Opinion: AV vote in Britain

Perhaps in my old (20) age I am becoming a little bit overly nationalistic as I've noticed that my last two strongly opinion driven pieces have been  tinged with a somewhat anti-British sentiment. I am in no way anti-British or indeed any nation in the world so if any of you feel this way I would like to open this piece with an apology.

However, the media's treatment of tomorrow's AV referendum has me somewhat baffled. For those of you not in the know about UK politics the country will go to the polls today to decide whether to keep the country's current first past the post electoral voting system or to adopt the Alternative Voting System. These will be explained after the page break.

Election Time

As an ardent follower of politics, whether Irish or international I have been following the current general election in my country with significant interest. Billed as the most important election since the foundation of this state it is hard to argue with the analysts predictions that this is going to mark a monumental change in the face of Irish politics. 

As I sit writing this only 7 of the 165 seats up for grabs in the parliament have been filled.  Since the foundation of the Irish state the largest party in the country has been the centrist Fianna Fáil party with the largest opposition being Finne Gael who have experienced terms of Government in coalition with the State's third largest Labour Party. However, owing to Ireland's well publicised Economic Meltdown Fianna Fáil has seen its share of the vote decimated with a projected seat count of just 17, less than a third of the 70 they had in the last Dáil (Parliament). This meltdown in the party's seat count has lead to a surge in support for almost every other party out there. 

Ireland's Economic Meltdown

While I was away from the site the major story making the headlines here in Ireland was the effective implosion of the Irish economy. For those of you who weren't following the story Ireland became the first country to enter recession in the Eurozone in September 2008 and it is suspected to be the last to come out of it.

The crisis came about as a mixture of a number of factors. The housing market in Ireland was big business for a number of years, with prices rising rapidly and the construction sector employing an eight of the entire population. Owing to the global economic slowdown of late 2008 the property bubble in Ireland burst and by the middle of 2010 house prices had plummeted 35% compared with the second quarter of 2007. Therefore the construction sector was also mortally wounded creating waves of unemployment and mass emigration. The pressure greater unemployment put on Government funds added to the national debt already soaring.

Terrorism Continues in Northern Ireland

People North and South of the Border in Ireland were shocked today when an 8 year old boy found a pipe bomb lying in the playground when he arrived into school early this morning. The boy from Co- Antrim in the North East arrived first into the school to deliver milk to the classrooms before the other students arrived.

The boy then brought the bomb into the school for a time with him before then alerting a teacher of the alarming discovery. The 400 students in the school were then evacuated to a nearby Church Hall before later being sent home. The bomb was declared viable by experts and is undergoing further forensic examinations.

Weekend Randomness: Dublin on its Knees

I thought I should post this story because given the international readership of this blog it is unlikely that anyone outside of the Emerald Isle (ie Ireland) will ever hear about it. Of course being the blogger that I am and covering the type of material that I do I love anything with the faintest whiff of news or current affairs about it.

However, one major criteria for this is that it must not be Irish. Now this has nothing to do with the quality of Irish broadcasting. In fact for the money it receives i would be willing to bet the Irish state broadcaster does a fine job when compared to its international counterparts. Indeed for sports coverage Irish pundits are lauded in all major disciplines for being much much stronger than their British counterparts. The sole reason is that next to nothing ever happens in this country. That was until yesterday, Thursday the 8th of July.2010.

Pointless Presidency

Today will mark the ascension to power of  the next routinely elected Polish after the death of the country's last President in a plane crash on April 10th last. The winner with 95 percent of the votes counted is expected to be Bronislaw Komorowski,  the man who has acted as interim President for the past couple of months.
While reading the story it got me wondering about the nature of Presidency in some countries. The role of the Irish President and Polish President are similar in nature. There duty is to act as a representative of the State abroad but both importantly have the power to veto certain laws they find to be unconstitutional pending supreme court review. However, while this seems significant in the 13 years that our President Mary Mc Aleese has been in power she has done this just once. No Irish president has ever dissolved Government. It begs the question, what is the point?

Fury in France

I rarely, if ever take more than the slightest of interest in any soccer tournament, including the World Cup. However, I am always keenly interested in the relationship between society at large and sport. How, for example when the major debate of China's controversial choice as host nation of the Olympics and the talk of boycotting the games based on whether or not sports and politics a should be linked. Personally I was all for the boycott. Sure the athletes pour their heart and soul into training but many Tibetans have staked their lives on the pursuit of freedom. I recognise the capacity of sport to heal and unify (North and South Korea marching under one flag in previous Olympic games) but I also recognise how it can be used as a political tool and should therefore not be immune to political ramifications.

Although the topic I am talking about today is a far cry from the gravity of the 2008 situation in Beijing it does show how sport can capture the imagination of an entire nation and even lead to the political involvement of major leaders. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few days you will no doubt have heard about the abuse given by France's Nicholas Anelka to his team's manager during their clash with Mexico on Saturday. For those who have in fact being just that, I will provide a lose translation. Anelka told his manager after being replaced to " Go f*** yourself, you son of a b****." And thus the escalation of the story began.

Irish Politics in Mildly Interesting Shocker!

The first thing I do whenever I meet with my brother is discuss whatever is happening in the world. I had been away for a full week without a hint of news. Where I was staying was internet-less and Tv-less so i was hoping to be caught up with all the goings on in Gaza or if BP had fixed the leak. Imagine my shock and horror then, when it was the name of our very own dear nation that escaped from his lips.

Because let me explain just a little bit about the political system of this small island nation. We of course are a Republic and we use a Proportional representation system which has lead to a coalition being in power every year of my living memory. And it has been the will of the people of this nation in its 90 odd year history to make the centrist Fianna Fail Party the states largest since 1932. The states second largest party is Fine Gael and equally centrist party that has only formed part of 3 Governments since its inception in 1933.