Democrats need to find an alternative to Biden-Harris ticket
It did not take the latest head-to-head debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump for me to start doubting whether Biden’s age was likely to become a major issue in the November election race. Will there be another such debate which was, by the way, very fairly umpired. Would Trump offer Biden a second chance? Could Biden do any […]
Brexit has been a disaster but Britain will not admit it
The outcome of the UK general election seems to be a foregone conclusion insofar as the Tories will lose, Labour will win, Sir Keir Starmer will form a government, the Reform party will splutter and die, and many of the fundamental issues in UK politics will go unaddressed and unremedied. It could be worse. If […]
Ireland’s capacity to deal with EU migration pact is deeply suspect
The Government is using the party whip to push resolutions through each House of the Oireachtas this week to allow Ireland to exercise an option it has kept opting in to the EU migration pact. Cynics will note that the motions were due to be passed before the recent local and European parliament elections but […]
Voters need more choices than a hard left coalition or the status quo
Last Friday’s vote by Irish voters demonstrated, as many commentators have remarked, that the broad centre of Irish politics is not as fragile as those on the hard left and hard right imagined and calculated. Those, including Stephen Collins and myself, who have consistently argued and written that the entry into government by Sinn Féin […]
Biggest problem of the housing crisis is the Department of Housing
The minister with responsibility for housing policy and delivery, Darragh O’Brien has been rightly criticised for his dismissal of one of the most important recommendations of the Housing Commission’s report, namely the establishment of a Housing Delivery Oversight Executive (“HDOE”), a body which would for a limited period mobilise and oversee what Ireland needs so […]
Democracy has not hung on such a fraying thread since the 1930s
In the year 2000, an episode of the Simpsons was broadcast entitled “Bart to the Future”, featuring Lisa Simpson becoming US president in 2016 and having to clean up the mess left by a Donald Trump presidency. In 2016, what was the stuff of comedic cartoon shows in 2000 came to pass; Donald Trump was […]