Category Archives: Politics

A series of unfortunate events.. (and a new website!)

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Fanfare greeted the arrival in Dublin last night of Obama’s online mogul, Joe Rospars. He trades under BlueStateDigital and they’re a pretty serious outfit.. (If you don’t immediately get the blue state thing just go listen to Obama’s convention 04 speech)..

Obama is credited with an unprecedented online campaign

Joe was in town to announce a new partnership with Fianna Fail on the parties new website. Whilst in town there was a gig organised to allow him share his wisdom.

I received an invite via the normal channels (FF press office) and it was fairly standard, FF hosting an audience with an online guru, etc etc so far so excellent, and I was really hoping to get along. I was a bit miffed at the short notice and as it turned out logistics would not permit my attendance but it was a great step in the right direction. As someone interested in Obama, FF, politics and technology it pretty much ticked all the boxes for me.

So far, so good. Unfortunately things started to go wrong. The firm charged with pulling the thing together was in hybrid mode, as an FF Cllr who runs his own media firm. Nothing wrong with that, and contrary to popular perception perhaps, Cllrs. do actually need a day job, being slightly (well actually majorly!) less well paid than our town cousins in the big house.

However the problem was whilst one audience were invited to an FF event (albeit a small ‘ff’ – a public talk hosted while he was in town with the party) another section seemingly had no idea there was a political tie-in. A separate invite had been fired into the blogosphere via the tech/media wing of the organising outfit which alas skipped over the basic premise. Result was a crowd of bloggers turned up to hear Rospars but seemed to pop a fuse when the FF logo hovered into view. I can’t speak for the quality of the event not physically being present but reports vary on whether Rospars spoke for 40 or 5 minutes. I certainly would have been annoyed had I cancelled other arrangements and travelled specially to Dublin (as I almost did) only to hear a 5 minute talk but a 40 minute one may have been worth it. Who knows but I will check out the video which I believe is coming onstream shortly.

Long story short an online backlash ensued here here here and here for starters. Some wailing, some gnashing, some grumbling and some grievences. Some gems and some gyrations. I can understand why the guys are complaining btu I can’t help wondering would there have been the same reaction had it been a Campbells soup ad he was in town to launch (for example). But absolutely, the thing should have been made clear what it was all about from the start. I have a slightly different grievance to the rest of the gang possibly, in that I can’t understand why it wasn’t shouted from the rooftops that Rospars was in town and here with FF. Well it was in the invite I got but not in the one that went out through Stawberry media. Lets all sing off the same hymn sheet in future is the message fairly loud and clear and there’s been lots of public mea culpa from the principal protagonist / central cuplrit.

I’m looking forward to getting the vid-cast of the talk itself, and hopefully distilling some nuggets, also looking forward to taking the new site for a test drive. I have a personal reservation as to how well online tactics can be applied on a local level (e.g. for a local election campaign) as opposed to a massive (300 million) catchment for a US presidential one. I’ve been trying out some tools, obviously the blog itself but also twitter and facebook and so forth and have some mixed views. Twitter is an interesting social tool. The blog is an excellent way to disseminate information. Facebook I’ve a few complaints about. But I may return to that theme another day.

Anyway make your own mind up – here’s the new site: www.fiannafail.ie

Try and find a little happiness..

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There’s a lot of doom and gloom out there. Much of it is real :( My last post talked about the apocalypse.

So I’ve decided to look for bright spots today! Try find some positives somewhere. Came up with the following:

  • Cost of living is down. Whilst income levels are frozen at best or heading south across the board, we might take some comfort in the fact that mortgage rates are close to bottom, fuel prices are coming down, we are seeing negative inflation (deflation) for first time in quarter of a century. Not exactly unalloyed good news but depends how you look at it.
  • Credit should begin to trickle once more. With the first stage of recapitalisation underway funds should begin to flow through once more funding house purchasers and the SME sector. Anecdotal evidence is that the flow is still just a trickle but that has to change. Mortgage lenders and developers are beginning to innovate with new schemes to take the risk out of buying for first-timers and others looking to get on the ladder. ‘Let-to-buy’ schemes allow tenants rack up credits against a potential future mortgage whilst price insulation programs guarantee the purchaser against a price drop.
  • Technology. The tools of the new trade are quick easy and free. Every business should be using twitter, blogging, social networking etc to promote themselves and win new contacts. Skype could be exploited for exporters to talk to international customer base for free. There’s lots that could be done here.
  • Our greatest asset under our feet. The land. So coveted and fiercely guarded for so long (probably partly responsible for some of the pickles we’ve got into) the Irish relationship with land is historic. Taken by an alien invader we took it back in spades. (Still suspicious of the big house though)
    With a generation moving off the construction wave and either ill-equipped or ill-inclined towards an alternate career in the ‘knowledge economy’ (its not realistic to suggest higher order occupations can result in 100% employment) what about going back to our roots in the agrarian economy. As an island nation we can market ourselves as the green hamper, we’ve got the raw materials, whats to stop us becoming the garden of Europe? a new export sector, plenty of innovative and enthusiastic indigenous foodies and a long term labour market to fill the gap in manufacturing or construction related sectors.
  • Open economy and stimili. Obama might save us yet. With the 800BN stimilus package across the water and similar moves afoot across the other side, the US and UK economies if sufficiently stimulated may spill over into our own still wide open economy. There is a potential threat from Obama’s ‘Buy American’ mantra but we should be able compete in some sectors. Not forgetting out own stimulus package which saw an extra 150M pumped into school building only last week for example, and the home insulation programme is going to be huge over the next few years.
  • The meat in the sandwich? (Ash Wednesday excepted) Lastly we fear usurption by the East as call centres, technology and probably more conclusively manufacturing move eastwards into India, China, Eastern Europe. One gleam of hope though, is that our time zone, along with our established strengths may save us. An educated workforce, edge of europe (better get Lisbon II thru tho), good transatlantic transport links, low corporation taxes etc were what first attracted the multi-nationals here. What may help keep them is the idea of a ‘follow-the-sun’ working day. 8 hours in the US, 8 hours in India, and the middle 8 hours in Ireland. These companies cannot afford downtime and time is another cost, time differences cannot get in the way of business to there may be an argument there for keeping ourselves in the mix on this island.

