Month: May 2020

Mixed reviews of Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld, a novel that posits a world where Hillary Clinton did not marry Bill Clinton and somehow winds up as US President. Slate.com did like it. Anne Enright in the Guardian half-liked it. Jason O’Toole on RT did not!

All contributions welcome…but let’s start with the lead headline from The Sunday Independent which indicates an interesting set of priorities. ‘Saving Summer’?

EH fulminates about how ‘Fine Gael no longer looks after the private sector donkey’ and refuses to unlock the lock-down (behind the pay wall natch!). And yet FG’s polling support remains rock solid while his chosen horse of FF…

Meanwhile a short piece from Dominic Cummings statement worth noting…

After I started to recover, one day in the second week, I tried to walk outside the house.At one point the three of us walked into woods owned by my father, next to the cottage that I was staying in. Some people saw us in these woods from a distance, but we had no interaction with them. We had not left the property. We were on private land. B

Truly, the rich are different.

Michael McDowell in the IT:

At some point our political system will probably have grasped that being led by the “science” of public health must increasingly be balanced by applying the precautionary principle to our economic survival and sustainability, and pushing out the boundaries of risk-taking in pursuit of getting all our people economically active again.

Too many questions? One firm prediction – if we have any sense of humour left, we will laugh at the puritanism of the 2m “advice”, the flip-flopping on face masks, the warnings against “dickeying up” your home during lockdown and the so-called experts who feared opening garden centres.
Let’s hope it’s not too hollow a laugh.

You go first Michael.

Pat Leahy not wrong here:

You wouldn’t have to be the sharpest political analyst in the world to figure out that this has the potential to turn our politics upside-down. If the next government manages the adjustments cleverly, fairly, with purpose and honesty (though every one of those will be contested territory), if it practices good government against all the odds, its constituent parts can prosper politically. If not, opposition parties – especially Sinn Féin, assuming it leads it – will be presented with an unparalleled opportunity to crush the old firm of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and utterly remake the Irish politics landscape. Either way, our politics will be transformed.

Here, though?

That is another reason why the country needs to be reopened as quickly as is sensible. This will be among the first decisions of the new government. It will make few more important ones. Reopening – and restarting economic activity – will involve risk. But so does every other course of action. If economic activity doesn’t restart sooner rather than later, we might not have much of a country to reopen.

Define ‘as quickly as is sensible’ and ‘risk’.

Fergal Bowers by contrast on RTÉ makes a solid point:

Covid-19 has brought a big stop to the world’s gallop. In some ways, it has becalmed the planet.

Two polls, one in the ROI, the other in the UK show fascinating divergences. The first from RedC for the SBP show support for Fine Gael holding steady at 35%. SF at 27%, again no change. Fianna Fáil on an abysmal, and ironic given who is likely to be the next Taoiseach, 15% (+1). The GP is at 6% (-1). The SDs are 4% (+2). Labour is on 3% (NC), with no bounce from a new leader. SOL-PBP is at 2%. Aontú at 1% and for some reason Renua is polled and polls at 0%. Independents are 7% which is -1. RTÉ frames this as follows ‘A new opinion poll suggests that Fine Gael has retained its support, despite the continuing Covid-19 pandemic’. I’m not so sure it’s a huge surprise. For all the myriad flaws in the response to the virus FG is blessed as was noted in comments BTL here by having the UK to the east and the US to the west. And at least it seems to be driven by the science in way others have not been. Moreover this doesn’t suggest a massive groundswell of antagonism to the current approach to the lock-down. FF was road-testing some lock-down sceptic rhetoric in the Dáil this week. One wonders whether they will consider that politically profitable from here on out. Perhaps not to judge from these figures.

In the UK, by contrast, there’s no good news for the Tory government. As reported in the Observer Opinium has the Tories just 4% ahead of the BLP, 43% to 39%. Moreover as this indicates the genuinely massive Tory lead as recently as April has collapsed. I’m no great fan of Starmer but without question matters have stabilised. As significantly as the Observer notes the self-inflicted damage from the Cummings affair continues apace.

Boris Johnson is under fresh pressure to sack Dominic Cummings as a new poll shows that more than two-thirds of voters – including more than half of Tories – want him thrown out of Downing Street for breaching lockdown rules.

And the ebbing of support for the Tories can be traced in large part to that affair:

In the past week alone, the Tory lead has fallen by eight points, the largest weekly drop Opinium has recorded since 2017.

