Trump, like the Taliban, may be on way back in
In a year’s time, the US will be facing into mid-term congressional elections. If the Democrats were to lose their narrow majority in the House of Representatives and/or their razor thin majority in the Senate, President Biden’s term in office might well be converted into a one-term lame duck presidency paving the way for a […]
Fall of Afghan government may have merely brought forward inevitable
Before we rush to judgment on Joe Biden’s US military evacuation of Afghanistan, it is worthwhile putting what has happened in context. In particular, the US and Taliban had concluded a formal agreement in February 2020 at Doha, during Trump’s presidency, which embodied a clear US commitment to withdraw all NATO forces from Afghanistan in […]
Afghanistan was not and could never be the forward bastion of liberalism
In retrospect (which is of course always wiser), it might well have made more sense for the Nato forces which expelled the Taliban from Kabul in 2001 to have settled for a regime of regional and tribal warlords with a weak central government rather than aspire to the creation of a unitary liberal parliamentary democracy […]
There is a better way to levy local property tax
There has been the usual annual controversy about the decisions of elected members of local authorities in the greater Dublin area to “reduce” local property tax by 15% below the amount which home owners in their areas would otherwise be liable to pay. These decisions are frequently opposed by the unelected management who make a […]
Merrion Gates more important than Merriongate
David McWilliams has again raised the issue of relocating Dublin port. As someone who promoted that idea strongly in the past, I have a few tips for him. Dublin Port Company is radically opposed to the idea and will campaign very heavily for the port staying where it is (subject to its own agenda of […]
TV licence system is a grotesque failure
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has commissioned a report into the financial state and prospects of RTÉ. That report suggests that RTÉ is facing both acute financial problems and an existential crisis. The solution, predictably, is more public funding. I buy the idea that if we want good quality public service broadcasting it involves two […]