In the last post, I suggested that some of the arguments regarding the relative poverty measurement were starting to be answered. Now let’s start some new arguments - but, as always, in a positive way; namely, how much tax do those on high incomes pay and is it enough or too much.
For some time, many [...]

There are a few subjects that are guaranteed to start rows. Public sector pay is always a dead cert. Stimulus is another one. And, of course, relative poverty; as in ‘Ireland suffers from a high level of relative poverty’. There are any number of views on this matter, usually quite heated. The ESRI report, ‘Poverty [...]

The Government announced that the 2010 budget would be the worst and that in subsequent years the level of fiscal contractions - either in pubic expenditure cuts or tax increases - would be much less than previously projected. In other words, the worst is over. You could hear a national sigh of relief. You could [...]

[The ruling class has constructed] two parallel universes, one in which there seems to be an endless amount of money that can be put into the banking system and another where we have to attack the blind, the disabled, children and the unemployed. It’s remarkable how successful this crude strategy of distracting and dividing people [...]

During the “Fuck You Emmet Stagg, Fuck You” exchange in the Dail last Friday, the following was said:
Deputy Paul Gogarty: It is most unparliamentary language and I now withdraw it and apologise for it but I am outraged that someone dares question my sincerity on this issue.
I do not like what has to be done, [...]

Below are recordings of some of the comments and questions that came from the audience at Thursday’s meeting on the budget (see below or here). Those making comments include Paul Dillon (Labour Party), Tom Redmond (CPI), Scott Millar (journalist and historian), Mick O’Reilly (ATGWU retired) and one man whose name I did not catch.

Below are recordings of the principal speakers at the CPI meeting on the Budget, which took place in the Merrigan Hall, Abbey Street, on Thursday. The speakers were Michael Taft, Cian O’Callaghan, Cathleen O´Neill, Eoin O’Broin, and Eugene McCartan.

They won. We lost. Get over it. Now let’s change it.
There are any number of outrages in the 2010 budget - large ones and a plethora of small ones that will only become evident when the details see the light. These will be dressed up in all sorts of fashionable clothes. My favourite is ‘this [...]