Queen visits Ireland today

Queen opening hospital wing in Londonderry 2009

Her Majesty The Queen is making a state visit to the Republic of Ireland today. This is not her first visit to Ireland, but it is her first visit to the Republic of Ireland, or Eire as my prep school Geography master from Lisburn called it. The BBC is keen to be telling us that this is "the first time a British Monarch has set foot on Irish soil since independence from British rule", which is a bit of a twist on history.

Ireland was, as a whole island, fully part of the United Kingdom from 1st January 1801 until 6th December 1922, when the south of Ireland assumed independence within the Commonwealth. It was called the Irish Free State and the King of Ireland became the King in Ireland. The Free State ended in 1937 and the Republic was formed, with no king in or out!

The BBC seems to forget that the Free State was what many Irishmen wanted. They do not mention it. They have mentioned the Irish who fought in the Great War and were inconveniently forgotten, which was a disgrace. However, the majority of the Irish people supported and voted for complete severance, and that is what seems predominant. We may be getting a similar run of political manoeuvring in Scotland, although Alex Salmond is a very much a creature of 2011 and not a back of the hay trailer tubthumper of 1911.

I hope the Queen's visit goes well. It seems most Irish people are at ease with the relationship between the Republic and the UK. We need to put enmity aside, if enmity there is and enjoy our common heritage and blood ties, for there are many of those.

Queen in Northern Ireland 2009

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Osama, Obama, Hillary and the Leprechauns

Coughs and sneezes spread deception

It's difficult to know what to believe these days as far as politicians are concerned. Honourable gentlemen and ladies have spent a good deal of the 21st century behaving dishonourably. Or at least quite a few of them have. Do we believe the truth about wars, taxes, deficits, economies? They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes pictures are not even needed.

This morning, in my hazy groping for tea, cereals and other things for breakfast, my eight year old daughter quizzed me on Bin Laden's whereabouts. She'd been listening to BRMB, our local commercial radion station, and they had put on some joke about doorstepping somebody and confusing him with Bin Laden. Or at least that was the impression I got. My daughter went on about it and then ended up with asking if Bin Laden had been in Solihull. Now there's a thought! The very idea of him camped out in some Victorian villa caught my imagination. Would anyone have shopped him if they had spotted him? "You know something? You're the spitting image of that Osama Bin Laden, you are!" Might he have lived a reclusive life nearby? I have to say I might not have realised it even if I had met him. And telling the local police of such a find if I ever realised the truth would be some feat of persuasion. "No, honestly, he's in the house next to the...."

Reporters are now swarming all over Pakistan asking all sorts of questions. Many local people think he's still alive. In Pakistan. Outside Pakistan. It was not bin Laden but an old friend of the family. The Americans made a terrible mistake and so it goes on. In many ways Bin Laden's bearded face is an iconic image of a bogeyman terrorist. But if it is 20 years old what of the person that got shot? He appears to have been a prematurely aged greying loner when confronted by pepped up navy seals. Ideal for doppelgangers and professional doubles to take advantage.

So is the picture really Osama Bin Laden? The camera never lies is another saying. But apparently it is not good and relaying the truthful picture. Hillary Clinton was seen by the world looking as though she was horrified beyond measure by witnessing the killing of Bin Laden. Now we are told she was only stifling a sneeze. Or was it a cough? Or maybe a convulsion? Whatever the bodily shaking that she suffered it is not quite the same as being thought to see slaughter via video link.

The US government will not find the killing of Osama Bin Laden helpful. It may have given the average American a rush of "closure" adrenalin but this is a hopeless political gambit. Bin Laden will be like the baddy in a pantomime. "Where's Osama?" "He's behind you!" they'll all scream. No, President Obama is far better off encouraging the leprechauns of Ireland to promote his Irish ancestry. That's the brilliant thing about a mixed race president. Quite a few nationalities can get in out the act. If I were in his shoes, I could only offer watered down Spanish and Danish. Not quite the same thing as linking yourself to the Emerald Isle.

President Obama is visiting Ireland this month. The Irish Independent proudly announces -

US President Barack Obama will address 5,000 people outside the schoolhouse where his ancestors were educated. Offaly County Council is finalising plans for his visit to his ancestral village of Moneygall on Monday, May 23. Yesterday, the council, which is organising the Moneygall leg of the visit, moved to reassure villagers the occasion will not be hijacked by politicians or dignitaries. Moneygall residents will be allocated 1,000 tickets for Mr Obama's visit -- another 500 invites will be issued by both Offaly and North Tipperary county councils.

So Barack Obama is Irish after all! Now that takes some beating by Donald Trump. Obama trumps Trump! Apparently Moneygall, in Gaelic Muine Gall, means "foreigners' thicket". I do hope Osama Bin Laden won't spoil the celebrations!

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Ireland to get bail-out loan

So Ireland is going to be giving shedloads more money, not as a gift but a "loan", whilst it is up to its neck in collossal debt. How are they going to pay it all back?

Maybe the European Commission and the Irish government could tell us all how much is exactly owed? The BBC is talking of a "very substantial loan" and "tens of billions" of euros. We hear of "pumping" money in. Where will it all come from?

Simple questions!

1. How much does Ireland owe?
2. How much will Ireland be given?
3. Where will the "loan" come from?

No need for committees. No need for summits. Just simple one line answers.

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Greece and Ireland - Two giant ponzi schemes

Here' a nice piece about the giant ponzi scheme in Greece. Greek politicians do not see the debt as being debt. They see it as income. So says Steven R. Earle in the Financial Post of Canada. "The problem with much of the opinion surrounding the Greek financial crisis is that few writers actually have any experience in Greece, in dealing with its politicians, its bankers, its systems, its cultural proclivities and its people," he says. He does, and his article makes very interesting reading. Eric Morecambe used to joke "How much does a Greek earn?" but I bet he'd be sobered in a second by such stuff.

And ponzi schemes are not just for the Greeks. The Irish have got a giant ponzi scheme going too. Rob Lyons writes in Spiked about how Ireland became a giant ponzi scheme. Well, if you can make money out of thin air, is it surprising that the wheels have come off these wagons.

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Bertie Ahern quits as Irish PM

Bertie Ahern, the second longest-serving Prime Minister of Ireland, has quit. Some people are after him for allegedly pocketing money that he shouldn't have. He said he would be "comprehensively dealing with these matters at the tribunal" and denied any wrongdoing. "Never in all the time that I served in politics have I ever put my personal interest ahead of the public good," he added. "I have never received a corrupt payment...I have done no wrong and wronged no one".

These are fighting words ready for fighting talk. Irish Prime Ministers are often accused of trousering the treasury. It seems part of Irish politics. Ahern says he never put his personal interest ahead of the public good. Can it be infered he put it two steps behind? He has never received a corrupt payment, he says. Has he received a dodgy payment or one that could be innocently construed as being OK? Seems some are looking into this.

As for saying he has done no wrong and wronged no one, what politician, or anyone else for that matter, can say this so emphatically? I wronged my wife last weekend and said sorry. I'm not in that lofty league of the innocent, though, so have failed there.

Lewis Carroll made Humpty Dumpty say he used a word to mean what he wanted it to mean. That is as true when it was first written, as it is today.

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