Vincent Browne in cracking form, taking on Klaus Masuch of the ECB.
Notice Masuch’s reaction, it starts with a sort of sneer as if he could just ignore the irritating insect in front of him but then he gets more and more uncomfortable as Browne presses his point. Its just a shame that not one of the other journalists pushed any member of the Troika over Browne’s claims that we don’t owe need to pay unsecured bond holders and that the reason for paying them back is just to keep other European banks from getting into financial difficulties. Not to mention the fact that we shouldn’t be shoring up a now defunct bank.
The telling point from the past couple of years is the lack of any serious investigative journalism into what happened to our financial institutions and into why we have to accept what the Troika tell us to do. We have been told that we have to pay back a debt, most of which the Irish public did not incur, without any good reason. Our major media organisations have fallen in behind our political leaders in telling us that we have pay back money that we don’t have. Our journalists have been silenced, apart from Browne and Fintan O’Toole, and they have been marginalised as being eccentric or too left-wing to be listened to. There is a major story to be written about the ties that bind journalism with politics in this country, unfortunately that story will not be written by any of our journalists. If it is written at all, it will be written by the historians looking back at this gombeen nation.
Here is kickoutthejam’s patent pending guide to the upcoming contest to find an occupant for the empty ghost estate in the Phoenix Park – social housing Ireland style.
Sean Gallagher
There are some well known facts about Gallagher – he’s bald and he lives in a Den. What isn’t so well known is the fact that he’s a former Fianna Fail party member, eh? Oh. Well, its not so well known that he’s a failed entrepreneur who has left quite a few debts in his time, whats that? Oh. Very well, few people know that Gallagher admires Denis O’Brien – tax exile, Moriarty Tribunal star and creator of untold misery, jobs, sorry? Oh. Ok then, what is definitely not so well known is why so many people have been hoodwinked by a media hound into thinking that we need a President that is going to create jobs. Gallagher will create one job – for himself with a very large pension at the end of it. He won’t be able to interfere in the economy thankfully, given his and Fianna Fail’s track record in that department. Why vote for him? Obvious, we need a slaphead as President, now if we could just find two mates for him we’d have the beginnings of another top rating RTE show. An Irish version of William Hague. Knows his way around brown envelopes. Has difficulty remembering stuff.
Michael D Higgins
Serial Galway man. I’ll resist the temptation to call him a gnome, when he is so obviously a fairy dispensing pixie dust, in Irish. Reminds me of this Randy Newman song. Has a long and proven track record of wittering on incessantly, regardless of the topic of conversation – terrible man to have in a round when its last orders. Apparently he is old but for fucks sake everyone in the West looks that ancient. Had something to do with Macnas, for that alone he should be flogged. Likes U2, also deserving of a flogging. On a positive note, he does write poetry but, lets face it, most of it is pure shite.
Martin McGuinness
Peacemaker, so should be blessed. Has an immediate advantage in that he is used to taking oaths. Lost his P45 from the Army Council so is not too sure when exactly he resigned. The only one to show any decorum in taking all the shite that has been hurled at him and that has been a lot of shite from just about all parts of society and the media. Can talk to Peter Robinson – without feeling the need to punch his lights out. Major fault – supports Derry City.
David Norris
The camp, comic candidate. The mellifluous scholar rarely uses one word when a combined dictionary and thesaraus can be shoe horned into a sound-bite. He is, famously, a man of letters – none of which he can use in single syllable words. Like Michael D, he has published poetry, none of which anyone has ever read, not even himself. He left the Presidential race early to stamp his feet and sulk in the corner. After finding the attention he was looking for Norris re-entered the race where everyone promptly ignored him. Has worn cravats. Likes fried liver.
Mary Davis
The lady in red, an appropriate colour considering the state of the economy. Can’t open her mouth without saying Special Olympics. Been on more boards than Greg Louganis. Not unfamiliar with the airbrush. Thinks that Denis O’Brien is a suitable person for membership of the Council of State. Nuff said.
Gay Mitchell
No, there won’t be a gay up the Aras. Mitchell is the angriest man in politics, liable to take offence at the most trivial detail – he is rude and obnoxious and they’re just his good qualities. Overall a complete dick. Even his own party hates him. I admit to previous with Mitchell, he was invited to speak at a residents meeting opposed to high-rise development in Dublin 12 and called me a shinner – now I’ve been many things and been called many things but a shinner? Think Buzz might be tickled by that. Mitchell is advised by Terri Prone (a communications expert, apparently) who possibly should be sacked. He thinks the Presidential office requires someone with dignity, diplomacy and tact so that rules him out.
