The state of the UK

[Hermit]

They call themselves loyalists, but they're only loyal to their own power. An open border with the EU will see that power drip slowly into the republic as their economy shrinks. Boris has seen to that. When it's easier to do business in the South than across the Irish sea things will shift, and people with it, like they always do.

I think you are underestimating the power of historical grievances linked to religious fundamentalism, Brian...

I've never managed to get a certitude as to whether religion was really a motive force in the Irish conflict, or just a marker of each side.

It was both.

[Scot Dutchy]

Svarty
Religion in both the republic and NI is being hammered. Covid has only speeded up the change. As Brian said north and south are realising with the economic possibilities, the future lies in unification. There will be those on both sides that will oppose it and maybe even violently but the eventual will happen as the cross border communities have proven.

[JimC]

At the very least, if not a primary motivator, it is a reinforcer of political tribalism, that may well have died away without such reinforcement...

[Svartalf]

Svarty
Religion in both the republic and NI is being hammered. Covid has only speeded up the change. As Brian said north and south are realising with the economic possibilities, the future lies in unification. There will be those on both sides that will oppose it and maybe even violently but the eventual will happen as the cross border communities have proven.

Try telling the orangemen that...

[Svartalf]

At the very least, if not a primary motivator, it is a reinforcer of political tribalism, that may well have died away without such reinforcement...

I suspect you convicts have forgotten how strong tribalism is among the Celts.

[Brian Peacock]

The DUPs brand of Christian fundamentalism is a classic case of religion mobilised to serve a political identity but that Christian core is being progressively diluted by the general shift of social attitudes were seeing everywhere - and in this context particular in the South of the island. This puts the loyalist parties in the position of having to shift a key component of their political brand if they're not be seen as increasingly irrelevant. A culture war rinsed in historical mythology is the most obviousiius go-to option, but as we've seen in the past few week, and given the orange propensity for narratives based around righteous violence, sending young people out onto the streets to riot is also part of they're arsenal. Chaos requires a strongman, and sone believe that seeding violence will seeds their political strength.

In my view even opening the barely-healed wounds of the blood feud with the republican community will not alter the general perception that old kinships across the border offer will probably offer more stability than dogmatic ties to a Westminster govt whose assurances that the Brexit turkey was actually made of gold turned out to be a knowing and wilful fiction.

[Hermit]

At the very least, if not a primary motivator, it is a reinforcer of political tribalism, that may well have died away without such reinforcement...

I suspect you convicts have forgotten how strong tribalism is among the Celts.

Are you suggesting that a significant factor concerning Ireland is the conflict between Celtic tribes in Northern and Republican Ireland?

[Scot Dutchy]

The Vikings played a greater part in Ireland's history than the Celts. They were a way more violent than the Celts who were farmers and herdsmen and ruled the island with an iron hand. The Celtic language was adopted because it was not English. My wife's family is typical as the can trace their ancestry back to the Vikings on the Shannon estuary.

[Svartalf]

At the very least, if not a primary motivator, it is a reinforcer of political tribalism, that may well have died away without such reinforcement...

I suspect you convicts have forgotten how strong tribalism is among the Celts.

Are you suggesting that a significant factor concerning Ireland is the conflict between Celtic tribes in Northern and Republican Ireland?

Let's say that no Irishman will forget that the orangists are nor real Irishfolk but scottish colonists

[laklak]

I used to get pretty fucked up back in the day, but I never fucked a dead animal in the head...

Me neither. I just ass fuck them like a civilized person.

[Seabass]

[Scot Dutchy]

They are losing. They cant stop the inevitable happening.

Anxious unionists in little mood to celebrate Northern Ireland centenary

In Enniskillen for a long time, the unionists kept winning. Now the feeling is of Britishness being lost

Covered up and boxed in a storage vault in the town of Enniskillen, two historic oil paintings gathered dust. King William III commissioned the portraits of himself and Queen Mary after he routed Catholic forces in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, a turning point in Irish history that established Protestant ascendance.

Unionists revere King Billy, also known as William of Orange, as a hero who saved their settler ancestors. The portraits used to gaze down from Enniskillen town hall, a reminder of their link to the crown, until the council voted to remove them in 2002.

For some unionists in this corner of County Fermanagh, it felt like a foreshadowing of their own fate. Next week they were supposed to celebrate Northern Ireland’s centenary, the 100th birthday of a state made from six of Ireland’s 32 counties in 1921 with one overriding goal: a permanent Protestant and therefore unionist majority.

But instead of festive, the mood is anxious and focused on loss – loss of power, cohesion, confidence – and with fear of worse to come, of history closing the lid.

“Northern Ireland has been a success story in many ways but people now see their Britishness being eroded. We feel diminished. It’s a lonely position,” said Stuart Brooker, an assistant grand master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland.

[Scot Dutchy]

Government taskforce urges permanent job flexibility for all workers

Millions could benefit from new rights to work from home once the pandemic is over


Millions of employees could be given the chance to switch permanently to more flexible working arrangements under forthcoming guidance designed to encourage firms to make long-term some of the emergency changes ushered in by the pandemic.

The government’s flexible working taskforce is drawing up guidance – before the expected lifting of the remaining lockdown restrictions, including the requirement to work from home, on 21 June – to support the emergence of new, hybrid ways of working. For example, staff might come into offices only occasionally and work at home or at a neighbourhood cafe for the rest of the week.

Peter Cheese, the co-chair of the taskforce, said the pandemic had demonstrated that people could work productively away from traditional workplaces, with 71% of firms reporting that home working had either boosted or made no difference to productivity. “This is an opportunity to shift ways of working, which have barely changed for generations,” he said. “It will allow more people with other life commitments to participate in work and it will improve wellbeing.”

What a load of...

Working from home will be compulsory in certain companies. Save office costs. This idea it is good to work at home is crazy. Will workers be compensated for heating, coffee etc? It is not popular one bit here. Work and home should be separate.
What is required is satellite offices where you can rent desk space. It is very important to leave the home. The idea that the home becomes an extension of the office is mentally very bad.

[JimC]

Not so sure about that, Scot. Both my boys worked successfully from home during our lockdown. Right now, they are both working 3 days in the office, two at home, which gives a good balance. I think David, with a longer commute, would prefer 2 days in the office, but is happy enough as is. Staff get an allowance towards home office heating.

[Scot Dutchy]

Not so sure about that, Scot. Both my boys worked successfully from home during our lockdown. Right now, they are both working 3 days in the office, two at home, which gives a good balance. I think David, with a longer commute, would prefer 2 days in the office, but is happy enough as is. Staff get an allowance towards home office heating.

Well Jim I have 5 neighbours having to work from home and since last week there are able to go into the office. None have regretted it. Home working is a big bore. None have to commute as all go on their bikes which they really enjoy. The Dutch are not workaholics as in the American sense but like the coming and going. Two young ones are in top jobs as Administration Executive and advocaat. They really hate working at home. One actually works five minutes away but he feels just leaving the house is a mental lift. Work is work and home is home. I always kept them very separate but if I wanted to I could work at home but that was twenty years ago. We have so many part-time workers these days but that is the Dutch mentality; work to live. Enough is enough. Free-time is precious.