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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
July 5
would have been here, it is prosecuted summar-
ily. Villager wishes him well. He’s had a hard
enough time over the whole aair and he should
be let get back to business though ideally with a
little less hubris on the unfettered global capital-
ism and reflex anti-environmentalist fronts.
X, Why?
Flashbacks to Ireland’s X case 30 years ago in
Ohio which passed alawin 2019 that made abor-
tion illegal around six weeks, when a foetal heart-
beat can be detected. Hours after the Supreme
Court overturned Roe, the Ohio law took eect.
A ten-year-old girl, who had been raped, was, at
that point, six weeks and three days pregnant was
forced to travel across the state line to Indiana to
undergo an abortion. Formerly of course the Su-
preme Court had required all states to provide
abortion services on the basis that the right to
abortion derived from the Constitution.
Crick you brick
One inspiring perspective on politics, relevant,
Villager was struck. to the abortion debate came
from Bernard Crick, a British political theorist
who died in 2008. He wrote that politics, is a
marketplace where irreconcilable interests come
to resolve their dierences through compromise
in order that people can devote their passions to
the really important things in life.
Nominative Determinism
With the demise of Boris Johnson go a genera-
tion of politicians with good English meaningful
names. Mike Freer, resigned as the equalities
minister, giving him more time to devote to free-
dom, the political inverse of equality..
Robin Walker, a stalwart of a series of minis-
terial jobs under Johnson, moved on. And Laura
Trott…just left. According to Sky News: “Robert
Halfon, the MP for Harlow, withdrew his support
for Boris Johnson saying he had given the “bene-
fit of the doubt” to Mr Johnson before, but recent
events were “unacceptable”. Penny Mordaunt
will win the Tories’ leadership election as the
other candidates are simple as daunting than
fearsome former Defence Secretary Johnson’s
former Security Minister, James Brokenshire,
who died last year, is now the subject of an an-
nual lecture on “public service and restoring
faith in politics” at the Institute of Government.
Sam Whitelock underperformed as second-
row for the mostly white All Blacks in their recent
series defeat to Ireland.
A crime
Well, Varadkar is not to be prosecuted for his
breaches of the Ocial Secrets Act (OAS) and
perhaps the Corruption Act. Time was up for the
OAS which has a six-month time-limit when, as it
News Miscellany
Villager
#ElonGate
Villager loathes Elon Musk primarily because he
seems to feel he is worth listening to when in
fact all he is good at it making money, a capacity
which in Villager’s mind is not a correlative of
percipience. Anyway he’s gratifyingly bungled
his purchase of spammy Twitter, for $44bn,
though it is worth a third less than that now and
is trying to extract himself — showing that he cer-
tainly is no gentleman. Villager hopes he’s stuck
with the ineable thing, which generates $6 per
US user monthly in ad revenue, but has only one
seventh the number of users (230,000) and one
fourteenth of the profit ($3.2bn in 2021) of Face-
book, while its share price is roughly what it was
when it floated nine years ago.
Tik-Tok take
TikTok on the other hand is down with the kids
— Twitter for adolescents — and makes creating
films easy. It has done for video-editing what In-
stagram (whatever that is) did for photo-editing
a decade ago, allowing amateurs to turn wobbly
recordings into slick-looking films.
And whereas young audiences are now luke-
warm about Facebook, TikTok has them hooked.
Some 44% of its American users are under 25,
compared with 16% of Facebook’s. After 25
you’re finished, Elon.
Laura Trott
Ohio goes back to basics, thirty years from 1992
6 July 2022
Middlebrow and sexless
Marks and Spencer plans to change the focus of
large aspects of itsbusiness, shifting away from
multi-floor town centre buildings to instead fo-
cus on less sustainable edge of town sites with
better access and car parking.I n recent years, its
clothing sales have fallen, whilst food sales have
increased, after axing theSt. Michaelbrand.
