The Cedar Lounge Revolution

This is interesting. Wonder how it will pan out?

Nigel Farage now faces up to four investigations by Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards – although it is possible that some of them could be merged and considered as part of the same complaint.

After the Guardian revealed that Farage received £5m from the cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne shortly before the 2024 general election, the commissioner launched an inquiry into claims that this was a breach of rule 5 of the code of conduct for MPs, which is about the requirement to register interests. There is a reference to this on the commissioner’s website.

Then there’s this:

Gabriel Pogrund, the Sunday Times Insight editor, has got a follow-up in today’s Times to his story yesterday about Nigel Farage not declaring gifts and benefits provided by George Cottrell, a crypto entrepreneur who has previously been convicted of fraud. In a story with George Greenwood, Pogrund says Cottrell “handed out a business card printed with the Reform UK logo and Nigel Farage’s official email address, despite having no formal role in the party.”

And this:

After the Times reported last week that Farage and his partner own at least five homes, some of which are not mentioned in the register of members’ interests, the Labour MP Joe Powell said that he had also raised this with Greenberg.

A fourth complaint is potentially more serious. The Labour MP Phil Brickellrevealed last week that he has asked Greenberg to investigate claims that Farage has broken the rules on paid lobbying. Farage has always denied this (just as he denies breaking the rules about registering interests) and Brickell’s complaint does not seem to be based on information not already in the public domain.

It’s been very notable how Farage went to ground this last month or so (Private Eye was particularly good at how he attempted to evade any questioning). Entertainingly Reform even accused The Sunday Times of being a Labour newspaper (because it backed Labour at the last election – well, what else could it do?).

And Farage himself is in self-pity mode:

Last night, in a statement to the Daily Express, Farage claimed he was the victim of “establishment hit job”. He also said:

I have done no wrongdoing, followed the rules and I am now considering legal action against The Sunday Times.

It’s now clear the establishment will stop at nothing to hurt Reform – we want to smash their cosy consensus.

(In the past, when Farage has threatened to sue newspapers over negative stories, those threats have normally turned out to be empty.)

Not a great year for him.

Quite the headline for the Sunday Independent this weekend where it trumpeted the following:

Fine Gael most popular party as support for Mary Lou McDonald slides

The actual figures were a little less remarkable.

Fianna Fáil 17 +1

Fine Gael 20 +1

Sinn Fein 19 -1

Social Democrats 12 NC

Other parties?

Among the smaller parties, support for Independent Ireland has dropped two points to 7pc, while there has been no change for Aontú on 6pc.

Support for Labour, the Green Party, and People Before Profit-Solidarity is also unchanged on 3pc, 3pc, and 2pc respectively.

Support for Independents is up one point to 11pc.

 

With a margin of error of 2.8% there’s a lot of space for the parties to hide out in, or not, as the case may be.

First up let’s start with the smaller divisions.

That’s poor for PBP, the GP and particularly Labour. Particularly because Labour is a party with just one less TD than the Social Democrats, and yet the SDs are getting a share of support three times as great. How can Labour boost itself up to a higher level of support, or is this an instance where its rival is better positioned to pull well ahead of it? As Paul Culloty noted in comments on this site, the piece by Fionnán Sheahan on the rise of the Social Democrats was quite something:

Fionnán Sheehan writes a piece considering twelve constituencies that the SDs can target at the next election – so far, so unremarkable, you might think, but the Indo’s leading political analyst not only gets the name of their 2024 Dún Laoghaire candidate wrong, but, more significantly, that of the current Labour TD for Fingal West! Granted, it’s only sad anoraks like myself who’ll notice such things, but still very basic housekeeping.

At almost 9pm last night writing this the name of that TD, Rob O’Donoghue, still hadn’t been corrected. Nor that of the SD candidate in DL.

Which might make any predictions off the back of the article a little difficult to take seriously. Perhaps the best that can be said is that, with 12%, the SDs would have to do significantly better than they currently are in an election. Labour in 2007 on just 10.1% (and in smaller Dáil) won 20 seats. Slightly less cheerily, the PDs in 1987 (again in a smaller Dáil) won just shy of 11.9% and won 14 seats. So, rough rule of thumb, anywhere between 15 and 20+ seats?

Actually perhaps that GP vote isn’t so terrible given they’ve one TD and one Senator. PBP, though – which let us recall was at one point polling with many times greater support – seems to have really hit a wall in terms of their support. Reduced to three TDs they just don’t seem to be making an impact. Has anyone any thoughts on that? It does seem striking.

