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Spam e-mail o' the day

Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Presenting all the fun of my in-box with none of the maintenance problems.

I got this today:


"THE IRISH LOTTERY

 We wish to congratulate and inform you On the selection today, and Won you the sum of 800,000.00 GBP, you must contact the appointed agent with the informations below to file your claims"..


Shall I e-mail them pointing out that our Hibernian neighbours have not used British pounds for the thick end of a century, and have not used the pound / punt since 2001? 

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posted by Croydonian

The Irish Lisbon vote

Monday, October 05, 2009
Herewith a nifty map 'borrowed' from ElectoralGeography.com:



Intriguing that the yes vote was - broadly - at its weakest along the frontier with Northern Ireland, and at its strongest in the capital and its environs.  Dublin South East looks to be the keenest at 78.7/21.3, although DSE is the equivalent of Kensington & Chelsea or the City in UK terms. This could be a reflection of where the power lies in Ireland, or perhaps, the relative strength of Sinn Fein in the border areas and Tralee it being one of the few parties to campaign against Lisbon:



As to the result, that's their business, although I wish it had gone otherwise. 

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posted by Croydonian

As if Bono needed any more encouragement...

Monday, August 24, 2009
From The Irish Times:

"Speaking at the annual commemoration of the death of Michael Collins in Beál na mBláth, Mrs Robinson said the Irish people needed “a vision of ourselves” and “the lack of one lies at the heart of the crises we face”.

.....

To shape a vision of how we hope to develop as a society “we need to listen to everyone who has something to contribute; yes the business sector and the financial experts, but also the social entrepreneurs and innovators, the teachers who educate our children, social workers and activists ... and those who have been marginalised in the past. We should also listen to our creative artists.

As I am so very fond of noting, 'Rock stars Is there anything they don't know?'. Given Robinson's history of modish left wing views, presumably she will not be very interested in the contributions of creative artists with more traditional, let alone religious leanings.

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posted by Croydonian

Coming next - an IMF bailout?

Wednesday, January 14, 2009
That's what some of our Hibernian neighbours are concerned about:

"The Taoiseach Brian Cowen has endorsed the warning of a senior trade union official that the State's borrowing figures are unsustainable and could possibly lead to the International Monetary Fund ordering mass dismissals of public sector workers in the future...Mr Murphy wrote to branch secretaries of his union warning that the IMF might take action if public borrowing was not curtailed. He said that the public deficit could reach €15.5 billion by 2011 unless changes were made in the tax regime and in public sector spending. If the IMF were to intervene, wrote Mr Murphy, it could lead to mass dismissals being forced upon the public service. He emphasised the need for a solution to the current serious situation".

Statistics UK, always supposing I can believe them, show a public sector deficit of £39.4 billion between April and November last year and a public sector net debt of 44.2% of GDP.

Back of an envelope calculations make our PSD around 50 billion euros, and our GDP is around 10 times that of Erin. If our PSD grows at the same rate as that of the Republic, we will have a PSD of 61 billion euros by 2011.

That seventies revival is looking more lifelike by the day.

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posted by Croydonian

Why the Irish Republic rejected Lisbon, pt II

Saturday, September 06, 2008
Fear of conscription. Yes, really:

"Alarm that Irish children could be conscripted into an EU army featured high on the list of reasons why people rejected the Lisbon Treaty, research commissioned by the Government has found".

Neither the Irish Times nor pollsters Millward Brown deign to give any detail, which is annoying.

A June Eurobarometer poll examined the Hibernian 'no' and included this:

6% - To safeguard Irish neutrality in security and defence matters

I cannot imagine that a Euro army would be a particularly agile beast, what with the dozens of languages spoken, and one that included universal (hello girls) conscription would be a behemoth. Based on back of an envelope calculations, a conscription force that served for 12 months would be about 5 million strong. Our Irish chums would make up circa 0.8% of the force.


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posted by Croydonian

Why the Irish Republic voted no to Lisbon

Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Straight from a Eurobarometer survey:

  • 22% - Because I do not know enough about the treaty and would not want to vote for something I am not familiar with
  • 12% - To protect Irish identity
  • 6% - To safeguard Irish neutrality in security and defence matters
  • 6% - I do not trust our politicians
  • 6% - We will lose our right to have an Irish Commissioner in every Commission
  • 6% - To protect our tax system
  • 5% - I am against a united Europe
  • 4% - To protest against the government's policies
  • 4% - To avoid that the EU speaks with one voice on global matters
  • 4% - Because large states decide on EU matters
Etc etc. 14% other, 3% don't know why they voted no.

And as for the yes camp:

  • 32% - It was in the best interest of Ireland
  • 19% - Ireland gets a lot of benefit from the EU
  • 9% - It keeps Ireland fully engaged in Europe
  • 9% - It will help the Irish economy
  • 5% - It gives the EU a more effective way of making decisions
  • 4% - It makes the EU more effective on the world stage

Etc etc. 11% other, 2% don't knows.

I think the results pretty well speak for themselves, but note that if the Irish have to vote again then reason #1 for voting no is a cast iron guarantee that the good people of the island will be bludgeoned with public 'information' campaigns, cut out 'n' keep guides in their newspapers, and for all I know, Manuel Barroso ringing people at random to harangue them. And if all future commissioners are cut from the same cloth as the outstandingly sound Charlie McCreevy, then the citizenry is right to fear losing the Irish commissioner.

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posted by Croydonian

Lisbon Treaty referendum date leaked.

Friday, February 15, 2008
May 29th. Not here, of course, but on the other side of St George's Channel. Lucky our Hibernian neighbours, eh?

I just hope that Treaty opposers from outside of the Republic leave the Irish to make their own minds up, as I am certain that British Tories, UKIP-ers and others will cost the 'no' lobby a goodly number of votes.

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posted by Croydonian

Promising signs from the Irish Republic

Monday, November 05, 2007
Our Hibernian neighbours have a government with sufficient decency to offer the populace a referendum on the EU treaty, and the latest poll from thereabouts looks promising:

"Just 25 per cent of people say they will vote Yes to the EU Reform Treaty, agreed in Lisbon last month, while 13 per cent intend to vote No and a massive 62 per cent say they don't know or have no opinion. In a comparable poll on the EU Constitutional Treaty in March 2005, 46 per cent said they would vote Yes as against 12 per cent who would vote No and 42 per cent who had no opinion".

I think the 62% of DKs probably deserve some credit for their honesty. Meanwhile, "Already anti-EU groups across Europe have indicated that they intend to come to Ireland to campaign for a No vote. The French far-right leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, is just one of a number of prominent figures who have expressed a desire to get involved in the campaign". However, I would think that eurosceptics would best serve the cause by avoiding direct interference in the referendum.

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posted by Croydonian

Not a bad scratch...

Friday, October 26, 2007
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Irish Sea, Bertie Ahern has just trousered a rather nice pay increase, which takes him to €310,000, or in pounds sterling, £216,386. The opposition are not impressed.

The Lord Protector gets £187,611. Given the relative populations of this nation (60,587,300) and that of the Irish Republic (4,239,848), Broon might think he is entitled to £3,029,149 (DON'T tell him). Alternatively, maybe Ahern should have his pay packet cut to £13,128 and the all important 86 pence. Or €18,808.60.

(I am nor being entirely serious about Ahern. He seems to be doing a better job there than Broon is here).

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posted by Croydonian