    • Small Digital World

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    Just got this mail earlier .. Woo hoo!

    Hi, lawlessj (lawlessj).

    Barack Obama (BarackObama) is now following your updates on Twitter.

    Check out Barack Obama’s profile here:
    http://twitter.com/BarackObama

    Best,
    Twitter

    Course it’s open to yall not just himself ; http://twitter.com/lawlessj

    Can the centre hold?

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    It’s pretty apocalyptic out there. The political and economic storm clouds are gathering and darkening. And all the signs are that worse is to come.

    In the middle of all this we have an opinion poll. FF are on 22% – a historic low. Like most members I’m pretty disappointed by this but not hugely surprised. The public sector pension measures were never going to be popular with those affected; people are not sadomasochists. People are angry and to a certain extent nervous of what’s around the corner. Like most workers out there I’m not expecting any increments or bonuses this year, and will consider myself lucky if that’s all I have to worry about. It’s not easy. Jobs are being lost hand over fist in the private sector.

    The last couple of days have been pretty much worst case scenarios for the government. The ILP / AngloIrish transactions beggar belief. The recap scheme was followed by BoI doubling its bad debt write off the very same day. Brian Goggin (BoI CEO) came on the news to tell us he would “only” earn “just under 2 million” next year. Are these people for real? The government need to kick some ass and quick. Heads have started to roll but more needs to come. And it can’t be just about public hangings. Jesus was fed to an angry mob. Get the right heads rolling and fast..

    Back to that opinion poll. I think though the government have been under pressure they’ve actually turned a corner in the last fortnight. But they’re not sellling the message. I guess it’s hard to steer a ship and man the radio at the same time. But someone needs to do it or the vacuum will be filled elsewhere. It’s already happening – I used to like Gilmore – I’ve praised him on this blog before – but I cannot believe his performance over recent times. It’s the worst kind of economic populism (Burton too). It’s easy to throw out soundbites and beat an empty drum. And it’s so hypocritical. Only a few months ago Gilmore and his apparatchiks were readying to steamroll a ‘New Labour’, Blair style reform package, through the NEC (Labour central council), stimying the grassroots and unions and centralising control in a new centre right leadership. Just ask a Labour activist about the ‘commission on twenty-first century labour’. But hey presto its in the trashcan since the winds of change started blowing – who needs ideology eh? Yet the poll suggests it’s working for them. I think it’s very dangerous. We are entering a 1930’s style era economically – and we all know how that one worked out.

    I close with a quote from a favourite poem (Yeats Second Coming) – seems pretty apt in current climate:

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

    Residents win battle for green space (sort of)

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    Just a quick update on what happened re the green space (at Sallins Pier/Sallins Wharf). The residents mounted quite a battle (a copy our petition is here) and we turned it around from majority of the area committee (4 to 1) ready to back residential zoning at start of the week to majority on the area committee (the same 4) in favour of reaching a compromise which is what happened in the end.

    We would have liked to secure full amenity but the argument given by councillors (across all parties) against doing that was the threat of a compensation claim by the developer. The detail of this is still not clear but it does seem there were some technicalities around the zoning. As the land was always zoned residential (up to and including last Monday) to zone it full amenity as per the residents wishes (and county managers) would have constituted a ‘down-zoning’. That is the land is less valuable. Now since the 2000 planning act this is permissible but the condition is that the land be idle for at least 5 years (undeveloped). It was a “use it or lose it” clause brought in (by an FF govt in fact) to prevent speculation artificially driving up price of land.

    The land in our case was idle for over 5 years but the builder would maintain (with strong case) that it was only so because the council had reserved it for the bypass for 3 of those 5 years. So not cut and dried.

    Anyhow between the compensation threat, the builders lobbying and the residents lobbying, by the meeting on Monday a compromise was being pieced together on the area committee. The end result was that 3 acres would go amenity (a change in zoning) and 2 would remain residential. There are still open questions and we’d like him to finish the old estates before he starts a new one but the full planning process will still have to be followed in any event. I’d like to thank anyone who participated in the campaign and thank those councillors across the spectrum who took time to listen and consider residents concerns. If I do make the chamber next year I’ll have a few working relationships on all sides the house already!