John Browne

With all the talk about Zombie banks I can’t help but wonder how many of our banks have actually joined the ranks of the undead. The more I read in the papers the more I have this sinking feeling that they’re all Zombies. Just looking at some of their current share prices (AIB 39cent, BOI 19cent, IL&P 63cent, Anglo nationalised) and the downgrades they’ve received from the big international banks and rating agencies, it looks like investors have no confidence at all in our financial institutions.
Given that the governemnet is underwriting these banks and that it’s own financial position is arguably in worse position one can’t help but wonder if we’re living in a Zombie country.
In modern mmythology and by that I mean the movies, Zombies seem to be created by bizarre rituals performed by high priests in secret ceremonys and the zombies then go on to create other zombies by taking their pounds of flesh. Does this seem familiar to anyone.
It would seem that the glib metaphore of the Zombie is becoming more and more apt every day when applied to our current financial predicament.
In watching the tv the other night I happened upon a well known fantasy programme in which zombies were running amok. These Zombies were described as “slow moving dimwitted creatures who are dangerous in numbers and can only be stopped by means of decapitation or severe cranial damage inflicted by bludgeoning”. Hmm maybe they’re on to something here.

In the immortal words of the Queen of Hearts “Off with their heads”

Questions and Answers is just over and I must say it was one of the most entertaining home grown programmes that RTE have put on in a long time.

Willie O'Dea in a sombrero

Great stuff.
Willie ODea got absolutely mauled from all angles. It took a very articulate Pensioner to tell Willie that he had a “Bloody Cheek” and that he “Wasn’t as smrt as he thought he was” to wipe the smug condescending grin from under the tash. This was after Willie told us that we just didn’t understand the complexity of what the government was trying to do.
After that it went from bad to worse for Willie. Two doctors explained how this whole medical card situation was going to impact on GPs and disadvantaged communities.

Willies relief when the subject was changed to education was very short lived. Education seemed to invoke an even bigger response from the audience. One man went so far as to pull out letters from Government ministers promising school buildings, rolling them up in a ball and throwing them at Willie, all the while shouting his very relevant and well made points at Willie. He was well able to make himself heard even when the mic was turned off. The responses drew cheers from the audience, to such an extent that Willies chattering and stuttering couldn’t be heard over the clapping. All this seemed to embolden Eamonn Gilmore and he started shouting down Willie. I don’t blame him really. Willie is really annoying when he talks over everyone and then says “I didn’t interrupt you”. When he does this I feel like shouting at the telly “Yes you did you little Bollix”. When Eamonn gets going he really knows how to make himself heard even over the master of talking over. Bellowing helps. Bowman finally decided it was time to take a break at 50mins into a 1 hour programme.
Great stuff.

Now that defence spending is being cut and barracks are being closed even more of the Minister of Defences remit will be for the Defence of the Government.
Willie had to know he was in for trouble. In Limerick on Saturday he failed to show up to engage the Pensioners who had laid siege to his constituency office. Willie had to be called away to an urgent meeting. There was no urgent meeting to save him tonight. He hunkered down in his bunker and weathered the artillary barrage from all sides with the heaviest guns coming from the audience, popping up now and then to take a few pot shots with his air rifle but to no effect.
Better luck next time Willie.

You have to wonder what Brian thought he was doing putting Willie on Q and A. He must have known what was coming and decided that the Government Butt should be wheeled out instead. As one really angry man in the Audience asked “Why is it you thats always wheeled out here when there’s trouble?” (I’m parahrasing of course).

If you missed this fine piece of telly then you should try and catch it on the RTE website when it becomes available.

Update: Warning real player required

Q1 about medical cards can be found here or below

Q2 about education can be found here or below

Update2

It looks like the governemnt has climbed down over this and set the eligibility limits alot higher. Apparently 95% of people will remain in the medical card system. The details remain to be seen. Hopefully the means test assessment forms will not be too onerous to fill out for the old and the infirm. Whats the bet that with the cost of administering the means test scheme there is no savings made at all.
The next question is. Why hasn’t Harney resigned? Or Lenihan for that matter?

In advance of Budget 2009 Nev decided to have a look at previous years budget speeches and see how the speeches have changed from year to year based on differing economic conditions and environments.
The best way to look at the speeches was to look at the words that were used and to present them in a graphical format. That’s where wordle comes in. A certain amount of preprocessing of the speeches is required to put certain terms together like “stamp duty” and to remove small irrelevant words like “to, and, million” and numbers.
Wordle is a great tool for this kind of thing and has been used before by media institutions like the BBC for looking at reports and speeches in a different way.

Clicking any of the wordles below opens them in a lightbox. Clicking again brings you to their location on flickr.

By far the biggest word used in last years budget was “Government” followed very quickly by “tax”. Also featuring highly on the list is “Energy, economy, income, investment, health” and “Spending”. Adjectives featuring highly were “increase” in its various guises aswell as “new”.

Comparing Cowens 2007 budget to the 2008 budget reveals a couple of interesting things. in 2007 the word “Tax” seemed to feature more prominently than 2008. Also interesting is the use of Economic compared with Economy. “Relief” was quite prominent in 2007 aswell as “investment, health, support” and “people”. Just looking at the word cloud you could tell it was an election year.
Increase was present again in all it’s guises. The smaller words shouldn’t be neglected either as they show some of the things that only get passing mentions in budget speeches like “Farming”.

In Cowens 2006 budget “Childcare, children, education” and “Reliefs” feature highly compared to other years. Tax is bigger than in both 2007 and 2008. It seemed to be chasing “Reliefs” around the speech. Disappointingly “infrastructure” does not feature highly but is higher than 2007 and 2008