Messages

Donald Tusk warming that Europe is not prepared for war. Laughable five years ago but it's not beyond the bounds of possibility now with Putin well and truly untouchable in his own country.
Where does that leave Ireland, a geographic soft spot on the western fringe of UK and Europe?
Has NATO a blueprint somewhere to save Irelands ass for their own welfare?  And does Ireland know about it?

[Except for the fact last year was the hottest on record globally.]

Global warming my hole, cold wet and miserable March.

Except for the fact last year was the hottest on record globally.


Some people need to understand weather and climate.

Not here it wasn't as I can mind debating whether (pardon the pun) or not to put on the fire last Summer which i'd never done in any summer prior.
Doesn't Weather refer to short term atmospheric conditions? cos it's been shite for a good while now.

It was the warmest year on record in Ireland.

[Clubs are finding it hard to attract coaches or committee members, it's sadly a sign of the times in modern day Ireland]

If a principal has an interest in GAA it will feed it's way down. Training a school team can take time for teachers and some might be reluctant to do it as it eats into their personal time. Clubs are finding it hard to attract coaches or committee members, it's sadly a sign of the times in modern day Ireland

They either couldn't be bothered listening to yappy entitled parents or are away chasing forty quid a night at some other club. 

Heartbreaking to hear all this.  The country is full of good people. Keep talking.

Tír Eoghain 8-16 (40)
Aontroim 0-7 (7)

Brutal from Antrim. What a let down the county board has been to GAA in the county. With the size of the population it is a outright disgrace that the CB would put such a team out. They must be doing zero work at club and schools underage level. I don't blame the players at all, in fact to pull on the jersey and go out and represent their county they are a credit to themselves. 
Having McEntee and others up managing the senior team while ignoring underage is f**king pointless. The CB and Northern Switchgear would be better off taking £100k out on to the Falls road and setting it on fire. If I was an Antrim man I'd be calling for heads.

Utterly pathetic.

You ain't wrong but you might want to look about your own greenhouse when you're lobbing bricks at others.

21 point defeat today for Tyrone.  Clearly they aren't putting enough effort in.  Utterly pathetic.

Armagh 7-16
Antrim 0-02
Another bad result for our underage set-up.
Armagh wouldn't be known for being an underage powerhouse, which makes this result standout for me.

Another horrendous beating, and as you say Armagh are no big shakes. Apathy from top to bottom. I genuinely don't know where you'd even start to fix this as we've fallen miles behind and it's been decades in the making. A multitude of issues.

Undoubtedly, his greatest error as Taoiseach was to give Boris Johnson a compromise deal on Brexit when they met in the Wirral that time. Tories were sinking fast without it and it allowed Johnson put through an agreement he subsequently tried to renege on and never had any intention of upholding.

Are you saying you'd rather he had ignored the opportunity to lock down no hard border so that he could sink the Tories?

I don't think that was a mistake. Boris Johnson walked into a trap. He couldn't reopen the border and he couldn't get a good deal.

Agree, but Johnson did what he does, made the best of a bad job by saying he'd "got Brexit done" and won an election on the back of it.  Varadkar was more than happy to see the open border secured - definitely not an error, never mind his greatest error, in my view.

Undoubtedly, his greatest error as Taoiseach was to give Boris Johnson a compromise deal on Brexit when they met in the Wirral that time. Tories were sinking fast without it and it allowed Johnson put through an agreement he subsequently tried to renege on and never had any intention of upholding.

Are you saying you'd rather he had ignored the opportunity to lock down no hard border so that he could sink the Tories?

Tbh there should be phds in this. There was shorts etc etc and walking into jobs with no education while catholics etc had to get educated. That has more or less now stopped so families who would have assumed to basically be on a gravy train without the effort to educate etc now will be no more.

One of the biggest enemies of the "PUL" community is the DUP. It does nothing to lift up people in poor areas etc.

Basically that's what happened to the Shankill.  Generations of families were guaranteed a job in the local factories, and across town in the shipyard.  They didn't need to worry about education and over several generations the idea of educational attainment died out.  When fair employment eventually kicked in they were left floundering.

To a point but this deal (~13% and no workload agreement) is going to fly over the finishing line without a bother.
I don't think, say, 4% and an agreed workload solution would.
Money talks.

I think they see the money as a given but don't want to return to the previous levels of bureaucracy.

Had pints with a few teachers over the weekend. Seems they are more interested in a workload solution which is not on the table, and the Union's are mis-reading their membership because they think getting them a few more quid is the answer to teachers woes.

SF got a review in the Financial times :
A referendum in 10 years but  only the Brits can  call one and they will only do so if there is big shift in public opinion

SF is gaslighting voters on unity. It will happen but not when SF want it to happen.

