Perusing the Labour party’s new policy document on immigration, Sue’s eye was arrested by a sentence explaining the case for unrestricted labour movement. “Without those immigrants, the economy would stall, wages would rise to ever more uncompetitive levels and the prosperity of the past decade would soon be a distant memory...” said Labour.
With a strong feeling of déjà vu, Sue flicked back to an editorial in The Sunday Times on January 8. It argued that immigrants were essential for the economy because “without them, it would stall, wages would rise to even more uncompetitive levels and the relatively short-lived prosperity of the past decade would soon be a distant memory”.
You know what they say about imitation and flattery, but the rub is that our editorial was decidely unflattering about Pat Rabbitte. Here’s one sentence from our piece that Labour didn’t rip off: “Unless (Rabbitte) can raise his game, and recognise that government brings with it the responsibility to act in the national, rather than party, interest, (he) may as well run up the white flag now.”
Sue wonders how they missed that one.
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When Vincent Browne calls a kettle black it’s time to admit defeat
Vincent Browne has proposed that nobody be allowed to own or control more than a single media outlet in Ireland. “This would open the way for diverse media voices,” argued Browne.
Could that be the same Browne who is columnist with The Irish Times, a columnist with the Sunday Business Post, a presenter of a nightly show on RTE Radio, and editor of Village magazine, for which he writes reams and reams of, erm, copy? Deep sigh.