Quotations for today

The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague. - Bill Cosby
Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. - Franklin P. Jones
Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person. - Dr. David M. Burns

Read more!

How can we treat obesity when we can’t talk about what’s staring us in the face?

Last week we heard that the he cost of treating obesity and related illnesses is close to €500 million a year in the republic of Ireland. We heard that from the Taoiseach and not the Minister for Health. Is it too politically incorrect to ask why? Too un-pc to point out that the person who is in charge of the health services is grossly overweight?

Let’s get one thing straight. Mary Harney, whether you like her or loath her, is a top politician. She’s survived and triumphed in a man’s world and anyone who can drag an unpopular party like the PDs to Government the way she has, is no muppet. It seems all the media and opposition politicians love having a go at her. She’s still here, despite their best efforts.

Let’s get another thing straight. She’s fat. Oh boy is she fat. If she was a school girl during any given lunch hour, she’d be know as fatty Harney, fatso, pigsy, porky, fat Mary, pies Mary or a host of other names that reference her weight and size because she’s fat.

She’s not plump or cuddly (unless you’re into that kind of thing), voluptuous or curvey or slightly overweight. She’s fat and most likely obese given that the word means excessively fat and grossly overweight.

There’s nothing wrong with being fat - her own health problems are a matter for her - but when it comes to talking about the problem of 300,000 overweight children in this country, there is something wrong when the Health Minister can’t put her two cents worth in.

There is also something wrong when it was first mooted that Harney would take over the Health portfolio no one pointed out that here is a person who could have series issues in trying advise the nation on the dangers of obesity.

If we’re not allowed to talk about Harney’s weight as the person in charge of overseeing a reform in Irish attitudes to diet, does that mean we can’t talk about blind people because David Blunkett is in the room?

Read more!

Cabinet meeting to discuss privatised terminal in Dublin a waste of time. Privatising it won’t work!

If privatised terminals don’t work in Toronto, couldn’t work in Heathrow, then, why would anyone think they’d work in Dublin, asks Spudnik.

The Cabinet is meeting yet again to discuss a second terminal at Dublin Airport. The big question isn’t whether it’s needed or not - it is and we all knew that a decade ago - but whether to privatise it or not .

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary wants it privatised - more money for him see. The minority partners in the coalition government, the Progressive Democrats (PDs), want it privatised. But then they want everything from trolley beds in hospitals to driving tests privatised and will sing that from the rooftops to anyone who’ll listen.

Their larger partner in government, Fianna Fail, the supposedly dominant partner, won’t say what it wants. It never does until the last minute. But despite the controversy the whole debate has caused, no one in government seems to have questioned whether privatising terminals in airports works.

They only had to look at Toronto’s Lester B Pearson Airport to find their answer. It doesn’t.

At Toronto the average per passenger airside charges at the privately-run terminal three are twice as high as those at the State-run terminals one and two.

Staff productivity was down by 34 per cent in 2004 compared with the 1998 figure. Also down was aircraft handling efficiency and passenger handling efficiency. Non-airline revenue is down by 36 per cent. For the same period, staff costs per passenger show an 88 per cent increase, and the operations and maintenance costs per passenger have soared upward by 140 per cent.

In the UK they looked at privatised terminals for Heathrow. The low cost airlines similar to O’Leary’s Ryanair said: "NO! Bad idea mate. Move on."

Well no they didn’t. They said this: "Competition between different terminals can only be truly effective when there is unused terminal capacity available, and when there is every likelihood that additional capacity can be made available when demand warrants."

None of the above applies at Dublin Airport.

Neither the Progressive (lets privatise everything we can) Democrats, nor Michael (Money, Money, Money) O’Leary have produced any evidence to show privatising the terminal at Dublin would be beneficial to consumers.

Privatising for privatising’s sake doesn’t work. Especially for the consumer.

Read more!

McCartney civil action may still not bring Robert's killers to justice

It is good news indeed that MEPs have overwhelmingly accepted a resolution expressing support for the family of Robert McCartney and condemning IRA violence and criminality.

This resolution means that it is now possible for the European Commission to offer financial aid to the McCartney family to pursue a civil action if the Police Service of Northern Ireland fails to bring charges in connection with Mr McCartney's killing.

The tenacity that Robert McCartney’s family have shown in seeking to bring his killers to justice has to be commended, but, will it be rewarded?

There are estimated to have been around 70 people in a Belfast bar on January 30th when Robert was brutally stabbed to death in a row with members of the IRA. There is at least one eye witness who has given a statement to the PSNI, and yet, no one has been charged with the crime.

Sinn Fein and the IRA have expelled those it believes are involved in the cover-up of the crime and police have taken statements from some of these people, and still no charges have been brought.

It is almost certainly easier to bring a civil action than a criminal one, but, what witnesses could McCartney’s family hope to call with so much intimidation of witnesses over the murder?

One would have to imagine that the family feel they could win a civil case following legal advice, but, how far have the families of the victims of the Omagh bombing got since they went down that route?

It should be beholden on the republican movement to ensure that Robert McCarteny’s killers are brought to proper justice and not the type of murder the Ira issues as justice. Is it likely? Unfortunately not.

Read more!