The European project belongs to the member-states that comprise it – not the other way round
Scarcely had our new best buddy, Guy Verhofstadt, landed back in Brussels when his name appeared on a draft resolution in the European Parliament proposing that Northern Ireland should remain part of both the Single Market and the Customs Union after the UK leaves the EU. This, the parliamentarians argued, was the only way in […]
Verhofstadt is not minding Ireland’s back on Brexit
Three Oireachtas committees gave a joint hearing to Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament coordinator on Brexit, on Thursday. He used the occasion to evade all difficult issues, to give assurances to Ireland on which he cannot deliver, and to engage in overblown rhetoric and grandstanding which was, in the end, meaningless. Most memorably, he said […]
Irish voters will never go for Junker’s centralised super-state
Coulrophobia, apparently, is the new name for an old condition –fear of clowns. Those of us who remember the brilliantly scary portrayal by Jack Nicholson of the Joker in the 1989 Batman movie or by Heath Ledger in the 2008 Dark Knight movie didn’t need a new fancy word to describe the feeling. We have […]
Our so-called Policing Authority is a useless and ineffectual quango
The report of the newly created Policing Authority makes alarming reading for two reasons – firstly, the omni-shambles it describes in Garda management, and, secondly, the frightening picture it paints of the Policing Authority itself – a grim self-portrait. In truth, the Policing Authority is not an authority at all; it is an ineffectual and […]
Gerry Adams’ long goodbye will put Enda’s in the shade
The observation by Littlefinger in Game of Thrones that “chaos is not a pit; chaos is a ladder” comes easily to mind when we watch the way in which Gerry Adams tries to keep Sinn Féin at the centre of public attention by keeping the political situation in crisis mode and playing a game of […]
Creating a ghastly housing quango is not the way to solve this crisis
To put it politely, the Government is showing signs of deep-seated confusion in relation to the homes shortage crisis. I could be less polite. First, Simon Coveney announces a help-to-buy scheme for home-seekers. Then Eoghan Murphy announces it is being dropped. And, lo and behold, we are now informed that the government is thinking of […]