Fintan O’Tool is one of the best columnists on the Irish Times. Miriam Lord is another. Between them they have an excellent handle on Irish political sentiment. In Miriam’s case, a very amusing one at times. In this article O’Toole nails what happend before and during the referendum campaign.
On a seperate topic, look at what this hypocrite is up to… https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/may/31/brexiter-nigel-lawson-applies-french-residency-vote-leave
As a Brit living in France it seems a natural move - as some on SF have done/discussed.
Living in France and believing that the UK would be better off outside the EU are not actually incompatible views or hypocritical in themselves - but, once again, we see someone who played a prominent role in the Leave campaign who will not personally be affected by the the fact that we are leaving the EU; that is what he should rightly be lambasted for.
Ivan Rogers gave a good speech on the immediate background to the referendum. Chris Grey gives a excellent review of our relationship with Europe over the last 40 years and how that played into public perceptions during the Leave campaign.
Thanks Paul - I have been reading Chris’s blog with great interest.
Hi John
About abortion, there are still a couple of things I do not understand:
Indeed, it is understandable that when an embryo is severely malformed, keeping it puts a heavy burden on the parents.
Do not get me wrong: I perfectly understand and approve the fact that some other communities are happy with abortion and euthanasia at the core of their human values.
But still, I do not see the point to be so happy that it is becoming legal to destroy a marvelous organism such as a mammal embryo. It is very difficult to watch my children and think “You could have more brothers and sisters but we aborted them”.
To make things clearer, why not saying openly that human life does not have a very big value, and it is perfectly admissible to eliminate people with abortion/eugenics/euthanasia in some reasonable circumstances: Heavy health expenses, inheritance etc ? It would be much more consistent.
I suspect you’re not familiar with the pain and suffering the Irish Catholic Church has caused the Irish people Remi, and I won’t bore you by rehashing it here but they have been unmitigated, out of control bastards since the foundation of the State. They fought tooth and nail against our national health service, against contraception, against divorce, against gay rights and against womans’ rights. They used lies, misinformation and scaremongering. I fought in many of these battles 
so I’m more than happy to engage on the latest topic of abortion.
Regarding you points.
1 That doesn’t mean we should force women to reproduce if they do not want to.
2 Getting pregnant is as easy as it ever was.
3 That is unsubstantiated bullshit (if you don’t mind me saying so). - Ref: scaremongering.
4 More of the above.
5 It’s the woman’s choice.
6 Good, the world is being destroyed by overpopulation.
7 In Irelands case termination after 12 weeks will only be for reasons of FFA or risk to the mother’s health or life. So six months, not “a couple of months”. Viable babies will, as always, have every possible support.
We’ve just fought this battle in Ireland and 70% of the population, a clever, well educated population has rejected the bullshit teachings of the Catholic Church and I, at 64, think that’s something to celebrate. Also, through extensive investment in sex eduction and contraception (both objected to by the Catholic Church) Ireland will work hard to try and reduce the actual need for abortions, as has been done successfully in several European countries. For example the Netherlands.
There’s a big difference between trying to secure your life where you live (France) and chairing the Vote Leave campaign during the EU referendum - that’s hypocrisy. What’s good for him isn’t good for the hoi polloi. Next we’ll have Farage retiring to run a Bistro in the Dordogne subsidised by his EU pension.
Absolutely BRILLIANT John 
Can’t help myself thinking about Simone Veil 
Here is a link about an article from Front National, in 1970
We are now in the 21th century, and sadly things hasn’t changed much 
I am on the other hand familiar of difficulties having children, and regret the sad consequences of abortion. And no, getting pregnant is not as easy as it was (See statistics about fertility). Let’s face it: The Irish Catholic church (whose teaching in this matter is quite close to Judaism and Islam btw) did certainly less harm than the Great Famine in the XIXth century. Quite the opposite I would say, because they made the population grow. Anyway, I am not Irish, and being a foreigner I would not go there to tell them what they should do.
