Theyâre will be no revolution lad as long as people are getting the PUP and the off licences are open.Do you think theyâre would have been a French revolution if they were getting the PUP and cost price wine?
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But we havenât seen a truly bad recession yet. Now maybe they can pull a few more rabbits out of hats and avoid collapse like the aftermath of 08/09 but I am increasingly thinking they wonât or canât. The whole economic boom of the last decade was in emerging markets or the developing world, not sure how well they can recover this time. I suspect many countries will go back to fending for themselves and fuck globalism, and without external growth we might be fucked.
But in the meantime, cheers mate.
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Nasty stuff.
Nintendo used to run sex hotels in the 50s. The degenerates. No wonder children are fucked up
No, Iâm not.
I used to strongly agree with that âŚthen I saw it in action and I changed my view somewhat as there can be some good form it âŚI knew a lad who would probably be dead from addiction only for he was âsavedâ in Pentecostal church âŚhe asked me to go to their mass/gathering one day and there was a lot of similar characters to him there âŚitâs wasnât for me but they were happy and basking in the whole performance âŚI wouldnât be in touch with him much now as heâs quite intense about it but sure heâs happy out, living a good life with his wife and kidsâŚhundred times better than lying in his own piss and shit in a doorway somewhereâŚ
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True stuff.
This is spot on, although he should have picked a better European country than Belgium to use as a comparator given the amount of deaths theyâve had.
Hotel quarantine system is an international embarrassment (via @IrishTimes) Hotel quarantine system is an international embarrassment
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Sure it is
Iâve no opinion on masks either way. I was just curious to see how you thought it possible that numbers of infections, hospitalizations and deaths could have been reduced had no restrictions been reintroduced. The only one that is plausible is protecting the vulnerable and elderly but vaccines seem to be the only successful way of protecting them. Vaccines were only being introduced at that time so it was too early to protect them that way.
Iâm away to throw on a tape of the 73 final
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Father Liam Power has an excellent fortnightly column in the Waterford News and Star. The sort of moderate, sensible priest youâd have respect for. One of the better regular columns anywhere in the Irish media actually. If the Catholic Church had more like him theyâd be on a much better road.
Was it him called Mick O Dwyer a bluffer ?
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He did my fathers funeral. Heâs a nice chap alright.
I believe so.
Woolhead knows everything since he was 12.
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No, not the best country to use as an example. He is a FGer. Youâd swear they were out of office.
Ireland is the only EU state to introduce a system of mandatory hotel quarantine for travellers from other EU members. Although dressed up as preventing the introduction of new variants of Covid into Ireland, it is, in reality, only the latest move in a muddled, unbalanced and embarrassing government response to the current pandemic.
The unprecedented diplomatic anger of Italy, Belgium, France and Luxembourg has now been complemented by the âconcernâ of the European Commission. The reality is that the Irish measures are likely incompatible with EU law and are the clearest sign yet of Dublinâs increasingly detached position in Brussels.
Letâs be clear. The hotel quarantine system isnât about keeping Covid out of Ireland. Recent HSE data categorises 1.38 per cent of Covid cases as stemming from international travel compared to over 17 per cent arising from community transmission alone.
Even now, more badly impacted countries like Belgium lack the weird, unbalanced mix of mania and self-righteousness which has dominated the Covid debate in Dublin
What this ludicrous system is actually about is a political class desperate to protect themselves against domestic policy failures. And against all accusations of inaction.
International travellers and Irish people living abroad are just the easy prey.
In one way, the hotel quarantine fiasco â and make no mistake it is an embarrassment to our EU partners â is the logical extension of over nine months of public policy failure in Ireland.
Last summer, while case numbers were low continental European states allowed their populations to breathe as restrictions were loosened and vacations (some localised, some abroad) were allowed supported by mass testing. This wasnât done out of gay abandon, or out of a failure to understand the risks. This was done to maintain public support for the inevitable tightening of restrictions which would occur during the autumn and winter months that followed.
Ireland, on the other hand, just followed the broken model introduced in Britain. Overlong closures of retail and hospitality. Mandatory, but unenforceable home quarantine with no real restrictions on arrivals from the US, Brazil or countless other Covid hotspots. It was a recipe for disaster.
- Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker: Whatâs available in the Republic of Ireland and what else is coming?
- Northern Ireland introduces mandatory hotel quarantine
- Ontario restricts outdoor gatherings amid Covid-19 surge
This proved to be the case. Even now, more badly impacted countries like Belgium lack the weird, unbalanced mix of mania and self-righteousness which has dominated the Covid debate in Dublin.
In Ireland, however, a wound-up population (fed directly by catastrophic portents of doom from politicians) resulted in the hysteria of âgolfgateâ and the ebbing away of much public support.
