Gavin Nugent

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

Me: We might be in medal contention, can you turn back on the Winter Olympics?

Pub: No, we have to show the u-20s rugby

Ridiculous

Great. One more thing to worry about.

If this comes before the Dáil in its current form, someone has to introduce an amendment to make helmet wearing mandatory in cars, and restrict car colours to bright, neon paint.

Supreme Court issues significant ruling in favour of climate action in wind farm case The ruling could have implications for projects with a climate impact such as data centres.

We spoke to a number of environmental experts about the implications of today's Supreme Court ruling on the Climate Act, in the case of a Co Laois wind farm proposed for an area where wind turbines are not allowed. jrnl.ie/6946628t

The fundamentals are sound

It felt it

I'm not saying that LLMs or GenAI dont or wont have use cases, but if it were as genuinely transformative and productivity enhancing as advocates claim, it wouldn't need to spend so much money on Facebook ads trying to get people to change their photos into cartoons.

OK?

Stretching newsworthiness to its limits here...

The #Mercosur agreement was largely finalised six years ago, and the European Commission waited six years to bring it to voting stage. They would'nt have done unless they had all the pieces in place for the vote to pass. The deal is done, and everything between now and then is political positioning.

Joe - think west Cork background and grew up on a farm? Roisin same in Clare? My advice was no representative from inside the M50 should ever speak on agricultural or rural issues. Whether right, wrong or indifferent, they weren't credible or trusted.

I can completely appreciate that.

To alienate someone suggests they were supportive or with you in the first place.

Grace was effective. Mercosur didn't pass on her watch. It has now. Due to farming organisations being wrong and effective.

If it makes you feel any better, I also encountered hostility internally in the Greens for questioning approach and strategy.

Likewise, I know plenty of greens and environmentalists who have reached out to farmers, genuinely, only to be met with hostility, decided there is no reward for engagement and decided to plough on, regardless. That gap is a huge problem.

CAP vote paves way for Mercosur ratification - Green MEP | Green Party Green Party MEP for Ireland South Grace O’Sullivan has warned that a vote to slash environmental standards in the Common Agricultural Policy paves the way for the ratification of Mercosur trade deal, ...

And for anyone who might think this is historical revisionism/hindsight 20/20, here's a press release I drafted for Green MEP Grace O'Sullivan almost two years ago. www.greenparty.ie/news/cap-vot...

CAP vote paves way for Mercosur ratification - Green MEP | Green Party Green Party MEP for Ireland South Grace O’Sullivan has warned that a vote to slash environmental standards in the Common Agricultural Policy paves the way for the ratification of Mercosur trade deal, ...

I actually found it. April 2024. Exactly as predicted. www.greenparty.ie/news/cap-vot...

At European level they aligned with the populist right - Mieloni, Wilders et al, the same people who have now endorsed Mercosur. You rightly point out the Greens in Germany, and Timmermans. And I point to Netherlands, Latvia, Finland, whose Governments include farming parties, who voted yes.

I am not new to this. I worked for an MEP on the Mercosur delegation in the last Parliament. I predicted these consequences to colleagues when farm organisations were targeting green regulations. Nobody on the farming org side wanted to listen beyond "green = bad".

It was much less likely to pass - and a motion in 2020 endorsed rejecting the deal because of deforestation. After the last elections, deforestation regs were "simplified", largely based on pressure from Brazil, and only apply to companies operating in the EU - and not the whole supply chain.

And to come back on your other points - yes indeed, the deal was pretty much finalised six years ago. And the Commission never put it to a vote because the Greens in the Parliament were the swing vote for the majority after 2019, and other political groups were trying to out-green them.

I might surprise you by agreeing that environmental NGOs haven't been at the races for a while. For what it's worth, think the green movement is still reeling from political shift of last few years and still recalibrating to new political reality.

Yeah, unfortunately for Patrick Costello he won on a small technical issue. His main argument generally on the constitutionality of investor courts was dismissed, if I recall correctly.

CETA hasn't been ratified by Ireland yet. The Supreme Court decision on investor courrs is being fixed by the Arbitration (Amendment) Bill, which solve the constitutional problem identified by the courts and allow the Government to ratify then. Mercosur is slightly different, doesn't need Dáil vote.

I didn't have a go at farmers. I had a go at farm lobby groups, who are failing their members by spending time and political capital trying to ban the word veggie burger at the same time VdL is sealing the Mercosur deal behind their backs. Do you believe ordinary farmers are being well represented?

By pushing an anti-green, anti-sustainability agenda, farming unions in Ireland and the EU have helped to create the political conditions for #Mercosur to pass. My letter in today's Irish Times.

Remember that time the Gardaí investigated the artist who painted a nude Brian Cowen portrait? Where is that energy now?

New Year's Resolutions downgraded due to unforseen budget issues (didn't win Millionaire Raffle)

"This was a cynical strategic manoeuvre to avoid losing voters to the far right, but it seems, based on polling, that all they have done is prime their own voters to join the far right"

"Nobody saw that Ireland v Portugal result coming"

Wrong

#IrlPor