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A Superb Book: Seasons in the Sun
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If there is one political history book you read this year, Dominic Sandbrook’s “Seasons in the Sun: The battle for Britain 1974-1979″ is the one. Sandbrook tells the story (from a centre-right perspective) of Britain culturall...
England needs Fianna Fáil!
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Watching the strong performance of UKIP in the English county council elections, I couldn’t help thinking how an English version of Fianna Fáil would do. I suspect quite well, especially when one considers that one of the more curious as...
UKIP should be weary of a Tory embrace.
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There’s a lot of talk recently in Tory backbench circles about joint Tory-UKIP candidates. If I were Nigel Farage, I’d be treading very carefully at this moment, and pondering what it is that has elevated UKIP to its current handsome show...
Seanad Reform: I want to believe.
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There is a sequence in Stanley Kubrick’s classic “2001: A Space Odyssey” which could provide a wonderful metaphor for the future of Irish politics. In it, there is an astronaut in a spaceship, clean, modern, advanced, the very epito...
When fiction meets reality?
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This story about Abercrombie and Fitch’s targeting of the beautiful people reminds me of a short story written by a fella with a beard. Cough.
Seriously, Fianna Fáil can do better than this.
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Sean Fleming TD’s odd intervention on the property tax, where he either a) did not read the legislation but nevertheless managed to have a strong opinion on it, b) read it but did not understand it, or c) was being deliberately obtuse in select...
Many arguments against Seanad abolition are just plain guff.
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As we head towards Seanad abolition (possibly 20 weeks and counting?), a number of arguments are being raised as to why THIS unreformed Seanad should be retained. 1. “Yes, the Seanad should be reformed, but let’s save it first”. Thi...
Want to restore faith in fair taxes? Publish everyone’s.
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There’s an old saying that the two most interesting things in the world are your own money, and other people’s sex lives. Irish people have an add-on to that. They are fascinated by other people’s money, and equally obsessed with ke...
The curious affair of the box of death.
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In late October 1979, an ambulance was called to the Kensington home of General Sir Richard Terry, then deputy Chief of Staff of the British Army. General Terry was pronounced dead on the scene from cyanide poisoning, with a short note in his own han...
The welcome rise of UKIP.
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This week’s breakthrough for UKIP should be welcomed by anybody who supports a healthy, vibrant democracy. The fact that a country as eurosceptic as Britain does not have a major national “out” party in parliament is an outrage, and...
When Anthony Hopkins was an action hero.
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Before his breakthrough role (all less than 20 minutes of it) in “The Silence of the Lambs” in 1991, Anthony Hopkins had been a successful if moderately well known actor. In 1971, he starred as British secret agent Philip Calvert in the f...
The Wire: the greatest TV drama yet?
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Every few years we get a TV show that gets designated “the greatest TV show ever”. A few years ago it was The West Wing, The Sopranos, then Mad Men, and now it is either Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones. All very fine dramas, and proof tha...
Whatever happened to all those ordinary segregationists anyway?
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Some years ago, and this just popped into my head yesterday, for some reason, I saw an elderly couple of American tourists holding hands on a street in Dublin. Both were in their late sixties, I’d estimate, and the woman seemed slightly more in...
Olympus Has Fallen: a silly but entertaining movie.
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I’ve decided to do a review of the Gerard Butler headed “Olympus has fallen” not because it was any good, but because it was so silly that I wanted to forensically dissect the silliness. That said, it’s a perfectly entertainin...
The world needs a genuine democratic, socialist nation. If only for comparison.
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Unlike many of my pro-European colleagues, I was disappointed when the hard left Syriza coalition did not win last year’s Greek general election. I was disappointed because the failure of the non-authoritarian (in the human rights sense) hard-l...
Great TV: Archer.
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If you like spy shows, politically incorrect humour and sexual vulgarity, Fox’s cartoon show “Archer” is for you. It’s based around brilliant but incredibly self-centred agent Sterling Archer, operative of ISIS, and his battle...
Political pensions should be based on future performance.
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Watching the ongoing battles over Croke Park and public sector reform, one can’t help wonder how much easier it would be if we could just pay public sector workers one off compensation for the various practices and allowances we need to change.
Margaret Thatcher: Don’t believe the myth.
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Some years ago I was on Newstalk to discuss the anniversary of Margaret Thatcher’s coming to power in 1979. During the course of the discussion, I got into a heated row with a member of the Social Party over the myth that working class people d...
