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It's hard not to be cynical about the interface between save our jobs and save SQ. Sean Quinn is in serious financial difficulty. If the Insurance business goes down the toilet so does the fortune of SQ. 

The argument about the business being profitable is a non sequitur. If the company is insolvent it's much easier to make money. There's no need to invest premiums in conservative  assets. QIL lost 44m in dear old Blighty last year. That's not profitable AFAIK.   

What I can't believe is that the national media have given it such a light touch, pardon the pun. I suppose its a side issue.

This is an organisation with no history of collective worker action, ever, yet overnight they mobilize in their thousands to attend not one rally, but 3/4 and counting. Busses have been booked - who paid? Spokespeople appear to talk to cameras and suprise, suprise, they use they same arguments made by SQ himself in the hours after the announcement and refuse to answer any questions. And everyone is allowed time off from work, no questions asked.

I'm not buying it.
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That's neoliberal trade union management from Sean Quinn . There was no need for trade unions under Sean since he was like the good shepherd except that he subsequently gambled the flock on Anglo Irish. He reminds me of a tribal chieftain. Of course they love him in Fermanagh. He's the reincarnation of the the Maguire of Fermanagh.

That wikileaks video gets in the way of the US media management of the wars in Iraq and afghanistan. americans aren't supposed to see images like that. they are supposed to be sponfed sympathetic media reports from embedded journalists and compromised mainland editors , breathe in "God bless America" and believe that the US is doing right in the region.

Watch al jazeera for an hour and see what reality looks like.

The US has already lost in Iraq and is going to lose in Afghanistan. Neoliberal war is appalling regardless of how it is dressed in the media. 

It's very interesting that Quinn didn't tolerate unions and is now manipulating the staff to do his marching bidding.

This was in the Guardian the day of the first Man U-Milan match

Whatever happens in this tie it's hard to see Milan winning the competition, but then the same is true of United, for all their rousing recent form. La Liga is miles ahead. This feels a bit like two wizened old winos, trying to relive the glory days by embarking on an epic bender from midday on giro day to see who can still handle it. It doesn't matter who wins: they'll both be under a table, snoring heavily and dribbling out of at least two orifices, when the real action starts on 22 May

Even if Man U had got to the final they would have been destroyed by Barcelona.

The video is going to go down very well in the Middle East where the US already has problems in winning hearts and minds.   


www.ourbombs.com is worth a look

He looks very sober. Especially with the tie and the haircut. He doesn't look like the kind of fella who would pump €3bn into Anglo Irish Bank.

The banks won't lend because they are effectively bust. So where can first time buyers get a loan? Nowhere. So who is going to buy ? Nobody. so what is going to keep prices at current levels? Nathin

At least summer is on the way. Fianna Fail couldn't f**k that up 

NAMA is appalling. It's the biggest wealth transfer from ordinary Irish people to the rich since Cromwell. At least Ollie had a work ethic and a strong sense of what was wrong and right. NAMA is immoral.

  There are 1.9 million people at work in the Irish economy. Their average earnings last year were €36,300. After tax, that's €29,500 each. From this, each one will stump up an average of €4,600 just to pay the interest on the money the State is borrowing to fund the bank bailout. 100406 progressive-economy.ie blog.

NAMA has not stopped the deflation of the property bubble 

Bank of Ireland has 199,000 of the 800,000-odd residential mortgages in the State and has estimated that 21.5% of its customers are in negative equity and that the average net debt of those in negative equity is €38,000. BoI's figures are in line with ESRI estimates of upto 200,000 being in negative equity by the end of 2010. namawinelake blog
That BoI figure of 21.5% compares to 10% in mid 2009. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse. 

Taxpayers take all of the downside. Who do the properties secured on NAMA's money belong to? Not the taxpayer. Who pays if the shit continues to hit the fan? Not the bondholders. It's an absolute disgrace.

It will probably be a hung parliament or else a narrow Conservative win which would be no better than a hung parliament. Remember all the trouble John Major had when he won an unexpected victory in 1992 and his majority died off one by one ? 

I can't really see any difference between Labour and the tories. In the old days Labour never would have gone to war against Iraq.  They support the PFI even more than the Tories do. So it's tweedledum and tweedledee.   

Surely it makes more sense to keep the jobs in Fermanagh, Cavan etc where salaries and land are cheaper than in Dublin.
Sean Quinn comes across as a tribal chieftain, the heir to the Maguires, rather than a serious insurance player.   

more chance of Fermanagh winning Ulster or Wicklow winning Leinster, dream on

No one is suggesting that London can win Connacht, however with the line up of Roscommon and then Leitrim blocking their path to a Connacht Final, then they are entitled to dream. That's not being disrespectful to either of those counties, as it is far from a foregone conclusion that London could beat either of them, but given that in most years London would face either Galway or Mayo in either the first round or semi-final, then in 2010 at least, they are entitled to have a little dream / ambition - regardless of how improbable it may seem to most.

Fianna Fail's economic destruction of Ireland should be good for London football. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Quinn  has betrayed the trust of the people of the border region. He has messed around with the regulator for at least 2 years

"For almost two years, the regulator was engaged in exhaustive discussions with the company to force it to bring its solvency levels up to the required standard. Quinn said it would do this by limiting the amount of insurance premiums it was taking on in 2009 to €972m and also target more profitable lines of business in the UK. The regulator agreed to the plan, but the company went on to write €1.05bn of premiums and make a loss of more than €44m in the UK. Quinn also had to write down the value of its property assets by €75m. " Sunday Tribune

Anglo Irish Bank has today announced a loss of €12.7bn for the 15-month period to December 31, 2009, the biggest corporate losses in Irish history.

Someone worked this out as €322 a second. It makes you think!

That is some going on a loan book of 70bn. The former Financial Regulator, John Hurley, should be strung up.
Fianna Fail should be outlawed. The costs to the taxpayer are unbelievable. Who owns Anglo's bonds?
On what basis did Biffo and Lenihan decide to include Anglo in the bank guarantee scheme?