Lorna Bogue

Thanks a million for the plug!

Cork folk, consider a vote for @lornabogue.bsky.social and @rabharta.bsky.social in Cork South Central

#Election2024

Nice to log back in here and see all the lovely messages and some new followers. Hello everyone!

...now to spam all your feeds with election material 😂 #SorryNotSorry

Thanks for the spot Abby, will take a look - to be fair, I do think that this is actually to do with those type of pole. The posters tend to slip down them which is a bit of a pain!

“I call on Sinn Féin to table an urgent Dáil motion on recognition of Palestinian statehood, and to see that an indication that they would recognise Palestine when in power would be interpreted internationally as a de facto recognition by an EU member state which could interrupt and halt the present hyper-escalation of collective punishment by the Israeli military. “The Norwegian state, which coordinated the Oslo Accord of 1993, has pointed to the truth of the worsening situation in Gaza: “There is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The only way to achieve peace is to restart a political process between the Israelis and the Palestinians.” “There is an absolute urgency at this moment to produce a ceasefire and talks, and Ireland as a neutral state has a means by which it can intervene to this effect. “Hamas knew when they embarked on their attacks against Israeli civilians – the very obvious consequences of which were needless deaths.

“As one of the world’s few remaining neutral states, and one which punches above its weight in the diplomatic sphere, Ireland could directly challenge US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s pronouncement in Tel Aviv today that “this is no time for neutrality”. But the present Irish government is not going to use its leverage to save millions of lives. “Sinn Féin, widely seen as the government-in-waiting, has so far been frustratingly mute in the face of this inaction, despite being a party which has for decades attached itself to the Palestinian cause in all its diversity. “The clear course of action Sinn Féin can take to apply its leverage is to submit an urgent Dáil motion on unilateral Irish recognition of Palestinian statehood. Although we know that the government parties will seek to defeat such a move, it would allow Sinn Féin to indicate that when it gets into government its first foreign policy action will be to recognise the Palestinian State.

While Sinn Féin are being criticised for what they are saying/not saying in the media and by political opponents I think it is more salient to think about the alternatives that the government-in-waiting can implement in the meantime. Our statement on de facto recognition of a Palestinian State.

Yeah! I can't remember an October like it. Surreal.

During budget season, many kites are flown by all political parties but especially in the final furlongs of election terms. The most visible at the national level is Sinn Féin’s ‘alternative budget’, and at a distance it is practically indistinguishable from Fianna Fáil’s traditional aerobatics. In the Junior B local government kite-flying competition the usual fracas over Local Property Tax (LPT) has become a hardy annual in Dublin City Council. This year the capital’s professional managerial class proposed a 15% increase on homeowners’ annual bills in order to raise enough money to pay an army of street cleaners to advance a gentrification blitzkrieg. This was supported, of course, by the tidy-town burghers of the Labour, Green and Social Democrat parties for whom inflicting a little bit more pain on homeowners is worth it for manicured streets, while community projects are to be crowdfunded through a British platform website called Spacehive. Priorities, eh?

What if I told you that we could all be arguing about rates instead of LPT? A preview of my piece in today's echo about local government funding.

Working on a spicy LPT take for the echo atm...yes I am great fun at parties xoxo

No, Ireland Shouldn’t Join NATO Irish liberals are mounting a loud campaign for the state to abandon its neutrality and join NATO. Their agenda has minimal public support — and ignores Ireland’s potential to do good in the world...

Wrote this piece about the time a dame of the British empire had me booted out of UCC. It is also a piece about Ireland’s ruling class and their flailing under the weight of the contradictions of the tax-haven - I outline an internationalist socialist alternative to this. jacobin.com/2023/10/irel...