Independents have been seeing the faintest hint of an uptick recently, perhaps voters moving from FF/FG or II/Aontú. But early days.

Those latter two parties may be levelling off. Their support doesn’t appear in the last few polls to be growing. That said 13% between them is a good chunk of a vote. The problem being that it is between them. How will they do next time there’s an election? A side question, which party is less transfer unfriendly?

So we come to the big three – all of which appear to be wilting somewhat in recent times with their vote declining.

Neat elision of FG’s slight increase with Mary Lou McDonald’s support as leader in polls in that headline – but that latter could hardly be described as a slide, when it’s just a one point drop, though they suggest that on top of a 3 point drop last month we’re seeing a slide. Maybe, or perhaps it’s levelling off, or just that all this is overheated rhetoric. But with FF at 17%, SF at 19% and FG at 20%, none of these are great polling numbers. That’s SF back at its 2024 election level. FG about a point below it and FF almost five points lower. Could any of those parties be happy about that?

Sheahan’s piece argues:

The suggestions from the Social Democrats themselves of “Holly for Taoiseach” miss the point. The Soc Dems are a long way away from being at that level, even under a rotating model. However, the party can be a serious player in Coalition talks.

Tend to agree about ‘Holly for Taoiseach’. Yet, in a world where FF was at 14% in the last Business Post poll a week or two back, can any of us be sure?

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Please click here to go the Left Archive.

Many thanks to Sean Patrick Smith for this and other materials donated to the Archive.

This document is a short two page publication commemorating the anniversary of the Hunger Strikes. The front page has a cartoon depicting the IRSP being gagged by a figure with a Sinn Féin armband who is turn gagged by a British Army soldier.

Accompanying that is a quotation from Gerry Adams.

Censorship affects us all, it prevents open and informed discussion, postpones the finding of a solution and therefore perpetuates the conflict.

On the reverse page under the heading: RECLAIM THE STRENGTH OF 1981 – UNITY NOW it states:

Today’s march marks the ninth anniversary of the Hunger Strike.

It points to the unity of the struggle and how IRSP/INLA P.O.W.s ‘played a full and active role’. It contrasts that with 1990 suggesting that:

‘It is with sadness, therefore, that whilst our role during that period is recognised, and whilst we have organised through he local committees for today’s rally, that when we requested speaking rights, we were refused.

It concludes by noting:

The strength of unity of the prisoners in 1981 must be repeated and matched by us on the streets in the 1990s if victory is to be ours.

All contributions welcome.

From this morning in the Irish Independent:

Now Powerscourt has cancelled the booking, presumably under pressure from activists who were planning to picket the venue in protest at Palantir’s links with Israel and the US military, both of which use its software to identify targets for missile strikes.

To be fair to critics of the planned meeting, being suspicious when rich people gather in secret is a perfectly natural response.

There is also plenty to be concerned about when AI starts to dictate military operations, even if protesters in Ireland seem to care only when it is Israelis or Americans using this scary technology.

Was the planned conclave in Powerscourt really any different, though, from what happens in Davos, the Swiss ski resort where assorted Masters of the Universe congregate every January to plot the dubious delights they have in store for the great unwashed?

Is it, for that matter, that much different from last week’s similarly exclusive formal opening ceremony to mark Ireland’s European Council presidency at Dublin Castle?

A columnist cannot see the difference between a secretive meeting of billionaires and hangers-on and an -like it or not – open meeting of democratically elected leaders. Right.

This from the Irish Times:

Some of the people now demanding to know why the press did not expose Donaldson earlier can be the sniffiest about the tabloid tactics that would have entailed.

Libel reform in the UK and Ireland is based on defending public interest journalism. None of the stories emerging so far about Donaldson’s life in London would pass this test, as nothing he is so far alleged to have done there is a crime. Ironically, Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where it is illegal to pay for sex, thanks to a 2015 law from the DUP.

While there is a strong case for libel reform, the main lesson from Donaldson’s case is to see the value of a scurrilous press.

How would such a ‘scurrilous press’ had any impact on unearthing the appalling crimes at the heart of the Donaldson case? And what particular use is it in England?

A recipe for inaction in the face of corporate power:

This history doesn’t justify hiring Palantir, but there’s no point pretending a clear line exists between civilian and military technology. 

The waste of life and money through war is evil. But would burning the Palantir NHS project be the correct ethical response? I don’t know. 

