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offsite link Ukraine Buys Huge Amounts of Russian Fue... Fri Jan 20, 2023 08:34 | Antonia Kotseva

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Human Rights in Ireland
A Blog About Human Rights

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Lockdown Skeptics

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offsite link Hancock Fails to Have Bridgen Libel Case Thrown Out Paving Way for Full Trial Fri Mar 29, 2024 11:00 | Sally Beck
Matt Hancock, the ex-Health Secretary, has failed in his bid to have Andrew Bridgen's libel case thrown out after Hancock branded him antisemitic, paving the way for a full trial.
The post Hancock Fails to Have Bridgen Libel Case Thrown Out Paving Way for Full Trial appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link DEI Wokery is Swallowing Small Businesses Too Fri Mar 29, 2024 09:00 | C.J. Strachan
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The post DEI Wokery is Swallowing Small Businesses Too appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Are We Being Gaslit Over the Cause of the Princess of Wales?s Cancer? Fri Mar 29, 2024 07:00 | Melissa Kite
First Charles and then Kate ? it's hard to ignore the soaring cancer rate when two members of the Royal Family are diagnosed within weeks. But are we being gaslit about what's behind the surge, asks Melissa Kite.
The post Are We Being Gaslit Over the Cause of the Princess of Wales’s Cancer? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Fri Mar 29, 2024 00:04 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the virus and the vaccines, the ?climate emergency? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Women?s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player ?Broke Opponent?... Thu Mar 28, 2024 19:30 | Will Jones
A women?s football competition has been branded misogynist after it was won by a team featuring five transgender players, amid accusations one had broken an opponent?s leg in two places.
The post Women’s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player “Broke Opponent’s Leg” ? But Teams Who Refuse to Play Against Them Are Branded “Discriminatory” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
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offsite link Moscow attack reminds us of the links between Islamists and Kiev's fundamentalis... Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:57 | en

offsite link Failure to assist a people in danger of genocide, by Hassan Hamadé Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:32 | en

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offsite link France opposes Russian Korean-style peace project in Ukraine Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:11 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N°79 Fri Mar 22, 2024 11:40 | en

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The Commissioner and her Multiple Pensions & Contemprateous Salary

category galway | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis author Sunday April 25, 2010 02:17author by donlylemore Report this post to the editors

Our European Commissioner was ''doorstepped '' and asked about her current pension/s in the light of the waiver of pension entitlements in the case of a retiring banker ...
With an overly hasty riposte she said to the reporter "That is a question that I have refused to comment on up to now and I continue to refuse to comment on it.''
The pique was palpable , and the affront visible .. she then canceled an arranged interview with RTE .
..but she is not alone .. and FG and Labour also have their formidable pension earners while still working..
and some ( teachers ) .. are they still blocking the appointment of a full time pensionable locum tenens ? - ''subs '' while they are in politics..and accruing more years for their teacher's pension also..



Our European Commissioner was ''doorstepped '' and asked about her current pension/s in the light of the recent waiver of pension entitlements in the case of a retiring banker .
This is the commissioner who ''dumped ''on ms De Burca ,in the apparent belief that Ms de Burca would prove too conservative in the areas of stem cell research for example ."
This reply was made without any attempt at charm.It was terse and unequivocal.The commissioner gave the impression that she regarded the question as an affront. . It suggested an arrogance which we have become all too familiar within the ranks of Fianna Fail particularly .The notion of entitlement to privilege is not even tenuously concealed . The chosen ones are just chosen and they live their lives in a different manner to those they legislate for.
But just to put it in context . Having been asked if , would she consider taking a cut in her income, which consists of a TD's pension, a ministerial pension and her present salary.; which comes to , € 351000 ( €44,000 plus €64,000 plus €243,000.) P/A
- At a time when the average industrial wage is somewhere around €35000

The commissioner was so piqued by the question that she later canceled an interview with she had agreed to give to RTE.
So this woman who earns approx 10 times the salary of the average industrial wage earner states ''That is a question that I have refused to comment on up to now and I continue to refuse to comment on it." - and walks away .

Of course there was an immediate bleating ( if indeed bleating can be immediate) from other TD's and Ministers across the house, all proclaiming their Damascene conversion .
One would imagine that in the circumstances whereby thousands are emigrating , hundreds waiting for the axe to fall on their jobs by the week, dole queues NOT yet burgeoning because of the degree of emigration , that a seasoned politician such as the commissioner could have shown just a degree of circumspection .
But the hubris and hard-wired sense of assumed privilege is such that she displayed a sneering contempt towards the reporter .
One was humbled ( revolted too - but we say ''humbled''- it has more political panache ) - in the presence of such indomitable and self aggrandized personage .

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