(3) About women regretting their abortion: Most of women I know who aborted (About ten), deeply regret it, except one. They simply did not have the choice: Pressure from the parents, let down by their mate, money etc… Women are the victims in this problem, and abortion simply postpones the financial and social sides of the situation.
(4) About suffering of foetus, also, I will not bore you but Google will give tons of answers. Echography too (Ultrasound imaging).
(5) The concept of “Women’s choice” is comfortable for us men. It means: “I can make a woman pregnant and I do not care about the consequences”
(6) Europe might be overpopulated (not so sure), but it does not imply that its population should be reduced by eliminating the younger ones. Europe’s population is getting older and costs a lot in retirement pensions. Indeed, if euthanasia was promoted as much as abortion, it would not be a problem.
(7) “In Irelands case termination after 12 weeks”: Yes, it sounds more foetus-friendly than “Partial birth abortion”, but also implies than just before 12 weeks, a foetus is nothing, and one second after, it is a human being.
“bullshit teachings of the Catholic Church”
In this matter, I have understood that we she says is that human life starts at conception (Not 12 weeks, three months), when two threads of DNA mix to create a new being. And therefore, eliminating this being is destroying a human life, which contradicts “Thou shall not kill”, hence they forbid it. What is inconsistent with that ?
Indeed, Simone Veil was in a certain extent betrayed (She did the job for Chirac 1st minister and Giscard President). She wanted to make a law for extreme situations, where it was absolutely certain that the mother would abort. Only in this extent, the opposition of the bishops was very weak. But quite quickly, the law changed in a direction she did not want.
Please have a look to these links:
Simone Veil did not create a right to abortion, but a “depenalisation”. That is: It was not punished by the law:
She said that the society does not take in charge nor encourage abortion, but tolerates it, because it would happen anyway:
“I say this with total conviction: Abortion should stay an exception, the last resort for desperate situations. How, you may ask, can we tolerate it without its losing the character of an exception — without it seeming as though society encourages it? I will share a conviction of women, and I apologize for doing it in front of this assembly comprised almost exclusively of men: No woman resorts to abortion lightheartedly.”
“You only have to listen to the women. It is always a drama and will always remain a drama. This is why, if the project which is presented to you takes into account the existing de facto situation, if it admits the possibility of a termination of pregnancy, it is to control it and, as much as possible, to dissuade the woman from it”
Very difficult problem indeed. Do not get me wrong, I do not give lessons of morale but try to point out inconsistencies … and:
“, as much as possible, to dissuade the woman from it”
Oh gve me a break Remi, I’ve had enough of that bullshit for one life. We won, men in black frocks can’t dictate to women in Ireland anymore, it’s over, finito. But amusingly some of the more stupid men in frocks can’t come to terms with it https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/bishop-condemns-jumping-and-roaring-over-poll-result-1.3516704
Which is, um, exactly what I said. Nice that we agree 
Well, here we are, women in the 21th century have their own rights to vote, to work, to have a bank acount, to divorce and to access abortion, without the consent of their husband or the church, I can imagine it can be painful for certain men to be deprived of their women’s ownership !
Who knows where this lunacy could end 
Ah the good old time John, where is this world going 
I imagine that is where Ireland will follow, Remi.
Follow, follow??? 
Ireland leads mate.
This answer about Simone Veil is a very good exemple, and has created the answer I was expecting from Remi. Tipical of a member of “les survivants”, the survivors, the one that hasn’t been aborted. They try to be very active on social media to spread their propaganda. They bought the domain name simoneveil in 2016, waiting for her death to use it for their anti abortion speech. They’ve been waiting for her to be dead but still warm to start to use it as a pro anti abortion web site, of course she couldn’t reply or defend herself. We call them “charognard” in french (scavenger). This site has been shut down. All this is not realy nice at all. I do respect different ideas, but do hate propaganda in general.
Of course!