Glenn Patterson’s account of the Belfast murals (10 October) was crammed with bits of fascinating, if frequently sinister, socio-historical detail. The Protestant tradition of wall-bedaubing turns out to be the oldest in the world: it was as long ago as 1908 that the first memorial to the Battle of the Boyne broke upon the Ulster dawn. If not quite as long-lived, the nationalist tradition is equally tenacious, and neither side’s representatives seemed particularly interested in the – sometimes literally – sanitising brush now being brought to these examples of propagandist folk art.
Seven million pounds’ worth of grants have so far been dispensed by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in its attempt to replace commemorations of violence and slaughter with m
19 October 2013, The Tablet
Troubled Walls
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User Comments (4)
Most of the major parties are barking up the wrong tree when thinking about unemployment. Jobs will just be less and less plentiful as technology advances. I live in London and have been impacted by the strikes, in part driven by the question of if ticket machines could reduce staffing levels.
But linking Unemployment Benefits with seeking of jobs, therefore, is short-sighted. In the end, this would just create a class of people who are frustrated because jobs are difficult to come by. What is worse, those outside this class would find a ready and easy target of scapegoats for all the ills of society. How often do we hear the demonising of those who are unemployed?
What we need is a Citizen's Income. It frees everyone from the worry of where the next meals will come from, and at the same time, from the tyranny of perceived oppressive capitalists. It also would make the state much smaller - getting rid of many of our means tested benefits would mean and leaner and more efficient system. Supporters of the left and economic liberals should be interested.
The Green party is the only one that supports this idea.
Sorry, Edd. I wish you well but youi are profoundly wrong. Labour have always lowered unemployment and saved the Country from Tory misrule. By nothing short of brilliance Labour saved the country from the bankruptcy nearly brought about by the captains of the banking industry. In short, Labour is a safe pair of hands in the economic sphere.
Half blunderingly, half for opportunistic ideological reasons, this government prolonged the recession post 2010 with self-defeating pro-cyclic austerity, doing huge damage to the economy, and now they're planning to put the recovery at risk. You're very wrong about the government's economic record and the Conservatives' competence in that area: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n04/simon-wren-lewis/the-austerity-con
I'm not quite sure I understand why a Christian publication such as this would advise people to vote for political party that only worships Mammon and selfishly sentences poor to go hungry and the sick to early deaths. I'm afraid I am rather ashamed of you.