Category Archives: 2010

Imagine if a financial institution was directly funding an election campaign

Imagine if a political party had an exclusively tied relationship with a financial institution that say it meant that all members of the party would be entitled to a discount if they used that financial institution for their mortgages, insurances … Continue reading

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Alternatives to lists and quotas to reduce clientelism and offer the electorate more diverse voting options

Image via Wikipedia Long form version of a post I have over on Political Reform. Discussion about political change, and in particular where electoral reform is concerned, tends to start by identifying a problem by examining its symptoms and then … Continue reading

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Ending free postage for Oireachtas Candidates

Image via Wikipedia There was a piece in the Irish Times yesterday about ending or modifying the practice of paying for free postage for candidates. I assisted a TD in 2007 by creating  some filter software on the electoral register … Continue reading

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The Healy Raes are from Kilgarvan, not Killorglin.

Image via Wikipedia Image by Shiny Things via Flickr Killorglin is a goat worshipping merchant town, Kilgarvan is the home of the Healy Raes. Kilgarvan consists of the local pub, garage, shop post office and plant hire business all owned … Continue reading

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Smack the Pony ” I just can’t find my friend”

I was always rather a keen fan of their songs, they seemed to get the essence of some band or genre and poke it for some fun without being mean or nasty about it. There is 10 secs of another … Continue reading

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Why not have a FG Lab budget before the election?

Image via Wikipedia Why is the government persisting with this idea that it has to be their budget or nothing? Why don’t FF and the Greens announce they are delaying the vote on the Budget by 2 weeks, allow FG and … Continue reading

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The next election is too good to waste

Image via Wikipedia I’m going to take issue with Jason’s reasons for his view that the next election is too good to waste on Fine Gael but then I’m going to end up agreeing with him for quite different reasons. … Continue reading

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fringe – a point of convergence

Image via Wikipedia A crazy idea occurred to me watching Fringe during the week. Spoilers of various types following so if you’re thinking about watching it in future look away now. And I do have some history with predicting sci-fi … Continue reading

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Voting – what’s with all the secrecy?

Image by Amadeus Varadi Hellequin via Flickr When tens of thousands of citizens from the elderly to public sector workers march in protest against government policies that they had voted for, alongside colleagues who did not, is it time to … Continue reading

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How we might recognise those IMF/ECB types

How we will be able to discern the IMF/ECB types from the local business types. Huge hattip to the Lotus Musuem and of course the Boston Globe artist responsible.

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