Image via Wikipedia That was some weekend wasn’t it? I have never in my life experienced a weekend in which so much has happened politically. We entered the weekend with Brian Cowen as leader of Fianna Fáil and we finished it with him as a caretaker Taoiseach. His resignation as leader of Fianna Fáil was not that surprising considering the amount or pressure on him from all parts of the Fianna Fáil part and the failure of stalwarts like...
Conor Lenihan who yesterday called on Brian Cowen to resign, got a bit passionate on Vincent Brown last night. Car crash TV. Enjoy. How long till he resigns? Its going to be a fun election campaign! Hattip: Cedar Lounge Revolution
As the election was announced yesterday, I noticed messages appearing in my Facebook feed like this one: It would seem that Fine Gael have launched a facebook widget which is linked from their website. It is an interesting move from the party and I wonder how it will play out on Facebook. I myself am a bit sceptical because it seems to be trying to use American Campaign techniques, and I am not sure how it will go down. It also is not...
So the Taoiseach has announced in the Dáil that the General Election will take place on Friday the 11th of March. So that gives us 49 days to campaign for Ireland’s future. I am looking forward to that! The Taoiseach also announced that Minsters will be double jobbing until that day. He announced the following portfolios. Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs: Brian Cowen Education and Health and Children: Mary Coughlan Community and Family Affairs and Transport: Pat Carey Agriculture and Justice:...
Image via Wikipedia So Fianna Fail are as divided as Fine Gael was last summer. The Fianna Fail parliamentary party meeting gets under way at 5:30pm and is expected to last until around 9pm. The wording of the motion to be debated is reported to be “That the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party has confidence in Brian Cowen TD as leader of Fianna Fáil.” Its been a tough week for Brian Cowen in his office as Taoiseach and Leader of...
An interesting possibility has arisen from ALDE MEP’s. They want to move a meeting of the EU-African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Joint Parliamentary Assembly to Brussels according to Euractiv (original in French and English) thereby boycotting Hunagary. This is seen as a democratic protest against the recent media law in Hungary. This law has met with opposition from within and without Hungary. The idea of this boycott came after Belgian MEP Louis Michel, co-chair of the EU-ACP assembly, called...
Today the House of Commons will consider as a Committee of the whole house, the European Union Bill. This will mean that in future the United Kingdom will have to hold a referendum on future treaties which amend the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Function of the European Union Under the Bill the UK will have to hold a referendum if the treaty meets one of these conditions: (a) the extension of the objectives of...
Image via Wikipedia The National Media and Infocommunications Authority Hungary (Nmhh) have published the Act on Media Services and Mass Media on their website in PDF format. It is nearly 200 pages long and is a tough read. Article 187 is what sets out the fines which has a lot of people worried (3) The Media Council and the Agency — with due heed to paragraph (7) — shall have the right to impose the following legal consequences: a)...
Image via Wikipedia EUBusiness is reporting that the fact that Hungary is the current holder of the rotating EU Presidency will not hold them back from launching proceedings if the new media law is found to be in breach of Community Law. “If there’s an infringement of community law, the Commission will launch proceedings and the fact Hungary presides the European Union will have no bearing,” Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said. … Bailly said EU legal experts would scrutinise...
The Anna Lindh Foundation have issued the following declaration in response to the terror attack a Christian Church in Alexandria, Egypt. The Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures, which has its international headquarters in Alexandria (Egypt), expresses its deep sadness and pain about the terror attack which affected this city on the night of 31st December. The President of the Foundation, André Azoulay, and all of his team, wish to express their solidarity with the victims,...
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