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Dublin Government moves with the speed of a glacier on abortion – mote than 20 years after the X Case.

WorldbyStorm's avatarThe Cedar Lounge Revolution

It will be interesting to see if, as reported in the SBP at the weekend by Pat Leahy and in the Irish Times today, the Cabinet does indeed decide to legislate for limited abortion ‘in accordance with the X case judgement’. The SBP suggests that at today’s Cabinet meeting the legislation will mean the following:

…abortion will be available where a mother’s life is threatened, including by suicide. However, it will be not be legal in cases of rape or where the foetus is unviable. It is expected that the “suicide test” will be as restrictive as possible.

If legislation is decided for many will find it near incomprehensible how the latter two instances of rape and foetal unviability can not be included even in this entirely minimal legislation. But as was pointed out to me yesterday discussing this with activists – and as stated in the SBP –…

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Written by tomasoflatharta

Dec 18, 2012 at 8:47 am

Good Days for Financial Parasites, Friends of the Fine Gael-Labour Government

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In case you were wondering where the €427 million to be ‘saved’ by the cuts in welfare spending in 2014 (€390 million in 2013) is going (childrens allowance, respite care grant, PRSI increases for low earners, etc) or where the household and ‘property’ tax money is going – here’s a snapshot of today’s activities: payments to bondholders on Dec 17.
Check out who’s paying out, by hitting ‘A good day’ below.
http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/a-good-day/
BoI (Bank of Ireland) and EBS (now merged with AIB). They are paying ‘Senior Unsecured’ bondholders – rich people who bought bonds from the banks with no associated collateral to guarantee repayment – and therefore a higher rate of interest. The banks used the money raised from these bond sales to fund the developers – and together they drove up land and house prices. Since the crash, these bonds have been trading on the bond markets for anything up to a 50% discount – but the banks are paying out full listed price to current bondholders.
There again, let’s not think the bankers are losing too much sleep over giving a euro for a bond bought for 50 cent: the money they’re using to pay the bondholders is state / your money (the state is the payer of last resort, because it can raise the money by taxing you and me), or money borrowed from the ECB with the state / you standing as guarantor. And the state, Labour and Fine Gael, the EU and the ECB, are all insisting that full payment is made on what are otherwise almost worthless bonds.
As to who decides these matters, you might think that the state would act in the interests of citizens. It does indeed do that – but for the wealthy citizens. So when you hear that well-hackneyed phrase ‘protecting the most vulnerable’, have a think about how vulnerable those bondholders must be – coz they’re sure getting a lot of protecting.
The state put €5,000 million into BoI since 2008 (when it was bankrupt and nobody else would give any money) and got 50% of its shares in return. 35% of those shares were sold earlier in the year by Michael Noonan to billionaire Wilbur Ross for €1,000 million. In doing so the government agreed to give him a little prezzie of €2,500 million: he only paid €1,000 million for shares the state paid €3,500 million to the bank for. The state still owns 15% of the bank and has a ‘public interest director’ on the board. But he hasn’t met the minister for finance for over a year (he’s been busy working out the bonus payments for the other directors).
That €2,500 million discount to a billionaire is an interesting contrast to the respite grant cut to the full-time carers of people with disabilities – at a ‘saving’ to the state of €26 million.
As to AIB-EBS, the state owns 99.9% of it. And put in over €20,000 million. So the bondholders are getting the whole whack from state ‘injections’ of capital; or from borrowings made with the state as guarantor. The Irish banks have been ‘recapitalised’ (given money or had borrowings guaranteed by the state) with €17,400 million set aside for next year’s bond payments alone. And more again for the following years.
Did I hear you say ‘child benefit’?
The €500 million Labour and Fine Gael hope to get from ye through the ‘property’ tax in 2014 will help out with the €9,100 million interest payments on the money borrowed by the state to fund the banks and their debts to speculating bondholders.
So as you can see, your money’s going to good use – sure wouldn’t ye only waste it on food or drink or keeping warm if it didn’t go to ensure payment to those ‘most vulnerable’: bondholders – the people who are really being protected. Check out the Indo a while back for the wages and expenses of Ireland’s bank directors. And as you may have heard, the Financial Regulator (state employee) has told the banks that they must increase their charges and interest rates to get back into profit asap. So you’ll be helping the ‘most vulnerable’ in multiple ways: cuts, taxes, and bank charges. Mother Teresa couldn’t do more!
If all this has you feeling a bit irritated, put Saturday, Feb 9, 2013, in your diary – it’s the day of protest being convened by ICTU against the austerity required to keep the rich well provided with Prada bags (running out the door of Brown Thomas at €900 a go). And tell your friends. If we don’t have a big turnout in Feb – and another big demo before the €3,060 million ‘promissory note’ payment for Anglo on March 31, we can kiss goodbye to any hope of stopping the home tax – or repudiating debts which are not ours (or our children’s).
Brendan Young

Irish Cancer Society worried by chemotherapy prices | Irish Examiner

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http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/irish-cancer-society-worried-by-chemotherapy-prices-578104.html 75 Euros for each chemotherapy visit – Sick Neo-Liberalism puts profits before the health of patients.

Written by tomasoflatharta

Dec 17, 2012 at 8:48 am

Posted in Ireland

A major mistake by the Red Green Alliance – International Viewpoint – online socialist magazine

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http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article2820 Lessons here for all forces favourable to building new anti-capitalist parties – some issues are non-negotiable principles.

Labour Senator considering Social Welfare Bill – RTÉ News

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http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1216/social-welfare-bill.html This is interesting; it is reported elsewhere in the mainline media that the Kenny-Gilmore government may struggle to win a budget majority in the Seanad, delaying implementation of the Noonan-Howlin austerity juggernaut by 90 days. Any thoughts?

De Silva’s Gaping Hole

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A gaping hole in the De Silva Pat Finucane Review

The Broken Elbow's avatarThe Broken Elbow

UPDATED 14.05 EST

STATEMENT BY ED MOLONEY ON THE DE SILVA REPORT – Dec 12th 2012

In his report on the murder of Pat Finucane, Sir Desmond de Silva has this to say in relation to the RUC’s role in encouraging the UDA to target the solicitor (Par 73):

“The critical issue, in my view, was to determine whether RUC officers had been involved in inciting loyalists in custody to attack Patrick Finucane. Allegations that RUC officers had incited loyalists in this manner were first expressed privately by the Ambassador of the Government of Ireland to the Cabinet Secretary on 13 February 1989, the day after Patrick Finucane’s murder.”
In December 1998 I was the Northern Editor of the Sunday Tribune newspaper. During that month I had lunch with the late Tommy Lyttle, then the West Belfast Commander of the UDA. During the lunch he told me that RUC…

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