And this has to have ramifications for the future:

Opinium conducted its survey on Thursday and Friday after Johnson said he believed it was time for the country to “move on” from the the controversy: 41% agreed that the country should now “move on”, but a large minority (37%) said it should not – including almost a fifth (18%) of 2019 Conservative voters. Two-thirds (65%) said they believed Johnson was wrong to be still supporting Cummings – including almost half (48%) of 2019 Conservative voters. Just over two in five (43%) UK adults said they had lost respect for the government over its backing of Cummings – of which 45% voted Conservative in 2019.

Invitation: ‘Housing Shock: The Irish Housing Crisis and how to solve it’ — book launch webinar

‘Housing Shock: The Irish Housing Crisis and how to solve it’ is a new book written by Dr Rory Hearne and published by Policy Press (on June 3rd). 

You are invited to attend a webinar and book launch hosted by the Reboot Republic Podcast on Wednesday June 10^th at 7.30pm featuring:

Dr Rory Hearne, author of new book ‘Housing Shock: The Irish Housing Crisis and how to solve it’ & Assistant Professor in Social Policy, Dept Applied Social Studies, Maynooth University
Leilani Farha, former UN Special Rapporteur & Director of the Shift Global Right to Housing
Fr Peter McVerry, Homelessness campaigner
Prof Michelle Norris, School of Social Policy, UCD
Vincent Browne, Journalist

Chair: Dr Mary Murphy, Department of Sociology, Maynooth University

Register in advance for this webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7wzxJEu7RQGSKy3soxrcBg

Hosted by Reboot Republic podcast- Tortoise shack media

The book is available to purchase (30% discount for attendees of webinar launch!) from the publisher, Policy Press:

https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/housing-shock

Also available from Easons:

https://www.easons.com/housing-shock-rory-hearne-9781447353904

Contact Dr. Rory Hearne: Rory.hearne@mu.ie

 

Overview of ‘Housing Shock’
The unprecedented housing and homelessness crisis in Ireland is having profound impacts on Generation Rent, the wellbeing of children, worsening wider inequality and threatening the economy.

Hearne contextualises the Irish housing crisis within the broader global housing situation by examining the origins of the crisis in terms of austerity, marketisation and the new era of financialisation, where global investors are making housing unaffordable and turning it into an asset for the wealthy.

He brings to the fore the perspectives of those most affected, new housing activists and protesters whilst providing innovative global solutions for a new vision for affordable, sustainable homes for all.

 

Reviews of Housing Shock

 “Reflects Rory’s commitment and optimism that through radical transformation and reclaiming the role of the state we can resolve not only the housing crisis but other societal challenges. This book makes a key contribution to making that transformation happen.” Mary P. Murphy, Maynooth University

“Shows how housing in Ireland has made some very wealthy but left thousands homeless. An expert analysis of how government policy has helped make owning or renting a home unaffordable. A must-read.” Fr Peter McVerry, Peter McVerry Trust

“An accessibly written analysis of the causes and implications of Ireland’s housing problems, coupled with a comprehensive plan for addressing them. This is a real tour de force.” Michelle Norris, University College Dublin

“A damning indictment of those who treat housing as a commodity and a financial asset. With passion and authority, Hearne paints a vision of affordable, secure and sustainable homes – a right for everyone”. P.J. Drudy, Trinity College Dublin

 

Book Contents

Preface: COVID 19, housing and home

Foreword: Special Rapporteur for Housing ~ Leilani Farhi

Introduction: a new housing crisis;

Chapter 2: Generation Rent;

Chapter 3: Homelessness: the most extreme inequality;

Chapter 4: The normalisation of homelessness;

Chapter 5: Working for social justice: community, activism and academia;

Chapter 6: The neoliberal roots of the current crisis;

Chapter 7: The new waves of financialisation: vultures and REITs;

Chapter 8: Inequality and financialisation;

Chapter 9:  The lost decade of social and affordable housing: austerity and marketisation;

Chapter 10:  The people push back: protests for affordable homes for all;

Chapter 11: The right to an affordable, secure and decent home for all;

Chapter 12: A Green New Deal for Housing: affordable sustainable homes and communities for all.

Predictably Duran Duran in St. Anne’s Park, Dublin, was… ahem… postponed this week. It’s been rescheduled to Sunday 13th of June next year. And sensible that was, though given we were less than a fortnight out from the original gig perhaps a little late in the day. There’s a new event portal from Ticketmaster which has details of rescheduled gigs. I see a couple there already. Yes, for a start. And some slated for later this year, well, not sure they’ll happen. Horslips, late in the year? Might. Might not. I’ve heard that one major Irish promoter is already talking about focusing on Irish acts next year rather than international ones, which seems sensible.

Good reports on this. Coming to streaming services soon.