Dana
Professional Catholic. Holds no truck with abortion, gay marriage or trucks. Afraid to ask her brother about his, em, difficulties. Breda O’Brien, from the even more reactionary wing of Catholicism thinks that she should withdraw from the race and with friends like that… Might be interesting to see what the other member of the Irish Catholic Trinity- John Waters – thinks, then again, life’s too fucking short. I’m resisting the temptation to throw in an obvious reference to all kinds of everything when she is, in fact, no kind of anything. Possibly should be sectioned.
So there you have it, one of the most insipid line-ups ever for an election to the supposed highest post in the land. The only saving grace is that Gay Byrne isn’t in the race, I think that would finish us off for good. There should possibly be an eighth option – none of the above, lets do without a President for a while and see if the sky falls in. We are a bankrupt country economically, morally and politically and if this is the best we can do then we are truly fucked. You might want to go and lie down for the next seven years.
So, we have an ex-Finance Minister and current Taoiseach (that’s Irish for incompetent buffoon) who claims that in accompanying Sean Fitzpatrick in 18 holes of golf and an 18 course dinner he never once discussed the malaise at Anglo-Irish bank. If you accept that barely believable premise then the question is – why the fuck didn’t he discuss the situation? Or more importantly, why didn’t he wrap a five-iron round Fitzy’s neck for breaking our whole economy? And nice to see Fitzy’s old friend Drumm backing him up.
So Fingers Fingleton is showing a bit of remorse for the way the Irish economy has gone down the toilet. Of course, you won’t hear the word ‘responsibility’ from the odious little toad. Nor will you hear him admit that the Irish Nationwide did anything wrong when it hid money that Anglo-Irish Bank was paying to its directors. This is the guy who oversaw a €280m loss at the building society before retiring on a pension worth €27.6m and who got a very handsome golden handjob of €1m, which Irish Nationwide is now trying to claim back. This is the guy who was at the helm of a massive money lending operation to Irish developers that is going to cost the taxpayer in excess of €3b.
On the 4th February, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Emer Costello, formally initiated the beginning of Dublin’s year as the European Capital of Sport, 2010. In her speech at Dublin Castle the Lord Mayor mentioned that, “I love walking and swimming and I hope to use the opportunity of the European Capitals of Sport year to take up new activities. I will be encouraging all those that I meet when I’m out and about to enjoy being active this year too…”
Unfortunately, swimming will not be one of those activities, new or otherwise, that Costello will be able to encourage people to take up, in the Crumlin area at least. On 1st January, Dublin City Council (DCC) took the decision to close the Crumlin public swimming pool. This planned closure has been deferred until June due to a flood (sorry) of opposition.
The official reason coming from DCC is that fewer people are using the pool and that money needs to be saved. However, the pool is only open to the public for 4 hours each week and DCC has done nothing to publicise the pool in recent years. Despite this, there are over 30 groups that use the pool each week, including a group of special needs children, students on a two-year life-guard college course and after school programmes that target “Youth at Risk”. There is further scope to use the pool if it is promoted adequately, including Easter and Summer Camps, parents and toddlers swims and birthday parties.
The argument that DCC will save money by closing the pool is a rather spurious one as the staff employed at the pool will have to be redeployed elsewhere. Crumlin swimming pool took in €79,000 euro in 2009 and this could be increased by promoting the pool in the ways suggested. The cost of decommissioning the pool is €100,000, money that could be put back into the pool to keep it running. DCC has suggested that local and community user groups should take over the ownership of the pool and fully fund the costs of the pool. At the same time, DCC is putting €702,000 into Ballymun Leisure Centre, €643,740 into Poppintree Leisure Centre and €636,526 into Ballyfermot Leisure Centre. The people of Crumlin deserve the same respect. There will be a public meeting on Tuesday 6th April, at 7.30pm in the Scouts Hall, St. Agnes Church Car Park. Elected Representatives from all Political parties will be invited to address the people of Crumlin and help secure the future of the swimming pool. See the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106995355999217&index=1.
The increasingly irrelevant Catholic church still refuses to face up to its obligations and responsibilities for the litany of child sex abuse cases in Ireland. The putative head of the church in this country, Cardinal Sean Brady, has invoked the Nuremberg Defense in order to excuse his inaction in the case of Fr. Brendan Smyth in 1975.
However, the increasingly loud calls for Brady’s resignation miss the point. At the very least, Brady knew of criminal acts committed by Smyth and did not inform the police. This itself is a criminal offence. At the other end of the scale, there could even be a case made for conspiracy as Brady’s inaction may have facilitated Smyth in continuing to abuse children for almost twenty years up to 1994.
