There was a time when the African National Congress and Sinn Féin were bruited as progressive or even revolutionary forces by the bulk of the left, and equally vehemently repudiated as repugnant men of violence by most of the right. Thirty years ago, our side used to stage sit-down protests outside South Africa House and […]
Posts Tagged ‘Ireland’
A Pyrrhic victory for austerity
Jun 6th, 2012 by Gerry Adams.In an earlier European campaign 2000 years ago, King Pyrrhus of Epirus suffered such heavy casualties at the hands of the Romans that his apparent military victories ultimately led to his defeat. Out of that experience the phrase pyrrhic victory came into common usage and was used to describe someone who has been successful in […]
Share:
Standing up for Ireland
Mar 15th, 2012 by Gerry Adams.If you want to know who is taking the real decisions about the economy of the Irish state then you need look no further than EU Commissioner Olli Rehn. Since Fianna Fáil crashed the economy and Fine Gael and Labour won last years election they have repeatedly asserted that there can be no deviation from […]
Share:
Austerity Isn’t Working – time to invest in growth and jobs
Feb 28th, 2012 by Lee Brown.Austerity isn’t working. The disastrous Tory economic experiment has left the economy stagnating, household incomes falling at their fastest rate in decades and unemployment soaring towards three million. Even by the criteria the government has set itself, that of reducing the deficit, it is failing. The Tories are set to borrow £158 billion more than […]
Share:
Sinn Féin are leading Irish opposition party
Feb 27th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.An opinion poll for the Sunday Times Irish edition puts Sinn Féin in second place in Iirish politics, making it the leading opposition party. Fianna Fáil’s 70-year dominance of Irish politics came to an end at last year’s February general election when both Fine Gael and Labour got their best ever results and formed the government. […]
Share:
Austerity is not working
Jan 15th, 2012 by Gerry Adams.It seems like every time you turn on the news or open a newspaper there is a new crisis in the Eurozone. Last Friday’ decision by the credit rating agency Standard and Poor (an ironic name for such a body in the current context) downgraded France’s AAA credit rating. It also lowered that of 8 […]
Share:
The odds for the euro are shortening in 2012
Dec 23rd, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The take-up by the eurozone banks of €489bn from the European Central Bank (ECB) ought to be good news as a sign that the ECB is now at last, having refused to do so in 2011, ensuring eurozone banks can fund themselves adequately next year. The ECB believes they will need €720bn of loans in […]
Share:
George Osborne shows he’s learnt nothing from Greece or Ireland
Dec 5th, 2011 by Michael Burke.The Autumn Statement was widely presented as facing up to harsh realities of slower growth, but with George Osborne offering a series of cunning schemes in order to resolve the crisis. And yet, the stagnation of the British economy is a function of government policy, and plans to increase investment by increasing the credit available to smaller firms […]
Share:
There is an alternative (in Ireland too)
Nov 24th, 2011 by Gerry Adams.Since it came to power last February the Fine Gael/Labour government has blamed every bad decision, every u-turn in pre-election promises on the last government. Everything is Fianna Fáil’s fault. It is a fact that the current economic mess in the south is primarily a result of the bad policies of the last coalition government, […]
Share:
The relation of profits and ‘austerity’
Oct 27th, 2011 by Michael Burke.In what may be an important development the Financial Times reports that, in return for accepting much larger ‘haircuts’ (imposed losses on the value of the bonds they own) bondholders are demanding that there must be a growth strategy for Greece. In a piece headlined ‘Bondholders Demand Greek Growth Plan’ the paper quotes the Managing Director and chief […]
