Watching Ireland’s election coverage via the RTE Player app, only for Bertie Ahern to pop up on screen and cause me a few moments of absolute nausea slash fury.
Current Affairs
Awake far too early for a Sunday morning. So back in bed it is, with a coffee and my laptop, to catch up on all the election news from Ireland. Looks like it’s going to be a big steaming pile of ‘More of the Same’. 🙄
📸 Feet up, sweatpants on, glass of beaujolais nouveau in hand. Keeping an eye on the Irish election results while catching up on last night’s “Have I got news for you”.
☕️ Up with a coffee and reading coverage of yesterday’s Irish election.
It will be very interesting to see what kind of coalition government emerges from this virtual stalemate, and whether it has the guts/competence to make the significant changes the country needs. I’m fearful we’ll end up with another FG/FF government, reliant on a rabble of right-wing independents.
🧐 Why am I not the least bit surprised?
Tory MP Danny Kruger investigated by standards watchdog over assisted dying funds
One of the UK’s most high-profile campaigners against assisted dying is being investigated over funding to a parliamentary group that received £55,000 from lobbyists linked to the Christian right.
Waking up to these US election numbers is deeply, deeply depressing.
Barely able to keep my eyes open. So it’s time for a shower and an early night. And hopefully a full night’s sleep. There’s no way I’m staying up to watch all this breathless - and pointless - US election coverage. Far too early…
I’ve no idea why I have been wide awake since 4:30am, but no doubt it’s something to do with the Orange Clown and his fascist supports attempting to turn the US into Gilead.
Like most people I know, I just want the whole thing to be over, so we can deal with the outcome.
It has felt like the longest and nastiest campaign ever. Trump is descending into publically shitting his pants at every opportunity. Threats of violence, outright misogyny. A convicted sex offender with a track record of stupidity, support for dictators, and trashing of democratic norms. Versus an accomplished public servant.
How is this contest in any way close? It’s so, so depressing.
🇮🇪 “Ireland’s peacekeepers in Lebanon are putting their lives on the line. I know – I was one of them”
Since 1958, Ireland has sent troops to global conflicts on almost every continent. We have had a peacekeeping battalion with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) in south Lebanon on a continuous basis since 1978. The relationship is so deep-rooted that in the Irish area of operations, close to the border with Israel, there are local Lebanese people who speak English with broad Irish accents.
Senator Tom Clonan, in The Guardian.
👋🏼 Don’t let the door hit you on the way out…
West Ham owner says non-dom crackdown is driving wealthy from the UK:
David Sullivan, the British businessman who co-owns West Ham United football club, has cut the asking price of his London house by £10m and has blamed the promised crackdown on non-doms for rich people leaving the country. Sullivan, the chair and biggest single shareholder of the Premier League club, has reduced the price of his 21,000 sq ft town townhouse in Marylebone to £65m as he said he had to be “realistic” about market conditions.
That's not how you shift the border
Thursday, October 3, 2024
🗺️ Oh, they appear to be at it again… The graphic appeared on a 1 minute 25 second video clip which featured Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer attending the UN General Assembly in New York last week. Under the caption “global challenges rebound on us at home”, a map of the British Isles …Oh. Maggie Smith. What an incredible talent. We were lucky to have her. RIP.
🇮🇪 Nice to see Ireland on the Olympics medal table. An incredible bronze medal for Mona McSharry in the 100m breaststroke.
🥇 New post: An Olympic effort
To me, it was such a refreshing change to have the ceremony away from the enclosure of a stadium. Why wouldn’t you use the beauty of Paris - one of the most stunning cities in the world - as your backdrop, when you know the world is watching?
📺 Aaaand…. that’s enough news about elections for today. I’m out.
🚨 Finally, they’re going to investigate the fraud committed during the pandemic.