Brady should be in custody. The celice wearing Minister for Injustice, Xenophobia and Jail-for-all should be demanding that the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) take some action. We need justice. The children need justice.
The sooner we remove this cancerous church from any sort of control in our society the better. We should start with Brady and continue by removing control of our primary schools from this malevolent and pernicious organisation. Patrick supposedly removed the snakes from Ireland, unfortunately what he left in their place is a lot more slippery and dangerous.
It was probably Harold Wilson, well known pipe-smoker and adulterer, that said, “a week is a long time in politics”. But even ‘Arold would have choked on his Kendal Dark Shag at the goings on in Irish politics in the last while.
First we had George ‘Glee’ Lee deciding that his all-singing, all-dancing skills were being wasted in the chorus line of Enda’s Entertainment Troop. George is currently appearing at a church near you in the lead role of Jesus Christ, I’m a Celebrity Economist, Count Me the Fuck Out of Here.
Then we had Deirdre de Niqab Burca, with an uncanny inability to connect with an electorate, posting one of the most poisonous resignations since Roy Keane deserted in Saipan. Poor old Deirdre, can’t even be recycled to Europe.
Next was the armour-plated moustache that underwent a very close shave because of Boyle’s law tweet. Willie just couldn’t keep it up anymore and went off quietly into the night. Yeah, right, he did more moaning than a Trinity graduate on Frontline.
Finally, it was Trevor Sargent, busted down to private. The former ex-leader of the Greens proved that the Minister for Horticulture was the biggest cabbage of the lot.
And what would Wilson have made of this sorry lot? He probably would have asked Captain Mainwaring, “do you think thats wise?”…
What happens to people in this country when they get to a position of power? Do they just subscribe to the adage that power corrupts? Or maybe its as simple as living in a culture where there is no responsibility and it doesn’t really matter what you do as you will not be answerable. Even the language of power doesn’t acknowledge that doing wrong must lead to some sort of punishment. Dáil deputies cannot be called liars in the Dáil, no they tell untruths or omit to tell the truth. If we did the same we would be liars and quite rightly so. Power is facilitated in this by the lack of action by the police and the courts.
Willie O’Dea told ‘untruths’ to the High Court. According to himself he forgot what he had said in a taped interview three weeks prior to the signed affidavit to the High Court. Actually what he did was perjure himself. Perjury is a criminal offence yet O’Dea has not been charged with the crime, let alone arrested for it. O’Dea doesn’t even recognise that he is further diminishing the standing of politics in this country.
The Catholic bishops of Dublin colluded with and facilitated the abuse of children in Dublin. This is another criminal act. Yet, as with O’Dea, the authorities have been silent on the issue. The bishops went off to Rome to kiss the pope’s ring (insert your own appropriate gag). They got a bit of a telling off and then listened as the weasel-faced bastard tried to blame a lack of faith for preponderance of paedophiles in the Irish institution. These bishops should be in handcuffs and chains and not colluding in writing a pastoral letter that will absolve them and put the blame back on the victims.
Jim Flavin must be laughing up his very expensive designer shirt sleeves today. The state regulator on all things corporate, the ODCE (Only Dickheads Can Enter), has decided that Flavin is a model upright citizen and a shining example to us all. In 2008 Paul Appelby, head of the ODCE (Our Directors Completely Exonerated), had established an investigation into Jimbo and his mates in DCC (Duping Cretinous Counsel) led by an SC (Superior Carrion) Bill Shipsey.
Obviously Shipsey’s report must come as some surprise to the five judges of the Supreme Court who ruled that the Fyffe’s trading information that Jimbo held was price sensitive and would have a negative effect on Fyffe’s share price. For more background, Ireland.com has a timeline of the important events.
Apparently, Shipsey based his findings on a cosy wee chat with Jimbo and found him to be an extremely nice man, kind to animals and good with children. Indeed, Jimbo didn’t realise the information he possessed was price sensitive or would have an effect on Fyffe’s shares. And who could doubt that finding? After all, Jimbo has only a mere thirty-odd years share dealing experience and wouldn’t know all the finickity little laws around directors’ responsibilities and could hardly spell insider dealing. In fact, it’s a wonder that the ODCE (Organising Dances: Creating Enjoyment) would even make a fuss about a ensuring our corporate laws were upheld, sure its only the Supreme Court that was bothered about this little matter in the first place.
Now that Jimbo has been given a gold star, expect him to be named as the head of the banking inquiry.
