Mick Fealty

YouTube video by Slugger O'Toole Patsy McGlone Why Real Change Starts On Stormont's Backbenches

Really interesting interview with @sdlp.bsky.social MLA Patsy McGlone by @mickfealty.bsky.social, on the work of back bench MLAs in the Northern Ireland Assembly as part of the @sluggerotoolepols.bsky.social 'Cato Project'

youtu.be/-r5reTB0OUA?...

I don’t. I’ve spent 20 plus years trying to shake reality into NI’s even more inert political space long enough not to disrespect what good qualitative data can tell us. I just worry about the external health of of our qualitative realities.

Which “real” world would that be then Stephen? And who was the last person to actually spot it?

How populism became popular It appeals more to a way of thinking than to a set of ideas — but is it just wrong?

"The populist thrives in an environment where people act on their intuitions; so does the scammer. This doesn’t mean every populist is a con artist, but it does mean that they are likely to package their message in a similar way" on.ft.com/49j3ND2

By @timharford.ft.com

Vindicates a 2015 tweet! 1/

pretty funny in retrospect that QAnon hinged on the idea that powerful elites at the highest levels of government were smart enough to talk in code when sending emails to each other about their despicable crimes

Unlike other newspapers, The Onion has never once declined to print pictures of Donald Trump with girls in bikinis in Jeffrey Epstein’s kitchen.

Please subscribe to The Onion.

membership.theonion.com

Translation: He’s weighing a pardon

Have you seen the Thiel one?

Now, that’s interesting…

How Did We Get a 40-Hour Workweek and Has It Had Its Day? The eight-hour workday has its roots in the 1860s. But it didn’t catch on for a many decades after that.

www.wsj.com/lifestyle/wo...

We have the same problem. Of those that retained them UK councils can barely afford the upkeep of the stock they have just now. Once you run down the state’s capacity to build houses it’s incredibly difficult to rebuild that capacity, especially in the face of a crisis as steep as Ireland’s.

Study Finds Most Americans Can't Find Where They Are Being Deported On Map

It’s amazing just how politically naive some of the UK’s better public actors can be. The alternative to “BBC dominance” of the UK News market is an US style free for all in which only oligarchy wins. And for the record, I’m not the sort of outsider that Jo has apparently been listening to.

Trump is fighting as hard as he can to starve kids for negotiating leverage.

Because we have stopped paying directly for news, we have made it possible for dark money to disenfranchise us.
substack.com/home/post/p-...

And you think that’s news? 🤣

Get yourself some actual opinions and come back to me, or don’t.

Good to know where you’re coming from.

Hmmmm…

That bad, eh?

Them’s the choices…

In case, like me, you didn’t stay up last night…

Review: Constitutional change in Ireland will likely be evolutionary, not revolutionary or violent… Now does my project gather to a head.  My charms crack not, my spirits obey, and time  Goes upright with his carriage.—How’s the day? Prospero, Act 5, Scene 1 FOR AND AGAINST A UNITED IRELAND by Finta...

I don’t do book reviews very often, but @sjamcbride.bsky.social and @fotoole.bsky.social’s essays are one of very few intellectually and politically generous treatments of the #UnitedIreland question to date, while @philipstephens.bsky.social #OurDividedIsles provides rich historical context…

A dimly lit tunnel with a rocky floor leads to a bright, starburst light source at the end, illuminating the path with a warm glow and casting shadows on the rock walls inside Newgrange.

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Winners will experience the rare moment when sunlight floods the chamber at dawn.

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An energy economist once told me that he was very enthusiastic about wind and solar energy supply because it was much harder to use for corrupt and political purposes than oil.

After Brexit Vote, Britain Asks Google: 'What Is The EU?' Google Trends shows that this was the second-searched EU-related question in the United Kingdom after polls closed. The first was "What does it mean to leave the EU?"

It’s an often remarked upon thing but searches for “What is the EU” and “What is Brexit” spiked in the UK after the vote. A failure of the media to explain, yes, but also an indication of how risky referendums are. Huge numbers didn’t know what they were voting for.

www.npr.org/sections/all...

My @interraileu.bsky.social experience of Italy was in July 1980 and I only rode the system again in 2018 on a long family trip from Stroud via stopovers in Cologne, Munich, Pisa, Rome and finally Naples. The transformation is gobsmacking. In ‘80 Rome to Naples took three hours, in ‘18 just one.

We have an odd set of blinkers about the ability of government to shape the media in the UK. It’s a kind of despair/complacency that has a historical explanation. 🧵

Aha, if you’re fairly quick you can read my 2007 essay on the life of Ian Paisley (as he was on the brink of doing what he often swore he would never do) for free until 4pm tomorrow: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/essays/57825...

Chris Mason: Reform conference shows party's growing ambition like never before The conference feels like that of a big party - but retains the insurgency vibe that the party is seeking to channel.

I have never been so disappointed in a BBC piece. Breathless admiration is, as far as I knew, not the role of the BBC’s political editor when describing a party political conference. Description+detail yes, rigorous examination of the conference content, yes. This, absolutely no, in my opinion.

It’s not just the top rank either. I’ve heard the self same solipsistic guff coming out of regional pol corrs…