Tell us again about that market in waste collection?

Anyone see this at the weekend? A Dublin City Council environment official faced councillors this last week. He noted that: “The public have a huge part to play, and we really need to get that higher on people’s agenda”. Which raised this question: Green Party Cllr Claire Byrne asked why communal bins in use in the city centre could not be deployed in the inner suburbs where a ban on the use of bin bags is imminent.

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That latest poll this weekend

As noted by Paul Culloty in comments - the latest Independent/Ireland Thinks poll: Latest Ireland Thinks poll: FG 20% (-) SF 20% (+1) FF 16% (-1) SD 10% (-2) Aontú 7% (+1) II 7% (-) Green 3% (-) Labour 3% (-) PBP-Solidarity 2% (-) Independents 12% (+1) The Independent frames this as FF falling to a two year low while FG and SF are neck and neck.

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What you want to say –5 August 2026

As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.

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A week is a long time in British politics

You may recall at the start of last week a post outlining how and when we might see indications of a Burnham effect on polling - though in truth there's been some of that since he first reappeared on the scene. But it's striking how polling figures for Labour are improving and rapidly. As someone pointed out to me and also noted in comments at the weekend…

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When ‘deliverism’ is delayism

Jack Horgan-Jones had an interesting piece this week in the Irish Times. He discussed the supposed difference between Simon Harris and the Taoiseach and how there's a framing of politicians like the latter as deliverists - unlike populists of various sorts, or the move fast and break stuff approach Harris is meant to typify. The problem is that to make it to the sunlit uplands of delivery you have to get through the troublesome business of day-to-day politics.

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These are workers

They have rights. They work long hard hours and then in down-time they face this? A four-bedroom house rented by a company behind some of Dublin’s trendiest Chinese restaurants has been declared a potential fire hazard after it was found crammed with bunk beds and sleeping spaces for at least 34 people. The dormer bungalow on Church Road, Killiney, south Dublin, is used by Cainte Entertainment to accommodate staff working in its string of restaurants in the capital.

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Foreign travels

As noted in comments one government Minister was at a most intriguing event this year - 'in a personal capacity' of course. Government Minister of State for Agriculture Noel Grealish attended a conservative political gathering in London earlier this year, cofounded by Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and dubbed an “anti-woke Davos”. The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) gathered more than 4,000 delegates from over 75 countries, including figures from conservative and libertarian groupings, Trump administration officials, and was addressed this year by Britain’s Reform leader…

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Left Archive: CATU (Community Action Tenants Union) Belfast Leaflets, 2020s

Please click here to go the Left Archive. To download the above please click here: KICK OUT KINGSPANDownload FOR PRINTDownload Many thanks to Conchúr, CATU Belfast Communications Officer. As noted previously: Community Action Tenants Union is a national tenants' union in Ireland. Established in 2019, it is a mass membership organisation of "renters, council tenants, mortgage holders and people in emergency & precarious living situations".

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Culture Thread 2/8/2026

gregtimo proposed in comments some while back the idea of a Culture Thread. It’s a great idea. Currently culture is a bit strange, but people read, listen to music, watch television and film and so on – spread the net wide, sports, activities, interests, all relevant – and any pointers are always welcome. And it’s not just those areas but many more. Suggestions as to new or old things, events that might have been missed, literally anything.

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Sunday and other stupid statements from this week

All examples welcome. A columnist in the Sunday Independent offers this: Anyone curious to understand how gullible young people are being radicalised into supporting dissident republican terrorism nearly 30 years after the Belfast Agreement could do worse than listen to the most recent edition of Miriam O’Callaghan’s radio show. Sunday with Miriam is billed by RTÉ as an “all-talking, all-singing, all-human-life-is-here” show.

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Iain Banks was a socialist!

As if to prove that money indicates nothing at all, here's the - checks description - 'richest' human being on the planet displaying a depth of ignorance that is almost beyond comprehension. Or perhaps it is that he doesn't understand what he reads, or is unable to handle contradiction and/or only listens to what he wants to listen to. Or who knows?

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50 years of the Fleshtones

From The Fleshtones. Anyone in NYC can enjoy the following: It's a Super Rock Celebration! 🎸🎂⚡️ Join us for the The Fleshtones' 50th Anniversary show at the legendary Bowery Ballroom on August 7th. The band will be joined by friends The Minus 5, GOONS! and WFMU DJs Todd-o-phonic Todd & Gaylord Fields for hometown party to remember. Tickets are on sale now at 

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Glen Hansard

Seems appropriate to have a post about Glen Hansard this weekend. A musician and someone who took political campaigning seriously: From 2010 onwards, he led the annual Christmas Eve charity busk outside the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, where musicians performed for crowds in aid of the Dublin Simon Community. Hansard also joined protests over Ireland's housing crisis, took part in a march marking three years since the 

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This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… Lene Lovich, New Toy EP

Mentioned a while ago, Lene Lovich was a unique character on the music scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She hit reasonably big with Lucky Number in 1979 and had a string of successful singles. Still if you wanted to find a point of balance between new wave and art pop this is the place to start - an EP, New Toy, released between her second and third album.

