Whatevatreva.
– HOME
Three from the Sunday Times to kick off… because I haven’t got ’round to reading much else yet.
Liam Fay on the opinion pages…
Cowen seems oblivious to the fact that denying people’s democratic right to parliamentary representation, for nothing but narrow party interest, completely undermines his efforts to pose as a leader of integrity, mettle and courage. It also deepens public misgivings about him and his party and creates a vacuum that others would happily fill.
One of the most damaging features of the economic crisis is the widespread feeling that regular people are being taken for granted, if not for fools, by our political overlords. No by-election is likely to change very much other than the Dail arithmetic, but affording voters their right to have their say is crucial.
Sarah McInerney with a news feature… ‘Focus: Mr Popular or Mr Populist? Eamon Gilmore is accused of sitting on the fence on key issues despite poll success’.
And Paul Kimmage with a touching article (which doesn’t seem to be online) on the sports pages. Get a copy and have a look, it’s the main piece on page 12, headed “A life worth living”.
Michael Taft takes on Garrett Fitzgerald.
David McKeown explains why the sky is blue at Ignite Dublin. Video below.
– WORLD
Peter Boone and Simon Johnson on the road to economic serfdom…
The top three French players – President Nicolas Sarkozy, Jean-Claude Trichet (ECB), and Dominique Strauss-Kahn (IMF) – seem to be enjoying themselves; presumably they think they will end up running things. More surprising is the reaction of other European leaders, who genuinely seem able to convince themselves that what they are doing makes sense – as opposed to being a series of crazed improvisations.
The market is telling them that their euro rescue schemes make no sense, and the market is probably right. Faced with the ugly reality of the loss of confidence in European finance and institutions, the Germans and even the normally sensible Swedish government are increasingly blaming “irrational” markets and speculators for homegrown problems.
Krugman on regulation, and why it works.
The Interpreter blog on the geopolitical consequences of the official recognition that North Korea sunk the South Korean navy vessel, the Cheonan.
A lovely piece of journalism in the Milwakee & Wisconsin Journal-Sentinal. Watch the video, it’s especially good. The journo blogs here.
More cool multimedia journalism from Stateside. Eric Seals of the Detroit Free Press…
Documentary by Robert Greenwald (‘Outfoxed’), ‘Iraq for Sale: War Profiteers’
– OTHER
How newspapers were put together back in the day…