It has long been accused of selling clothes
that are boring or conservative, of not knowing
who its key demographic is., and of leaving its
traditions base of over-45s feeling neglected.
M&S said it plans to open 15 new full-line
stores and 40 food outlets over the next three
years, but more stores will also close. It is plan-
ning to reduce space devoted to clothing and
homewares further, as sales were down by al-
most a quarter compared to four years ago, yet
space had dropped by 10%.
It will raise £200m by selling old stores, as it
said sales in city centres were down 14%, and in
high streets, sales were down 8% on pre-pan-
demic levels.
The stores in travel hubs, such as airports and
stations, were down 39%, largely due to pan-
demicrestrictions and people making the shift
towards working from home, while in retail
parks, sales rose by 22%. M&S’s profits peaked
in the financial year 1997/1998.
Book Festival
A really convenient short-cut every time the word
Dalkey appears in the media is to just substitute
the word money and see if that makes things
clearer.
The Dalkey Book Festival is the Marks and
Spencer haberdashery department, the Magill
Summer School, the Irish Times, the Kellys Ho-
tel, of literary outings.
Brownish Greens
And the Greens are the Dalkey Book Festival of
political parties.
When was the last time the Greens took what
might be described as an ‘ethical’ stance on
anything. Worse, most of their initiatives get
knocked back. There’s the Climate Act that was
supposed to be, but is not, justiciable, i.e. en-
forceable (in court). And Malcolm Noonan’s re-
cently abandoned plan for a dedicated Wildlife
Crime Unit to crack down on attacks on nature
which has been dropped and replaced with pro-
posals to increase the number of general wild-
life rangers instead. little unless enforcement of
wildlife laws is made a priority.
Then there’s the so-called ‘latte levy’ on coee
cups. The Department of Environment, Climate
and Communications is reviewing proposed
legislation that was due to come into force in
December, after lobby groups claimed the Circu-
lar Economy Bill could push consumers towards
cheap plastic alternatives. The Indo reported
that the department “briefed several retail rep-
resentatives confidentially that they ‘underesti-
mated the technical challenge’ of implementing
the proposed law”.
Although Green Minister for Transport Eamon
Ryan brought the (€7.16-12.25bn indicative cost)
MetroLink Preliminary Business Case to Cabinet
in early July,and a planning application on the
‘megaproject’ will be lodged this September and
could be in operation in the early 2030s, roads
continue apace.
Approximately €600m of exchequer capital
funds have been provided for national roads to
local authorities in 2022.
There’s no news on a resolution of the Cork-
Limerick Motorway. In March 2,000 letters were
posted to land and property owners along the
route with some facing CPO. A decision has not
yet been taken on whether the new route will be
motorway all the way from Cork to Limerick with
a speed limit of 120km/h or whether sections
may be Type 1 Dual Carriageway which is broadly
similar to motorway but has a 100km/h speed
limit.
The Coonagh Knockalisheen road in Limerick,
the N24 Waterford-to-Cahir and N4 Mullingar-to-
Longford road schemes are currently proceeding
to planning after U turns by Minister Ryan.
Dishonest Abe
Shinzo Abe was thelongest-serving prime minis-
terin Japanese history.
a nationalist and a denier of for example the
Japanese government’s coercive role in enslav-
ing comfort women in its invasion of China.
No Buts
Nobusuke Kishi, was known for his exploitative
rule of Manchuriain the 1930s, and later served
in the wartime cabinet of Prime MinisterHideki
Tōjōwhere he co-signed the declaration of war
against the US on December 7, 1941.
After World War II, Kishi was imprisoned for
three years as a suspected Class A war crimi-
nal. However, the US did not charge him, and
eventually released him as they considered him
the best man to lead a post-war Japan in a pro-
American direction. They were right. With US
support, he went on to consolidate the Japanese
conservative camp against perceived threats
from a socialist partyin the 1950s. Kishi was in-
strumental in the formation of the powerfulLib-
eral Democratic Party (LDP) through a merger
of smaller conservative parties in 1955. He was
prime minister himself (1957-60), though he had
to resign in disgrace following the mishandled
1960 revision of the US-Japan Security Treaty.
