Tag: Ireland

Posted on by Tim Worstall

The Irish Story Of The Printer At Government House

Bad Government is a Global Problem

From our Swindon Correspondent:

A series of debacles over a €808,000 state-of-the-art Komori printer has this week left officials red-faced, triggered an inquiry and prompted jokes about monster ink.

After the machine, measuring 2.1 metres high by 1.9 metres wide, arrived in Ireland last December officials at the legislature, the Oireachtas, discovered it did not fit into the building.

OK, mistakes happen.
They could not return it to the UK manufacturer because the contract had already been signed.
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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Fake News – St Patrick’s Day Doesn’t Attract Hundreds Of Thousands To Ireland

We are all urged to be on our guard against fake news these days so as a public service we will be highlighting stories which are indeed untrue, those fakes that we must be so aware of. This one being about St Patrick’s Day, that thing that all of us with even the merest shred of Irish heritage are currently trying to recover from.

It’s ITV that gets this wrong – it’s not just Facebook and Twitter that need to be guarded against, obviously:

St Patrick’s Day parades attract hundreds of thousands of revellers to Ireland

This is not so.…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Why Criticise Sinn Fein For “England Get Out Of Ireland” Banner? What They’re For Isn’t It?

It’s entirely possible to criticise Sinn Fein – they are the most ghastly little set of socialists after all. About the last remaining enclave of Marxism outside Jezza’s office. It’s even possible to disagree with them – no, England is not responsible for all that has befallen Ireland over the generations. But to criticise Sinn Fein for saying what Sinn Fein is does strike as more than a little odd.

There are those who think that England and the English are responsible for much of what has befallen Ireland.…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Just Where Does The Good Friday Agreement Demand No Border In Ireland?

As we all gear up for that liberation from the European Union on March 29 one of the things we keep being told is that the Good Friday Agreement demands that there be no border in Ireland. It is this which leads to all the shouting abut the backstop and all that. And yet, well, as far as I can tell at least, this is not true.

Obviously enough given that there is a border between the Republic and Northern Ireland – I’ve driven over it recently – the GFA cannot be demanding that there is no border.…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Today’s Gross Propaganda – The Observer On Apple’s Ireland Taxation

Statistics are important, they’re how we make sense of that complex world out there. That complexity being exactly why people can manipulate them in order to confuse us. Which is what The Observer is doing here with their comments about Ireland and digital taxation.

The point being that Gross Domestic Product and Gross National Product are, often enough, similar enough that we don’t have to worry all that much about which we use. Except, obviously, that often enough isn’t always for if it were then we’d not say often enough.…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

No Deal Brexit Means The EU Imposes A Hard Irish Border – Not Us

We’re finally getting the truth here about the Irish border and Brexit – if there’s to be a hard border then it will be the European Union imposing it, not us. And thus, logically enough, it will be the EU causing whatever problems do occur, any breach of the Good Friday Agreement and all that. Our own reaction should be as it always has been logical to do about it – we lie.

The EU has put further pressure on the Brexit talks by confirming it will enforce a hard border on the island of Ireland in the event of a no-deal outcome, despite the risk this would pose to peace.

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Hard Brexit, WTO Security Exceptions And The Irish Border- One Bound, We’re Free

One of the sticking points in this Brexit process is well, what happens with the Irish border? Our own view around here is that we simply lie. Sure, there’s a border and then do nothing that we don’t wish to, carry on treating it in reality just as we do now. For our view is that the only people actually worrying about the Irish border are those who wish to make Brexit difficult and it’s a convenient oar for them to stick in.…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

There’s a Reason Some Have Suggested Rape Trials Without Juries

Within the movement to insist that we should all take rape more seriously, take allegations of such so, there’re insistences which are just and righteous and some that are less so. The idea that we should take every allegation seriously enough to fully investigate and if necessary, then prosecute, is not only reasonable but just. The thought that we must take seriously every allegation to the point of considering nothing more than merely the allegation is not just nor righteous.…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Finally, A Reasonable Concern About Brexit Induced Food Price Rises

There’s been an awful lot of scaremongering about how Brexit is going to cause food price rises. All of which depends upon misunderstanding how any system would work. We get claims that the UK must – must note – impose tariffs upon imports for example. There was even one which insisted that we must impose European Union tariffs upon imports into Britain, those tariffs then being paid to the EU. A suggestion of the utmost bizarrity.…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Should Ireland Leave The EU In Reaction To Brexit?

This paper argues no, I would argue yes more on sovereignty than economic grounds. Ireland having already made such a decision once this century past, leaving the United Kingdom.

Hard Brexit, hard decisions, and ‘Irexit’
Ronald Davies, Joseph Francois 01 October 2018

With increasing frustration over the situation as ‘Brexit Day’ approaches, some political pundits are suggesting that an Irish exit from the EU would benefit Ireland. This column assesses the macroeconomic impact of a range of scenarios and argues that while any version of Brexit, with or without Irexit, worsens the Irish economic situation relative to the status quo, economically speaking the best option for Ireland is to stay within the fold of the EU while hoping for and working towards the best in terms of post-Brexit UK economic integration with Europe.…

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