Matthew Parkinson-Bennett
@matthewpb.bsky.social
Publisher, Little Island Books @littleislandbooks.bsky.social. The best new Irish writing for young readers.
Small guys had been protected by the de minimis. EU has gone nuclear on that (without consulting Ireland is my guess).
Anecdotally - yes but nothing big as far as I know. Bit of logistics. Easy to incorporate a NI company. Just need to evidence that the business is there and hope the EU doesn’t check closely.
Just bought a book on Kenny's that was half the price of Amazon when including the EU fee.
Tangentially related: after Brexit it was speculated that some British companies would relocate to Northern Ireland in order to continue selling into both Britain and the EU. Has this happened?
Matthew Parkinson-Bennett@matthewpb.bsky.social · 4h agoIrish consumers are estimated to spend btwn €1.5bn and €2bn on Amazon products each year. And the EU has just slapped an extra €3 onto all purchases from Amazon dot co dot uk A lot of purchases from the recently launched Amazon dot ie are also attracting the charges as the products are stored in UK
Irish consumers are estimated to spend btwn €1.5bn and €2bn on Amazon products each year. And the EU has just slapped an extra €3 onto all purchases from Amazon dot co dot uk A lot of purchases from the recently launched Amazon dot ie are also attracting the charges as the products are stored in UK
I feel like the best evidence that this guy might actually be reformed is the fact he chose Conservatives rather than Restore or Reform
Liam Hoare 🇺🇦@liamhoare.com · 14h agoIt doesn't say much for the Conservative Party that this is the quality of candidate who wants to stand for them now—and that they're willing to defend his selection.
I am amazed at how quickly people seem to have forgotten how to function without a technology that didn’t exist a couple of years ago
A good pair of trousers can't be bested but they can be worsted.
Next time I get asked to describe the colour of my skin I’m going to take my lead from the world of bra marketers and say “nude coloured”
Policy solutions are Soft: subsidies if you want them Mid: subsidies and you should want them Hard: a series of crimes against humanity
Soft natalism: the gap between children desired and children had is a policy issue Mid natalism: in a more pro-natal environment, people would want more children Hard natalism: a series of crimes against humanity
For some reason the name Ian Serraillier has been coming into my mind a lot lately. As a child the surname seemed like an enchantment. And now look what I’ve pulled out of the library box on my road! Going to give to the 8yo in the morning.
I devoted well-spent years of my life to reading and writing about books, and I am starting to feel like some people are thinking a little *too* much about The Odyssey
Suppose an Irish author publishes with a British press. Their local bookshop wants to get a few copies in. If they are already ordering €150 worth of other books from the same publisher*, that’s fine. But if they aren’t, they’ll either wait until they are ready to do so – meaning a delay in ordering
Matthew Parkinson-Bennett@matthewpb.bsky.social · yesterdayI’m hearing that An Post are adding the new €3 charge to B2B deliveries from UK to Ireland, where the total value is less than €150 – even though the new regulation only applies to B2C deliveries. This is potentially devastating for Irish businesses including bookshops.
It’s funny that there was so much outrage about Trump’s tariffs (remember them?!?) but not a whimper about this charge the EU has added to stop European consumers buying stuff from Elsewhere
Matthew Parkinson-Bennett@matthewpb.bsky.social · yesterdayI’m hearing that An Post are adding the new €3 charge to B2B deliveries from UK to Ireland, where the total value is less than €150 – even though the new regulation only applies to B2C deliveries. This is potentially devastating for Irish businesses including bookshops.
The guy you all follow who said he’d never read Ben Lerner because his characters all seem like insufferable pricks has just posted his admiration for an Allison Pearson novel
Here we go. For your Christmas stocking. Bluemoose Books - Hebden to Hollywood . My recollections of the publishing industry and why we started Bluemoose. Plus a few stories and successes along the way. Marvellous.
Suppose an Irish author publishes with a British press. Their local bookshop wants to get a few copies in. If they are already ordering €150 worth of other books from the same publisher*, that’s fine. But if they aren’t, they’ll either wait until they are ready to do so – meaning a delay in ordering
Matthew Parkinson-Bennett@matthewpb.bsky.social · yesterdayI’m hearing that An Post are adding the new €3 charge to B2B deliveries from UK to Ireland, where the total value is less than €150 – even though the new regulation only applies to B2C deliveries. This is potentially devastating for Irish businesses including bookshops.
I’m hearing that An Post are adding the new €3 charge to B2B deliveries from UK to Ireland, where the total value is less than €150 – even though the new regulation only applies to B2C deliveries. This is potentially devastating for Irish businesses including bookshops.
My “don’t speak ill of the dead” take is that it is wise when it means “don’t expose grieving children to terrible truths about their dad”; stupid when it’s about enforcing some kind of ethical rule without a harm-reduction element.
Joining the objections to this on the grounds that you can’t build a new town on top of an old landfill and call it Dunsink www.irishtimes.com/ireland/hous...
Hundreds object to plans for Ireland’s largest new town
New town of 18,500 homes planned on 1,000 acres beside what was once Dublin’s main landfill
irishtimes.com
5yo to the 8yo: “You mean everything is a tectonic plate? Even the floor?”
“Buy fewer, better things” is generally the slogan of people who have the means to buy many high-quality things.
Max Dubler 🏳️🌈@maxdubler.com · 3d agoI don’t want to pick on this person but you can still buy Dr Martens that are made in their English factory using heritage materials and high quality Japanese-made Levi’s 501s that are just like the ones they made in the 80s. These are less popular than the cheaper, lower quality versions.
I think each of the 3 threads nested here displays the same two problems. One is using “people” without being clear whether they mean individuals or groups. The other is thinking there is a sharp distinction between the two.
Amanda Mull@amandamull.bsky.social · 2d agoI think this thread is basically what I believed when I began covering the consumer system and while a lot of what Nathan is describing is factually correct as to the mechanisms by which the system itself works, I’ve eventually had to admit that a lot of people also do just love cheap bullshit
I love AI. It causes buffoons to show their arses. In the past, somebody could have a job that involved giving a presentation at an AIDS conference about funding for African countries without knowing where any of the African countries were, and we’d never know. Now we get to find out.
PBS News@pbsnews.org · 6d agoThe State Department said it takes "full responsibility" for "hastily" altering and then presenting a map of Africa at a global AIDS conference that mislabeled every single country it highlighted. An analysis by Reuters found a watermark in the map image that suggests it was made with OpenAI.
Just looking up the history of things people have said about Brazil before world cups and basically every tournament since 1990 they’ve been widely written off as “not a vintage Brazil side”. Apologies for this brief return to World Cup posting but you can’t expect me to go without for 4 years
The one thing I’ll say for Liddle and his ilk is that the English “purposely bad bastard who enjoys being hated and vilified” type is preferable to the American “cartoonishly evil but also thin-skinned and wants to be adored and never criticised” type
Matthew Parkinson-Bennett@matthewpb.bsky.social · 2d agoThis would be a lot less silly if the individual in question hadn’t devoted his career to being deliberately offensive, provocative, and controversial. He would want nothing more than being badmouthed after death. That’s how he lived his life. He loved to make himself people’s enemy.