So I stand in the garden and offer up a prayer of gratitude. I was born and live in this country, in this time, where these thoughts are mere abstracts. 

No bombs will land on you or me. War is a sin. To complain about anything in our lucky lives feels wrong too.

Anything?

Beyond parody.

This is why last summer I swore myself off contemporary fiction – apart from when I am (with genuine gratitude and customary grace) assigned to read one for work. The canon is long and I want to be deeper in it than I currently am. And I am afraid that spending my evenings or my vacations with Coco Mellors is simply not going to get me there. I also have to ask: since when did “can be read on a beach” become a valuable literary attribute? “This novel is compatible with sand”?

No. The state of our literary ambition – whether it comes from within, or from the fourth estate – should be much higher than that. Summer is no excuse for lax intellectual standards, and a heatwave never a reason for leaden prose. Literacy rates are plummeting across the West. This well-documented phenomenon has seen students at elite US universities unable to parse Bleak House, and lecturers in the UK reduced to assigning their students summaries rather than full texts. If you are concerned that no one can read any more you should be self-regardingly shoving Proust into your carry-on.

But I have moderated my previously self-imposed restraints. The languorous June days have drawn me to works of extreme length. The epic, the tome, the opus, the doorstopper. With an attention span salvoed to pieces – by short-form video, tweets, pop singles rather than full albums – I found the challenge more necessary than appealing. Could I sit with one story, one universe, one protagonist for weeks? How about months?

As such, I am about half way through The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien, part one in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

As Ireland’s Presidency of the EU starts, there are far more pressing European matters coming for many League of Ireland fans.
We’re heading into the European Football Season next week.  Am off to Malta myself to see Rovers take on Floriana in the First Round of the Champions League Qualifiers with the home leg the following Tuesday. In the Europa League Derry head off to Sofia to play CSKA. In the Conference League Bohs are hosting St Joseph’s of Gibraltar before heading over the following week.
Shels have a bye to the second round of the Conference League where they will play the winners of  Nomme Kaliju of Estonia or Linfield.
That’s part of the beauty of European Competition in that you know who you might take on next, so you are able to dream.
Rovers should they win will take on the winners of Arat Armenia v Riga FC . Win that and they are guaranteed at least The Uefa Conference League but more importantly the Champions League dream would continue , with the possibility of the Europa League dangling too. If they lose it’s the loser of Dritta of Kosovo  or Kauno Zalgiris in the Conference League. All a big ask of course but you have to dream.
Derry should they win would play Qarabag or Vestri of Iceland in the second round of the Europa League.  If they lose.. it’s Reijeka of Croatia in the Second Round of the Conference League.
Bohs should they win play the winners of Conah’s Quay Nomads v Ballkani of Kosovo.If they lose they’re out but it’s a winnable tie.
It’s all  very exciting but by mid August it could be all over or various sets of fans could be in dreamland.
The worst part is that it’s unlikely that any of it will be on Terrestrial TV . Which is an absolute shame. Some of the best matches and most exciting nights for many League of Ireland fans have been in Europe. It’s a pity it won’t have a wider audience.
I’ll be in Malta catching up with various fans and hopefully having a ball after a great result.  Big question is will the incredible Pico Lopes make it to Malta after the homecoming in Cape Verde or will it be the following Tuesday for the home leg when we get to see him play for Rovers again! I wonder too will his presence increase the crowd?
Best of luck to all the Irish teams in Europe.

Yeah, that time of year again, when the trucks pull up in Fairview Park, the ground is cleared and a giant tent is put up. All for seven live concerts. There were nine last year, which was relentless. Eight the year before, likewise. Seven the year before that. Eight the first year. Seven feels more manageable, and perhaps I’m getting used to them but this year they seemed a little quieter (well, most of them). It still seems wild to me that this is permitted during exams (much is made of the idea that there will be no sound pollution during exam times, but given there are concerts at night time when students are studying that seems like a distinction without meaning given there’s a large residential area just across the river from the tent).

There are worse things, no doubt, but they’re usually not at the doorstep or as close as makes no odds. It helped last year to see three gigs, only one of which was held in Fairview Park, that being Air, on three of the nights. In fact since 2022 when they started only been to two. It was good, fine, bar the guy ostentatiously chain smoking cigarettes a short distance away, despite the prominently displayed no smoking signs. Air were excellent, but – and funny we were talking about sound quality recently, not sure that seeing them live added much to my appreciation of them.