It's not completely outlandish for SF to aspire to unity in a decade. Less than a decade ago it would have seemed unlikely that Brexit would happen or Trump would get to the White House, but circumstances conspired and they did happen.

It is not under SF's control . That is the point.
They can promise all they want but they cannot deliver

That's right, it's not directly under their control, obviously, but somebody has to talk about it as a serious proposition, because it is plausible.

It will happen when the UK economy collapses, unionist pensions vaporise and house prices in Ballymena go tits up. Not before

None of those things will happen. It will happen when the majority of people are in favour of what's on offer on the island, rather than having things done to them from London. Every year that the pendulum swings a little more.

The UK economy is going to collapse. The UK is borrowing money to pay the bills.

I've been hearing this for a long time...and no word of it yet.

There is a thing called the current account deficit
It happens when a country cannot pay all of its bills.
The UK has had a current account deficit for the last decade.
Truss wanted to issue debt that wasn't backed by taxes and the markets refused to lend it to her.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/current-account-to-gdp

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2022/10/04/uk-governments-u-turn-on-tax-cut-wont-placate-markets-says-analyst.html
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2022/10/06/the-reality-is-the-uk-is-a-low-growth-ecobonmy-fund-manager.html
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2022/10/20/uks-political-instability-related-to-brexit-luxembourg-pm-says.html

What was ROI's current account deficit in 2010 Seafoid? And what is the UK's current deficit? Just to give a little perspective to things?

Ireland went through a very bad period and came out of it. The UK left the EU and has gone backwards.
The assessment is not based on one thing. Sterling is trading like the currency of a poor country. The UK is low growth economy. There is way too much debt.

People in Ireland were Unionist until something really shocking happened. That was 1916.
Unionists in the North will be loyal to the UK until something really shocking happens.

Did you get the figures? I can help you if you'd like.
Public dept in ROI was 100% of GDP in 2010.
Don't get me wrong things aren't rosey in the forecast for the UK. But they're still a strong market and talk of a collapse is bollix.

You don't have to agree with me but if you want to me to believe that it's bollocks you have to prove it. What data are basing your assessment on ?

The thing about the people who are calling the shots in the UK is that they don't care about anyone, not English people, not middle class people and not anyone living in the North. Unionists don't understand that yet but they will.  Brexit was not about freedom. It was about giving a small group of people the right to pump sewage into rivers.

The second verse of the UK national anthem is a warning

https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world-news/national-anthem-full-lyrics-including-25051609
 O Lord our God arise,
 scatter our* enemies, and make them fall!
Confound their politics, frustrate their knavish tricks,
on Thee our hopes we fix, God save us all.

lol you make a hyperbole claim. I disagreed and it's down to me to prove it?? Really?

By the way the figures you wouldn't quote earlier, ROI deficit was over 13% in 2010. Current deficit in Uk is around 3%. And reduced towards the end of 2023.

The UK is a 2.2 trillion pounds economy.  It would be some banger of a collapse.

SF got a review in the Financial times :
A referendum in 10 years but  only the Brits can  call one and they will only do so if there is big shift in public opinion

SF is gaslighting voters on unity. It will happen but not when SF want it to happen.

It's not completely outlandish for SF to aspire to unity in a decade. Less than a decade ago it would have seemed unlikely that Brexit would happen or Trump would get to the White House, but circumstances conspired and they did happen.

It is not under SF's control . That is the point.
They can promise all they want but they cannot deliver

That's right, it's not directly under their control, obviously, but somebody has to talk about it as a serious proposition, because it is plausible.

It will happen when the UK economy collapses, unionist pensions vaporise and house prices in Ballymena go tits up. Not before

None of those things will happen. It will happen when the majority of people are in favour of what's on offer on the island, rather than having things done to them from London. Every year that the pendulum swings a little more.

SF got a review in the Financial times :
A referendum in 10 years but  only the Brits can  call one and they will only do so if there is big shift in public opinion

SF is gaslighting voters on unity. It will happen but not when SF want it to happen.

It's not completely outlandish for SF to aspire to unity in a decade. Less than a decade ago it would have seemed unlikely that Brexit would happen or Trump would get to the White House, but circumstances conspired and they did happen.

It is not under SF's control . That is the point.
They can promise all they want but they cannot deliver

That's right, it's not directly under their control, obviously, but somebody has to talk about it as a serious proposition, because it is plausible.

SF got a review in the Financial times :
A referendum in 10 years but  only the Brits can  call one and they will only do so if there is big shift in public opinion

SF is gaslighting voters on unity. It will happen but not when SF want it to happen.

It's not completely outlandish for SF to aspire to unity in a decade. Less than a decade ago it would have seemed unlikely that Brexit would happen or Trump would get to the White House, but circumstances conspired and they did happen.