His younger brother,Eisaku Satō, also served as
Prime Minister (1964-72).
Stewart Restoration
Joe Biden is endearingly doddery on his feet
and would be 86 at the end of a second term
should he risk a run again for the Presidency.
According to Politico, at the recentMark Twain
Taking time off from flying business class to
stand in a park
International smugness with a local twist
July 7
time as an unprovoked invasion. By now, censor-
ship in the United States has reached such a lev-
el beyond anything in my lifetime. Such a level
that you are not permitted to read the Russian
position. Literally. Americans are not allowed to
know what the Russians are saying. Except, se-
lected things. So, if Putin makes a speech to Rus-
sians with all kinds of outlandish claims about
Peter the Great and so on, then, you see it on the
front pages. If the Russians make an oer for a
negotiation, you can’t find it. That’s suppressed.
You’re not allowed to know what they are saying.
I have never seen a level of censorship like this”.
In the constitutionally ruinous UK, two polic-
ing bills in quick succession have shockingly
aimed to shut down all eective forms of protest.
They enable the police to stop almost any dem-
onstration on the basis that it is causing “serious
disruption”, a concept drafted so loosely that it
could include any kind of noise. They wouldban
locking on: chaining oneself to railings or other
fixtures, that has been a feature of meaningful
protest throughout the democratic era. They
would ban “interfering” with “key national infra-
structure”, which could mean almost anything at
all. They greatly expand police stop and search
powers, a highly eective deterrent to civic ac-
tion by black and brown people, who are dis-
proportionately targetedby these powers. And,
astonishingly, they can ban named people from
engaging in any protest, on grounds that appear
entirely arbitrary. These are dictators’ powers.
In the US, state legislatures have been under-
mining the federal right to protest, empowering
the police to use vague, catch-all oences such
as “trespass” or “disrupting the peace” to break
up demonstrations and arrest the participants.
Astonishingly, some proposed laws, in states
such as Oklahoma and New Hampshire, have
sought to grant immunity to drivers who run
over protesters, or to vigilantes who shoot them.
In Ireland we are on the verge of making the
broadcasting of material that gives “oence” a
crime. It is already an oence to broadcast any-
thing “tending to undermine the authority of the
State”, whatever, crucially, that means.
xxxxx
Villager predicts that it ultimately is a race against
time to see which of the State’s magnificant re-
address schemes will cost more – mica (est cost
€4bn) 0r defective apartments (est cost €3bn).
Villager concludes the built legacy of Ireland’s as-
cent to riches has been a midden and that anyone
who objected to its creation stands vindicated. He
glances for a second at a war-depleted An Taisce.
Awards show on PBS. Steve Colbert, Dave
Chappelle and Pete Davidson all raised the
prospect of Stewart running for the White House
in their tributes to Jon Stewart, former deadpan
host of the ‘Daily Show’ and this year’s winner of
Twain Prize for American Humor. All did so with a
requisite punch line, but in watching it you can’t
help but think they know something the rest of
us aren’t yet in on. Stewart v Trump would be no
contest.
Ireland ranks worst in all Europe in biodiver-
sity 2. Ireland ranks second worst in all Europe in
nature connection (after the UK) 3. Everywhere,
disconnection from nature worsens the younger
the age
Ireland’s 135,000 farms produce 37 per cent
of national emissions. The biggest agricultural
polluters are intensive dairy farms. According
to Professor John Sweeney,Teagasc estimates
that the average dairy farm income last year was
€94,000 with over two-thirds of all Irish farms
being debt-free and about half of farm house-
holds having an additional o-farm income
stream.
On the other hand, for transport, approxi-
mately 1.4 million Irish households have at least
one car. Some 2.2 million vehicles are currently
responsible for 18 per cent of emissions. Aver-
age household income in 2020 was €52,941 and
over half of Irish households carry some form of
debt.
