Archive for March, 2010

Yesterday, I visited my father’s grave in Shankill. He passed away this week last year. Listening to I’m Only Sleeping by the Beatles – a song that always reminds me of him and where he is now – I looked out over the cemetery, which is an elevated site.

One of the saddest and most revealing books I have ever read was written about the Great Depression. ‘The Unemployed Man and His Family’ was written by an American academic called Mirra Komarovsky.

Anyone who has experienced unemployment – either themselves or in their family – knows how tough it is. The first few weeks are bearable, but then desperation gradually sets in. As rejection letters pile up, optimism breaks down.

ON November 24, 1942, General Von Paulus of the German 6th Army, bunkered down in Stalingrad, received the order he was dreading. Instead of the retreat that he was planning, the orders from Berlin stated simply that “Fortress Stalingrad” was to be held “whatever the circumstances”. The general knew the game was up. The army was nearly encircled. There was one last chance of a breakout which could save hundreds of thousands of men and machinery that could be used to fight another day.

If we don’t drive FF out before NAMA comes in we will be left paying tens of billions of developer debt. I do not want to pay Bernard McNamara’s or any other developers debts. We need to drive out FF before they have everything stolen. We need to drive them out. Could we put pressure…