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July 30th, 2006
There can be no winner in scorched-earth stalemate
Like you, I’ve been watching the new Lebanon war with horror. After three weeks of fighting, there are still huge political and military questions that remain unanswered.
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July 27th, 2006
Why our life in the fast lane can’t stop without skidding
Quite how the world’s fastest growing economy can slow down rapidly without any collateral damage is beyond me.
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July 23rd, 2006
Our cities are not flourishing, but beginning to wilt and die
Ireland is now two countries. The first country is recognisable. You know it. In fact, you were probably born there. It is relatively old, relatively prosperous and life moves at a reasonably easy pace. However, schools are closing down and there are few children around.
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July 19th, 2006
Let’s come to our census on immigration
Today sees the publication of the most important document the government will publish this year. In fact, it is the most important published in the past five years. The preliminary census results give us an accurate snapshot of the state of the nation.
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July 16th, 2006
Nuclear scaremongering must be replaced by hard thinking
Why is it an article of faith to be against nuclear power in Ireland?
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July 12th, 2006
How the prophets of boom may pocket profits of doom
In the early 1960s, the British establishment was rocked by a sex scandal involving the patrician, married, Minister for Defence John Profumo, and a young call girl, Mandy Rice Davis.
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July 9th, 2006
Ireland could learn a lot from Hamburg’s economic model
The docks in Hamburg are one of the most impressive industrial sights you are likely to see. I realise that only economic nerds like myself can get off on looking at docks, ships, cranes and the like, but here is the best place in Europe to see globalisation at work. Enormous Chinese tankers offload tonnes of computer equipment, while the docks themselves are a testament to the endurance of German engineering on its way out for export.
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July 5th, 2006
Legalising soft drug use is one way of breaking dealers’ grip on teens
For a nation that spends �400m more on stout than we do on the entire educational budget for our primary schools, the shock and horror being expressed this morning about an Oireachtas survey on drug use, is a bit hard to take
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July 2nd, 2006
Our debt-financed lifestyle is just staving off the inevitable
They had never imagined this could happen to them, but it had. Both grandmothers were gossiping about another neighbour�s house that had been sold for a small fortune down the road, and both had been paid a visit by a smarmy estate agent who had, there and then, �valued� their homes at over �1 million.
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