Seeeney inferred in the Irish Times that these
“on equity considerations”, the bulk of the emis-
sions reductions required by the carbon budget
should not fall on the ordinary householder or
car owner. Yet this is precisely what is being in-
tended in order to protect the “special economic
and social role of agriculture”, specified in the
legislation.
Thwarted Grecommendations
The Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body,
GRECO, remains concerned that Ireland’s Judi-
cial Appointments Bill results in the government
still receiving a non-prioritised list of candidates
for judgeships without any ranking of the nomi-
nated candidates, leading to “politicised deci-
sions”. After all that.
Cryptic crypto
Bitcoin is down 43% in six months. It is very im-
portant in the tech world to describe yourself as
the “founder” of something, Sam Bankman-
Fried foundedftx, a cryptocurrency exchange, in
2019. He and it basked in the light of fame, first
as the crypto craze reached fever pitch and then
as crypto fell to Earth. Mr Bankman-Fried (widely
known assbf) has lately been at the centre of
attempts to rescue beleaguered firms. To some
observers, the role evokes the rescue missions
organised by JP Morgan in the early 20th century.
The Economist magazine says the comparison is
surprisingly instructive.
The recent slump has left destruction in
its wake. Some crypto-lending firms, notably
Celsius, have collapsed; some stablecoins,
like terra, have been obliterated. At least one
crypto hedge fund, Three Arrows Capital, has
gone bust. Estimates of sbf’s personal wealth
have tumbled, too, from $26bn just over three
months ago to nearer $8bn now.
The independent Commission on Taxation
and Welfare, established last year and chaired
by Professor Niamh Moloney, is very sensible.
It has recommended higher and more exten-
sive property taxes, the introduction of a sepa-
rate site value tax and imposition of congestion
charges on city centre motorists as ways of fund-
ing increased spending on public services in the
future.
In a report to the Department of Finance in
early July, the commission warned the Govern-
ment that it will need to raise billions of euros in
additional revenue, primarily through increased
taxation, to fund age-related spending and the
shift to a low-carbon economy over the next de-
cade. For Villager increasing the pension age is
an equitable way of apologising for the burden
this generation has dumped on the next.
The shift to electric motoring and the loss
of traditional motor tax receipts is expected to
leave a €5 billion hole in the public finances. Vil-
lager sees that as a model. Tax bad things un-
til the pips squeak and then tax the next worse
thing until its pips squeak.
Jonathan Sugarman, with Chay Bowes and
Maurice McCabe, Ireland’s most significant
whistleblowers in recent times, has been unem-
ployed since he drew attention 15 years ago to
how the bank he for which he was risk manager,
Unicredi, could not meet its capital rations and
so was falsely reporting evidence that the Cen-
tral bank would have found useful in assessing
the solvency of the banks, before they all ran into
diculties that spawned a bailout that bank-
rupted the country. Now he’s looking for fund-
ing. He recently wrote: “Retaliation by ‘Ocial
#Ireland’ & its impact on my health mean that
I’ve not worked ever since Due to unforeseen cir-
cumstances I need to raise €1,600. Please help:
https://paypal.me/JonathanSugarman.
Chomsky, whose analysis and assessment of
the facts is always accurate even if his brilliant
conclusions are not always wise recently told the
Kashmir Reader that it “should be clear that the
(Russian) invasion of Ukraine has no (moral) jus-
tification”. He compared it to the US invasion of
Iraq, seeing it as an example of “supreme inter-
national crime.” With this moral question settled,
Chomsky believes that the main “background”
of this war, a factor that is missing in main-
stream media coverage, is “NATO expansion”.
“This is not just my opinion,” said Chom-
sky, “it is the opinion of every high-lev-
el US ocial in the diplomatic services
Chomsky continued, “Of course, it was pro-
voked. Otherwise, they wouldn’t refer to it all the
