There’s a savage irony about Ireland becoming the stumbling block to the ‘never-ever-shall-be-slaves’ Brexit lobby, given the 800-year history of first England, then the UK meddling, at times brutally, in Irish affairs. Joe Biden has now added a clarion call to the other dissenting voices indicating that the Good Friday Agreement can’t become a casualty … Read more
Breaking a promise made less than a year ago, Boris has chucked a hand grenade into the Brexit impasse saying he will tear up the Northern Ireland section of the Withdrawal Agreement to avoid returning to a hard border. Commentators say that cases of democratic governments seeking to unilaterally overwrite ratified international agreements are rare; … Read more
The appointment as trade advisor for post-Brexit UK of gaffe-prone, misogynistic, homophobic, climate-change-dismisser and non-trade-expert Tony Abbott, former deeply unpopular PM of Australia, is mystifying. He’s described by one of his fellow Australians more familiar with his abilities as “a neo-con ideologue whose political judgment is not only aggressive but woefully inept….. He is an … Read more
‘The stench of incompetence’ is the accusation being levelled at the UK government by even the right-wing media as yet another fiasco piles on top of several previous. First overseeing one of the highest Covid fatality rates in the world, wasting vast sums on PPE that doesn’t work and trumpeting a “world beating” track … Read more
This is thinking-in-process ramble rather than leading to any firm conclusions, may be over hopeful and not very astrological. But there feels as if there are the first whiffs of a sea-change in the air – perhaps with Saturn having had its first four-month foray into Aquarius though it’s now in retreat back in Capricorn … Read more
Graham Linehan’s trajectory from much-loved comedy writer of Father Ted and the IT Crowd to a hated and permanently banned Twitter-ranter has bemused onlookers. He’s an outspoken liberal: a self-professed supporter of feminism, opponent of harassment of women in the gaming industry, a critic of Brexit who has spoken out about anti-Semitism. But he … Read more
Boris Johnson is discovering to his obvious irritation that he has an opposition in place capable of nailing him down with awkward questions. The most recent Prime Ministers Question time with the newly installed Keir Starmer evoked a flustered and aggrieved response as the former barrister’s inquisition of where his policies had failed in the … Read more
The loaded Eclipse season approaching fast with two Lunars and one Solar spread out through June and early July appears to be stirring the celestial ether ahead of time, as is often the case. Coronavirus may be ebbing pro tem but there are crises flaring up left, right and centre. Hong Kong is descending into … Read more
The jury is still out about whether the Merkel-Macron recovery fund of half a trillion euros will: a) be enough to make a difference: and b) will fly in the face of opposition from the ‘frugal four’ of the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Denmark who have all held out against direct subsidies. Never mind the … Read more
Northern Ireland with relatively few Covid-19 related deaths, half of them in care homes, is edging towards a cautious lift of the lockdown. The differences in health policy between the three regions of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have heightened tensions with Westminster with the approaching Brexit guddle no clearer. It has a key … Read more