What is ‘the science’ politicians must follow?
The publication of an open letter signed by 1000 citizens, including members of our scientific and healthcare community poses a political problem for whoever is in government in the coming weeks and months. The signatories are demanding that the Government doubles down on repressing the coronavirus with a view to hunting it to extinction io the […]
Black Americans fear the future and so should we
In July, 2017, Donald Trump, newly elected President of the United States, organised a rally of uniformed police officers on Long Island in New York state. His audience were ranged in front of him and a number were seated behind him as he spoke. This was a classical visual format to suggest to television audiences […]
How will we proceed in a brave new post-Covid world?
While it may be trite to point out that it was far easier politically to get us into lockdown than it will be to get out of it, that does not mean that the economic, health and social damage being done by lockdown is sustainable or that ending lockdown as quickly as possible is not […]
We will laugh at the puritanism of the two metre advice
No-one has a crystal ball. But it might clear our heads a little to let our imaginations wander and to ask ourselves how we imagine that we will, in late May 2021, look back on the first half of 2020. Will this semester look, in retrospect, as one in which the western world over-reacted to […]
Ireland should be slow to condemn Karlsruhe
Over the last few weeks, a furore has been whipped up about the decision of the German federal constitutional court at Karlsruhe, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (“BVerfG” for short), in relation to the ECB’s €2 trillion stimulus package. The decision, in effect called for the package to be shown to be proportionate to the ECB’s limited monetary […]
Independents a better bet than Greens
Anyone who thinks that it is going to be easy to be in government in Ireland over the next five years should think again. Every day is going to be very, very difficult from the first day in office to the last. It is against that background that the Greens must judge the invitation from […]