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Manchester Mayoral Election – run-off time

From the BBC. Reform UK and Labour candidates go head-to-head in second countpublished at 20:0520:05BR Sian Astley of Reform UK and Labour's Bev Craig are the two candidates going head-to-head in the second preference vote.

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File under no surprise: AI election ‘advice’ unreliable…

Well well well: AI chatbots provide inaccurate, inconsistent and unreliable guidance to voters asking which party they should back, a study suggests, often recommending the wrong party, not mentioning the right one, or listing parties not even running. “The results raise serious concerns about the reliability of general-purpose AI systems in electoral contexts,” the study, published by the civil liberties group Liberties and based on research during this year’s Hungarian parliamentary elections, concluded.

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Grass war

This isn't funny, it's a telling insight into the power of private institutions in the UK: After multiple punishing heatwaves, and no rain in parts for over a month, it seems the whole of the south of England is golden brown. But by Hammersmith Bridge in Barnes, south-west London, there is the unmistakable scent of damp soil. The playing fields of St Paul’s school, where fees are up to £57,000 a year, are a bright, lush green.

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Signs of Hope – A continuing series

Gewerkschaftler suggested this a while back and it's as good an idea now as it was then. Whatever else those of us on the left need some hope, need some tangible achievements to hold on to, something that gives a sense of how things can be made better: “I suggest this blog should have a regular (weekly) slot where people can post happenings at the personal or political level that gives them hope that we’re perhaps not going to hell in a handbasket as quickly as we thought. Or as the phlegmatic Germans put it “hope dies last”.” Any contributions this week?

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About time: Diane Abbott and Joani Reid have the Labour whip restored

From the Guardian. MPs Diane Abbott and Joani Reid have been readmitted into Labour and had the parliamentary whip restored, just under two weeks into Andy Burnham’s premiership. Interesting timing that. The party confirmed that this followed separate independent disciplinary processes, although Labour said the leadership played no role in either decision. Abbott, 72, the mother of the House of Commons, …

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Can a Catholic be a democratic socialist?

Apparently not. Then again.

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The same old song: UUP leader wants ‘tough decisions’ on state expenditure

Dovetailing neatly with the other post this morning. No surprise really at this: Northern Ireland’s Assembly and Executive are failing to take tough fiscal decisions with rampant waste in public spending, said Ulster Unionist Party leader Jon Burrows. However, the institutions were “designed to exist, not to excel” by the architects of the Belfast Agreement, to “get the place up and running” with as many “checks and balances as possible”, he told the Patrick MacGill Summer School on Saturday.

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Spending too much?

Pat Leahy was banging a familiar drum this last weekend in an overview of the 'four most important things in politics this year: The thriving economy and the river of corporation tax cash supplies the Government with the resources to spend more on public services, pensions, welfare, infrastructure, and so on. So when considering the Government’s tendency to throw money at problems, we must acknowledge the constant clamour from the public, the media and the Opposition for more spending.

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Citizens or Tribes? Republicanism, Nationalism and the National Question

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A prescription for these times?

Curious about this, a Guardian profile on Anton Jäger: Jäger, 32, raised in Brussels by parents who work in the arts (“bohemian class?” I ask, and he says carefully that they are boho “adjacent”), educated at the University of Essex, then Cambridge, is now a lecturer in the history of political thought and theory at University College, Oxford. He has an intense, angular face and a calm, almost self-effacing manner.

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What you want to say –29 July 2026

As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.

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A town council by any other name

...would be a municipal council? The Minister for Housing has said proposed municipal councils are set to be in place by the "next local elections" in 2029. It comes as the Government moves to set up municipal councils around the country, over a decade after town councils were abolished. The Cabinet will consider the proposal today, which has been recommended by the report of a Local Democracy Taskforce set up by Minister of State with responsibility for Local Government and Planning John Cummins and Minister for Housing James Browne.

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Union story

News that: Scientific American, informally abbreviated SciAm or sometimes SA, is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einsteinand Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Prize-winners having been featured since its inception.[2] In print since 1845, it is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.

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UK polling, a change?

This is fascinating, and also being frustrating, attempting to chart the changes, if any, that are occurring in polling in the UK with the arrival of Andy Burnham as PM. The reasons for frustration and fascination are that here is a very popular politician who has achieved the leading political position in a state. This in a context of the former leading party failing fast, the incumbent party likewise fading and a relative newcomer building up considerable support.

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Good news for authors

Good to see this pushback against AI. And a name familiar to many of us. Hundreds of Irish writers are set to share millions of euro following a €1.31 billion settlement of a copyright infringement case by artificial intelligence giant Anthropic. The Irish Writers Union said the settlement, which is the first case against tech companies over the training of their large language models, will result in hundreds of authors here sharing several million euro.

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That Summer Economic Statement

Thanks to Tomboktu for noting these two useful sources relating to the Summer Economic Statement. Michael Taft, as always, offers a commanding overview . This too is useful from Social Justice Ireland.

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