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The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
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offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
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Public Inquiry
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Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Benefits Claims by Refugee Households Surge Past ?1 Billion Mark Sat May 03, 2025 13:00 | Will Jones
Benefits claims by refugee households have increased by 33% in a year as costs surge above ?1 billion for the first time, Government data show ? and that's before the recent record small boats arrivals begin to claim.
The post Benefits Claims by Refugee Households Surge Past ?1 Billion Mark appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link How the BBC Pushed Reform?s Triumph Down the Running Order and Set the News Agenda Sat May 03, 2025 11:00 | Sallust
Reform repainted the political landscape on Friday, but by the evening the BBC had already replaced the story at the top of the headlines with something about Harry moaning. Will the BBC ever get its priorities right?
The post How the BBC Pushed Reform’s Triumph Down the Running Order and Set the News Agenda appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Left-Wing Judge Who Hid an Armed Venezuelan Gang Member in His Home Shows the Judiciary is Escal... Sat May 03, 2025 09:00 | Tony Morrison
The Left-wing judge who hid an armed Venezuelan gang member in his home shows that the US judiciary is escalating its war with Trump over illegal immigration, says Tony Morrison.
The post The Left-Wing Judge Who Hid an Armed Venezuelan Gang Member in His Home Shows the Judiciary is Escalating its War With Trump Over Illegal Immigration appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Should Posting a Joke in Poor Taste on the Internet be a Crime? Sat May 03, 2025 07:00 | Laurie Wastell
A man facing jail for a "grossly offensive" Halloween costume has had his conviction overturned after an intervention by the FSU. Should posting a joke in poor taste on the internet ever be a crime, asks Laurie Wastell.
The post Should Posting a Joke in Poor Taste on the Internet be a Crime? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Sat May 03, 2025 01:28 | Toby Young
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Broadband: Another Privatisation Mess

category national | sci-tech | press release author Friday October 19, 2018 22:10author by pbp - People Before Profit Report this post to the editors

Press Release - People Before Profit - 17th Oct 2018

Over half a million households in rural Ireland are missing out on broadband because of a disastrous privatisation policy.

Up to 1999, the telephone network was run by a state company, Telecom Eireann. But the Fianna Fail government decided to copy Margaret Thatcher and sell it off. Ever since then, disaster has piled on disaster.

Instead of providing long term investment to install broad band, a series of private owners simply asset stripped the company, which had been re-named Eircom.


By October 2010, for example, Ireland was ranked 29 out of 30 countries, ahead only of Mexico for broadband speed. Only a fifth of the population had access on that date.

Yet this disaster presented another opportunity for private companies to further blackmail the government.

Eir, which is the latest name for the company proposed, to charge €20 for every pole that the fibre optic cables would be hung on.

It was also allowed to cherry pick the easiest houses to connect and separate these out the more difficult ones.

The result as that only one private bidder, Enet, was left to negotiate a contract for the last half a million homes. It was actually backed by money from the state’s own Irish Infrastructure Fund which was set to take control of the company.

But suddenly Enet was downgraded to becoming only a supplier to a new consortium, Granahan McCourt. A Denis O Brien controlled company was then discovered to be part of the new consortium. They set about trying to squeeze even more money from the taxpayers for the contract.

Secret meetings between the former Minister for Communication, Denis Naughton, and the company’s chairperson, David McCourt, were all about getting these extra ‘incentives’.

Behind the whole sorry affair is a tale of greed for profit.

If the state retained control of its own telecommunications company, broadband would have been completed by now.

Yet again privatisation has proved a disaster.

We need a state owned company that completes the National Broadband plan in the interests of people – not profit

Related Link: http://www.pbp.ie/broadband-another-privatisation-mess/
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