Introduction An interesting paper “The big European sort? The diverging fortunes of Europe’s regions” has been published by the Centre for European Reform (CER). Such papers are of great interest at PP. The paper analyses regional productivity. As a single metric productivity is one of the best, but as Charles Adams says, in order to… Read more
Category:
Ireland
Covering Ireland both North and South
The European Elections: the UK Electoral Map and Parties
Introduction Previous posts discussed the UK European election voting systems and the make up of the European Parliament. Here the UK situation is discussed, in terms of constituencies and parties. Parties that have been included have a likelihood (or a decent possibility) of gaining seats in the election. The Constituencies Figure 1 from Democratic… Read more
Lessons from the Local Election results
English Results The English election results were disastrous for the Tories, loosing 1,334 seats. Expectation management was that they may loose 1000 seats, which was considered the worse case scenario. UKIP also had a terrible night, loosing 145 seats. The main beneficiaries were the Lib Dems gaining 703 seats, the Greens 194 seats and… Read more
15 : 20 Vision and Brexit- have things panned out as expected?
During the Brexit referendum, before the Progressive Pulse site was set up, many of my comments were on Prof Richard Murphy’s TRUK site. This was my thinking on the time-line and evolving predictions for the future. What I Got Right. The Referendum would result in a Leave victory. The Referendum was a horror show, with… Read more
Post-War Housing in Northern Ireland – a guest post by Michael Green
In the early 1920s, my grandfather’s business failed, so that my father had to leave school and abandon his ambition of attending university. He joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service as a Junior Clerk. Nearly 50 years later he retired as a Permanent Secretary. He died fairly soon after retiring, and when going through his… Read more
Demographic Reversal in These Islands
Introduction Over the past century two ratios which have been positive, the ratio of Irish in the UK and visa versa and the ratio of Protestants to Catholics in Northern Ireland, are likely to invert. Currently there are more Irish in the UK and more Protestants in Northern Ireland than visa versa. Irish in the… Read more
The Irish, the US a Personal Journey with implications for the GFA and the Backstop.
You get nowhere in America if you do not understand that Ireland is in the warp and weft of the Republic. It is the other story from that of the Pilgrim Fathers. Bonnie Greer -Full Article here. Introduction The relationship between Ireland an the US has been described as a 250 year love affair, with… Read more
Back to the Backstop (Possibly the DUP are not sensible?)
Introduction It has been a fairly grim week Brexit-wise with the HoC again putting fantasy over reality. I have to admit to being so depressed by the whole saga I have found it difficult to put pen to paper. Fortunately three of my favourite commentators, Prof Chris Grey, Ian Dunt and Prof Simon-Wren Lewis have… Read more
Three Reasons for Brexit?
I have heard only three arguments which carry some weight in going ahead with Brexit. All from private conversations but there are echoes elsewhere. The first was a senior criminal lawyer, who dealt in fraud cases such as motor accident claims. Deliberately causing crashes, by for example slamming on brakes without any notice, so that… Read more
Freedom of Movement – Cultural Attitudes and comparison with Ireland
Introduction UK politics has been for many years split on a Left/Right – Labour/Tory axis, but over Brexit this is breaking down. Prof. Richard Murphy gives a succinct definition that difference between Left and Right is how widely ‘us’ is defined. Left wing people cast the definition of ‘us’ very widely; ideally incorporating the whole… Read more