This time around the field was thinner, the younger fan went to Ethel Cain (on their own, first time they’ve done that and reported back that it was a great gig), I know people who were going to Kasabian, but saw them once years ago and that was fine. Hadn’t realised the Oppressed were one of the supports for the Dropkick Murphy’s – I’d had a ticket for them earlier in the year when they played Dublin but due to illness in the family couldn’t make it. So I parked my head out the window and got to hear them. They sounded great, raw and angry and anti-fascist with it. But these aren’t inexpensive gigs.

Then there’s the ‘complimentary’ tickets. For the seven gigs only two per household are on offer, and that is two for the entirety of the run. Moreover there’s no guarantee that if applied for for a particular act that they will be provided. Got tickets to Paul Weller and that was a great gig – I’d not exactly call myself a fan, liked the Jam more than loved them (bar Funeral Pyre which is a fantastic song), The Style Council were good but perhaps a little middle of the road and his solo career waxed and waned for me. Some great songs, but some not so great ones too. Yet, live, it was undeniably impressive. Six songs from the Jam, four from the Style Council and the remained (not counting a nice cover of Curtis Mayfield’s Move On Up – which as this post notes the Jam used to play live) from his own output subsequently. Songs like Peacock Suit, More and The Changingman have that Small Faces momentum that he is reaching for. Now, had he not been playing across the river I’d probably not have thought about going, but glad that he was, it was a good evening, nice to step (slightly) outside my own musical comfort zone, he was great, was very clear on Gaza. And hearing the songs live, from across his career, really landed. Moreover it was a very generous set, near enough two hours with a three minute break. Ending with A Town Called Malice seemed entirely appropriate. Came away liking him and his music a lot.

On a side note it was odd seeing The Cure in Marley Park the same weekend, two individuals in music who sat almost as polar opposites musically and yet both well worth seeing and both playing long sets (though the more I think about it The Cure, for all that I love their early albums, seem to have stopped developing musically sometime in the early 1990s. I like the most recent album but I’m not sure he/they have every convincingly assimilated any particularly new sounds into their approach since then. For all Weller’s retro inclinations there’s a lot less of a sense that he made his most innovative musical statement three decades ago). Don’t want to be ungenerous though. Despite not one track from Pornography it would be an odd fan who went away from The Cure unhappy – songs aplenty from their career, though only one from their most recent album. Lots of their whimsical pop hits (something that the sixteen year old me would have been appalled at the very idea). Probably too much from Disintegration, an album I’m not fond of. But also some nice run-throughs of tracks like The Walk, A Forest and Play for Today. Whatever else it wasn’t boring.

And on a further tangent where were the 1980s style goths at the Cure? Saw not one with back-combed hair. Shame.

Meanwhile back at Fairview Park the tent has been taken down yesterday, the struts and towers remain but will probably be gone by the weekend. Is there a way to discover how these open air gigs are doing? They’re commercial events (which makes the huge numbers of police at Marley Park (and on North Strand) a bit jarring, but presumably the use of public land is but one of a number of subsidies? The numbers at Weller were huge for the size of the tent, and I heard that the other gigs were well-attended. If so guess they’re not going away any time soon.

This is fascinating and hat tip to Tomboktu for drawing attention to it – research conducted some years back that points to what may well be the oldest human story.

As wiki notes:

The high visibility of the star cluster Pleiades in the night sky and its position along the ecliptic (which approximates to the Solar System‘s common planetary plane) has given it importance in many cultures, ancient and modern. Its heliacal rising, which moves through the seasons over millennia (see precession) was nonetheless a date of folklore or ritual for various ancestral groups, so too its yearly heliacal setting.^[2]

As noted by scholar Stith Thompson, the constellation was “nearly always imagined” as a group of seven sisters, and their myths explain why there are only six.^[3] Some scientists suggest that these may come from observations back when Pleione was further from Atlas and more visible as a separate star as far back as 100,000 BC.^[4]

It’s worth noting that depending on your eyes it’s possible to see more than six stars: As one of the nearest star clusters to Earth and the most obvious star cluster in the night sky, the Pleiades does not require any special equipment to view. However, while most people see six stars upon first glancing up at the Pleiades, observing the cluster in dark skies and allowing your eyes to adjust to the dark could allow you to observe up to 14 Using a pair of binoculars or a small telescope will allow you to see even more stars.

You can read the research paper here.