The real fraud is voter deterrence

Voter Fraud isn’t a thing. Voter disenfranchisement is. And Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party wants to bring it to the UK.  Of the 595 cases of alleged fraud reported to authorities following the UK 2019 General Election less than ten resulted in legal proceedings. This is clearly a negligible level of voter fraud yet Boris Johnson’s …

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Somewhere Only We Know

The Pyramids of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and one of the most recognisable human structures on the planet, are located just outside Cairo. They rise impossibly from the sands of the Sahara, where there have stood for over 4500 years. These massive structures seem beyond the capabilities or requirements …

Boycotts: In Word and Action

This week sees the anniversary of the collective action by Irish tenants against injustice which gave the English language the expression 'to boycott'. Captain Charles Boycott Captain Charles Boycott, who was managing the County Mayo estates of Lord Erne in a manner that brought him into conflict with tenants, found himself ostracised by those tenants, …

The Enemy Within

For people who experience so much discrimination, it shocks me how easily we [the gay community] can go from victim to perpetrator of discrimination. A quick glance at gay men’s hook-up site Grindr provides a perfect example. On Grindr, user profiles are peppered with discriminatory language and threats to “block” other guys who don’t meet …

Fintan O’Toole: Ireland’s Apple appeal is a disastrous miscalculation

The Irish state's cosy tax(less) relationship with multinationals is patently unethical: It is precisely this collusion of governments in corporate tax avoidance on a staggering scale that is sucking the lifeblood out of public services across the world and creating gross inequality by channelling almost all the new wealth being created towards the top 1 …