From The Guardian:
Chancellor understood to believe £2.6bn of public money lost to fraudsters during pandemic could be recouped
Disappointed to see no mention of “banning speakerphone in public” in this morning’s King’s Speech to parliament.
Time to start a petition, I think…
📸 The morning after…
My Apple Watch tells me I got four hours sleep last night. And that wasn’t event a solid four hours, but split across the whole night. And it shows!
No regrets, though - I got to see history in the making. And now? More coffee…
🗳️ A fresh start?
Friday, July 5, 2024
So my plan to stay up night to watch the election failed miserably 🤣 My last memory is of about 2am and I woke up again at 5:30am. That said, I’m waking up to some amazing news. Not just a Labour victory - an overwhelming one - but some delicious results and the exit of some of the nastier and …🗳️ I’ve brought my duvet and pillows out onto the sofa so I can keep watching the election results. I’m going to attempt to power through for a couple more hours. I have drinks and snacks galore and I’m enjoying a delicious Majorcan beer to celebrate the exit poll.
So, I’ve finished work for the week and I’m not sure what to do with myself between now and 10pm, when the exit polls are published.
Too wound up to have a nap (yes really!) and I’m all caught up on my favourite podcasts. Maybe some comics for a bit of escapism…?
🗳️ Counting the hours
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Honestly. I’m quite literally counting the hours until I can vote in the general election and then sit back and watch the results come in. It’s been a long 14 years of chaos and mismanagement under a series of weak and ineffectual Tory governments - despite their sometimes massive Commons majorities …🗳️ After a quick scan of the news headlines, I can only conclude: Thursday can’t come soon enough.
We need to bin these desperate, lying, ineffectual grifters. Vote!
🗳️ I missed last night’s political debate between Sunak and Starmer, opting instead to enjoy dinner with friends.
Rather than getting frustrated with an evasive, prickly and out of touch Tory laughing stock spreading outright lies about the Labour party’s plans for government, I enjoyed a delicious tasting menu at ‘Six by Nico’ and tales from my friends' recent cruise on the Queen Mary 2 back from New York.
I think I made the right choice.
🗳️ Angry and disconnected
Friday, June 21, 2024
I watched last night’s Question Time special on the BBC, where each of the four main party leaders were grilled by an audience of the public. Four very different performances. John Swinney from the SNP was calm but fighting a losing battle with a largely English audience. Ed Davey was human, polite …🗳️ It’s like a game of fascist bingo…
Nigel Farage has praised the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate for being an “important voice” for the “emasculated” and giving boys “perhaps a bit of confidence at school” in online interviews that appear to be aimed at young men over the past year.
Of course.
When asked to list the best leaders in the western world, Farage named Hungary’s rightwing leader, Viktor Orbán, a “strong leader”, and his “friend” Donald Trump, the US presidential candidate.
The Guardian: Farage said Andrew Tate was ‘important voice’ for men in podcast interview
☀️ Successfully avoided another game of international kickball. Popped in my Airpods and lay out in the sunshine on my balcony. The streets below were deserted as everyone went in to watch “Ingerlaaaand”…. draw with Denmark.
Ahem.
And politicians wonder why the public has lost trust in them?
Another Tory candidate has allegedly placed a bet on the date of the election. And her husband is the Tory head of campaigns. Who has just gone on a ‘leave of absence’…
Tories gonna Tory.
From The Guardian:
The Conservative party has confirmed its director of campaigning Tony Lee took a leave of absence on Wednesday. His wife, Laura Saunders, is being looked into by the gambling watchdog over an alleged bet on the general election date.
We’re two weeks out from a general election, but at 6pm, instead of the news, the BBC is showing (wait for it) football. Turkey vs Georgia, to be precise. This country’s obsession with football is something else.
🇹🇭 Congrats to Thailand for recognising marriage equality 🏳️🌈
Thailand passes historic bill recognising marriage equality. Country on track to become third in Asia – after Taiwan and Nepal – to legalise same-sex marriage