The result was building pressure on the government and the disastrous decision to open the retail and hospitality industries simultaneously in the run up to Christmas. When it all went wrong, politicians continued to paint people returning to Ireland for Christmas as a reason for spreading another Covid wave.
It was terrible politics and even worse public policy.
In reality, the underlying cause was the lack of leadership. And Irelandâs inability to scale up a coherent and enforceable system for testing and tracking Covid cases.
All these failures are highlighted in the current hotel quarantine system. Itâs beyond a parody.
Far from embracing the European mainstream and reinforcing our continental policy objectives post-Brexit, Irish public policy has followed the British example
Missing âinmatesâ, no exemption, then full exemption for vaccinated people, court challenges, people rushing to book flights from the US because of a delay in adding America to the quarantine list. And now a âpausingâ of the entire system due to the lack of capacity.
Oh, and the whole system can be avoided by just travelling through Britain or Northern Ireland.
Overall, Irelandâs Covid response has lacked any sort of sustainable balance. We are either the âbestâ or âworstâ in Europe for tackling the pandemic. Any semblance of trying to find a workable balance has long been blowing in the wind.
The contrast with many other smaller states in Europe is striking. Belgium has closed cafes, restaurants and bars since last autumn in a mostly successful attempt to keep schools and retail (both essential and non-essential) open. This stability has aided societal cohesion, reduced public anger and maintained a broad support for the Covid response.
For a country that sells itself as both a centre of global trade and an enthusiastic member of the EU, the pandemic response has provided a cruel reminder of the limitations of Irelandâs capabilities in times of real crisis.
Far from embracing the European mainstream and reinforcing our continental policy objectives post-Brexit, Irish public policy has, once again, followed the British example. But this time we canât even copy Britainâs measures coherently. The great irony here is that for all the Brexiteer ârhetoricâ about âtaking back controlâ no EU member state currently appears on Londonâs list of states requiring mandatory hotel quarantine.
Once again, as with everything to do with Britain and Covid, Ireland has sidled into a terrible type of implied superiority. However, at least Westminster has maintained a much greater ability to analyse risk and protect business than Dublin could ever dream of.
For the EU, the hotel quarantine fiasco is just the latest example of Irelandâs increasingly isolated status in Brussels. To lack awareness of our responsibilities to our European partners is simply beyond belief.
Eoin Drea is a researcher at the Wilfried Martens Centre, the official think tank of the European Peopleâs Party of which Fine Gael is a member
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The Europeans think paddy is clane mental. De nort is now buying into this mhq carry on. When that mcdonkey wanker started appearing on radio ulster I knew things could only get worse
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1 The issue of masks, as I think we discussed before, comes down to the quality of mask used. A surgical grade mask will offer significant protection, will it not, in almost every circumstance? So I do not think generalizations about masks really work.
I think you dislike mandatory masks because you dislike mandatory anything by a government. I wear a mask, as required, when shopping but feel no need to wear one walking along the street. For myself, I would wear a mask in a shop even if doubtful about its absolute effectiveness (although I believe good quality masks are effective). Why? Out of courtesy. Someone near me might be a diabetic and made anxious by the sight of a maskless person. Over the last 13 months, I have seen only one person in a supermarket going around without a mask. Coincidentally or not, the same ladeen is a gobshite and barred out of my favourite Kilkenny pub. SoâŚ
2 Food still has to be bought and letting people into supermarkets in a controlled way seems the most efficient way of achieving this end. I am not aware of any outbreaks linked to supermarket usage. Staff seem to have experienced remarkably low levels of infection.
I do find it strange that barbers and hairdressers could not be open in a similarly controlled fashion. The farmers market in Kilkenny has run in its Thursday slot all through the lockdowns without any problem, with a big crowd around, albeit in open air, from 9am to 3pm.
3 If lockdown measures in 2020 and 2021 departed from prior pandemic protocols, this gap would not in itself be wrong. I would need to know what exactly was deemed wrong.
4 The idea of herd immunity for young people faces the same problems as herd immunity in the general sense. The idea of herd immunity, ethical issues aside, has been widely debunked as simplistic and not grounded in science.
5 I simply cannot see how a rise in Covid-19 infections, with an inevitable knock on effect for the medical services, would do anything for people ill with other ailments. Quite the opposite, logically. And a failure to lockdown last December would assuredly have led to more infections. There is a difference between arguing that no lockdown would ultimately lead to fewer infections (via herd immunity) and arguing that no lockdown would immediately lead to fewer infections.
6 The idea that âhysteriaâ was the main driver behind this pandemic response does not strike me as accurate. I think deaths and serious illness were the main drivers.
So, overall, I can see no way in which no lockdown last December would have been a positive. Quite the opposite.
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That seems like a very sensible post,