You can pick your friends but not your friends’ friends. Out last night with some of the former who brought some of the latter and, of course, their conversation turned to the recession. And those of the latter were real Euro-jockeys, propounding such thoughtful gems as ‘trade unions are sapping our vitals’. [...]

It must be great to be a spokesperson for employers. You can just plonk yourself in front of a microphone and say anything that comes into your head, no matter how outrageous or unsubstantiated. On Thursday’s Morning Ireland Mark Fielding of ISME was being interviewed together with UNITE’s Jerry Shanan. Mr. Fielding [...]

Did anyone catch the curious symmetry? On the day that unemployment, once again, shot up, AIB announced their half-yearly profits. Two different worlds on this small island.
Not that there weren’t attempts to show that these different worlds are experiencing the same thing. The Irish Times headlines: AIB Profits Fall. And [...]