And as the nation sinks beneath the waves ...

An Irish radio journalist has just said that the Department of Finance
in Dublin has told journos that if they want to know what is going on
they should `ring the IMF'.

 

<bites tongue>

 

RTE's phone-in show has three descendants of 1916 rebels to talk about
what they make of the whole sorry shambles.

 

Too *too* funny.

"Beware the Paper Tigers"

If only they had stuck with Engla^h^h^h^oh well erm, As You Were

 

A generation ago, the very idea that a British politician would go
to Ireland to see how to run an economy would have been
laughable. The Irish Republic was seen as Britain\u2019s poor and
troubled country cousin, a rural backwater on the edge of
Europe. Today things are different. Ireland stands as a shining
example of the art of the possible in long-term economic
policymaking, and that is why I am in Dublin: to listen and to
learn.

George Osborne in 2006

http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2010/11/osbornes-paean-to-the-irish-economy/

 

http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2010/11/osbornes-paean-to-the-irish-economy/

"To be fair to Osborne, many of his arguments are still valid even
after the crash."

 

Perhaps now is a good time for him to be thinking about repeating that
exercise.

 

Look lets be fair. RoI did a lot of things right. Who else could have
fleeced the EU for such vast amounts of grant aid.
<boom boom>

 

TBF the Oirish Free staters got some things right. Low corp tax economy
attracted significant manufacturing and turned them into a little hotspot of
export industry. Reversed the Diaspora. Unfortunately they didn't control
or regulate much else well, if at all. Like controlling access to personal
credit. Success well and truly raped by a fortunate few. It's a great
shame, not sure they could pull it off again, what do you think?

I read property has "dropped in price by half". Only another half to go
then, considering housing in Dublin was worth 4 times what a sane man would
pay.

 

There never was a success: the whole thing was a sham. The hotspot of
export industry consisted of multinationals moving goods around
internally to fiddle their taxes; there was no investment in
infrastructure or decent public services (Ireland does not have an
NHS); banks continued to be run by the same criminal conspiracy
(literally) as they always had been; corrupt and venal politicians and
`entrepreneurs' kept on ripping us off and told us it would last
forever. The only people who will not suffer because of this are the
people responsible.

 

Ah, no more boom and bust, eh? Now, where have I heard that before...

Same as it ever was.

 

Good grief you sound like some sort of Dirty Trot ;o)

You are in part right but also in part wrong. Companies like Dell were
manufacturing and Google was setting up real business and large Data Centres
were springing up.

Then
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article5472924.ece

 

I mean, how can you trust as Chancellor a bloke who wears so much
comedy makeup he looks like a lead character in a G&S opera? Or is he
a vampire, perhaps that would be more apposite.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Observer/Columnist/Columnists/2010/9
/11/1284198125410/-George-Osborne-006.jpg

 

First two rules of business.

"Nothing succeeds like apparent success"
"Never believe your own bullshit"

 

I'd let the fuckers sink without a trace and give them absolutely ****
all. Ireland had an economy boosted by handouts and they blew it.

A lot of people in that country poured money into the IRA and for that
alone they can rot in hell as far as I'm concerned.

 

tattyhowkers.

 

The only country where Sinn Fein have ever held power is the UK.

 

He was just looking round his potential inheritance, as the heir to
the Baronetcy of Ballentaylor, in County Tipperary, and Ballylemon, in
County Waterford.

 

Can't you get St Bonio to do a charity gig?

 

It'll be like 1707 all over again.