They think it`s all over

It is now

Not everything is clear cut and straight forward or a simple choice between right and wrong. For every dodgy refereeing decision, disallowed goal, off side flag and waved red card there are always two, or many more, sides to the story. Consider the newly re-elected President of FIFA; the remarkably resilient Joseph S Blatter.

Ignore the hysterical bellowing from the western media and imagine for a moment a man of vision and integrity that has delivered unbridled joy to billions of human beings across the planet. Smiling orphans in the developing world consider him a saint for bunging loads of cash in the direction of local sports ministers and territorial FIFA representatives in a fair exchange of great wealth for presidential votes. Imagine this great man as a victim of a Zionist plot to oust him before he ousts Israel from FIFA or as a victim of an elaborate CIA plot intent on ousting Vladimir Putin.

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Pull the other one

All in this together

Hang on a minute; just run that by me again. You are telling me that an incredibly wealthy woman of German decent who is reliant on state benefits travelled about a mile in a gold coach with her Greek husband to “open” the law-making assembly of the United Kingdom.

You are also saying that she was wearing a 10 metre long ermine cloak and a crown covered in diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and pearls and sat on a gold throne to inform her “subjects” that “her government” is going to pass laws to take away employment rights, civil liberties, social housing and will continue to make the vast majority of the lives of her “subjects” thoroughly miserable during the next five years. Suggesting that Michael Gove dressed up as Baron Hardup from the Cinderella pantomime handed her the speech proves that you should go home – you`re drunk.

Suprise, surprise

Lucille Balls

Cor blimey, strike a light, lawks a mercy you could knock me down with a feather Mary Poppins and no mistake. As we bask in the consolidation of traditional British values of not liking foreigners and poor people very much, imagine the horror and incredulity at discovering that the banks have been acting illegally again…and again…and again. I didn`t see that one coming and I am shocked – shocked I tell you – that one or maybe two bad apples have yet again besmirched the impeccable reputation of our entrepreneurial financial wealth creators. Never mind, no harm done, lessons have been learned and it`s time to draw a line and move on. No arrests have been made.

Smiling Irish Eyes

Wilde in Merrion Square Dublin

I was there less than two weeks ago; I saw the posters, understood what it was about and knew what the opinion polls were saying and heard the anecdotal opinions of the people I met. Yet on Saturday afternoon, as the result of the Irish Equal Marriage Referendum became clear, something utterly astonishing has taken place in Ireland. It is no exaggeration to say that the entire country has experienced a societal seismic shift overnight.

With a national turn-out of 60 per cent and with 62 per cent voting “Yes”, talk of a landslide is probably a bit of the blarney but the sands have shifted irrevocably and, to my mind at least, a Catholic State has become an Irish Nation. The figures demonstrate that a sizable majority of the population regardless of age, faith, ethnicity or gender who would never in a month of Sundays describe themselves as LGBT have voted for equality, compassion, respect and (wait for it) love as basic human rights extended to their fellow citizens.

In Dublin`s fair city

The tart with the cart

Any gesture of reconciliation, regardless of how small has to be considered as a very good thing if truth and peace are to be re-established. With the UK mainland media wetting its collective pants over a handshake and obsessing over a dead uncle, the really big story in Ireland has been almost completely overlooked.

Ten days ago, riding on the fast and frequent airport shuttle into Dublin city centre, every lamp post and tree and almost every other building was festooned with posters urging the electorate to vote yes. “Votail Ta” said the Fianna Fail posters; “Sinn Fein says vote Yes for equality”; “Fine Gael supports freedom” and “Labour vote Yes” suggested that all the major political parties were displaying unusual unity. I later read in the Irish Times that the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, a practicing Catholic and former critic of equal marriage had changed his mind and was asking the populous to vote yes.