Frightened Albanian wrote:

Well old Etonians and lots of their dads were in the Eton Rifles. A great riff and chorus but never quite worked out it's politics or Wellers for that matter. I also wondered if the The Jam were tories?

Weller voted Tory in 1979 (as did Ian Curtis), then subsequently threw in his lot with Labour and Red Wedge. He said he only voted Tory to p1ss people off, an inverted act of rebellion. Eton Rifles is about middle class 'class warriors', the type who play at being radicals before settling down as bank managers. I met people like that in England growing up, they were intensely irritating, particularly when lecturing those of us from a working class background. The Jam were great until they began going all 'white soul', and the Style Council were spat out of the bowels of hell, absolutely hideous music.

toxic avenger wrote:

Frightened Albanian wrote:

Well old Etonians and lots of their dads were in the Eton Rifles. A great riff and chorus but never quite worked out it's politics or Wellers for that matter. I also wondered if the The Jam were tories?

Weller voted Tory in 1979 (as did Ian Curtis), then subsequently threw in his lot with Labour and Red Wedge. He said he only voted Tory to p1ss people off, an inverted act of rebellion. Eton Rifles is about middle class 'class warriors', the type who play at being radicals before settling down as bank managers. I met people like that in England growing up, they were intensely irritating, particularly when lecturing those of us from a working class background. The Jam were great until they began going all 'white soul', and the Style Council were spat out of the bowels of hell, absolutely hideous music.

Thank you toxic, I suppose I could have goggled the lyrics and read them instead of humming. I have had rather mixed interactions with both old punks and old Etonians.

Hello again everyone. I once again did a disappearing act as between lectures, debating finals with the Phil and representing the same society at the UCD IV and recovering yesterday while receiving family guests, I have been unable to chat to all my wonderful fellow Machine Nationals. How is everyone?

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Hello again everyone. I once again did a disappearing act as between lectures, debating finals with the Phil and representing the same society at the UCD IV and recovering yesterday while receiving family guests, I have been unable to chat to all my wonderful fellow Machine Nationals. How is everyone?

In good spirits, by and large. Welcome back!

ibis wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Hello again everyone. I once again did a disappearing act as between lectures, debating finals with the Phil and representing the same society at the UCD IV and recovering yesterday while receiving family guests, I have been unable to chat to all my wonderful fellow Machine Nationals. How is everyone?

In good spirits, by and large. Welcome back!

Thank you very much ibis. I see Libertas continues to be a bone of contention here on the threads.

Hi Ard Taoiseach. How did the debating go?

Ascent of Money is on, btw.

cactus flower wrote:

Hi Ard Taoiseach. How did the debating go?

Ascent of Money is on, btw.

Very well. A Trinity team from the Hist won the overall competition and I put in a good showing myself through the five rounds of the competition. The L&H put on a good spread of free food and drink which aided the enjoyment of a whirlwind weekend of oration.

Hi Ard Taoiseach. Everyone is happy. You are another who I frequently disagree with but I want you to know I am not bitter. I am however bemoaning the lack of your posts of economic cheer. When things get bad in a few weeks time we will need you for the discussion on remedies which should be great fun.

youngdan wrote:

Hi Ard Taoiseach. Everyone is happy. You are another who I frequently disagree with but I want you to know I am not bitter. I am however bemoaning the lack of your posts of economic cheer. When things get bad in a few weeks time we will need you for the discussion on remedies which should be great fun.

What - picking all little bits off the fan ?

youngdan wrote:

Hi Ard Taoiseach. Everyone is happy. You are another who I frequently disagree with but I want you to know I am not bitter. I am however bemoaning the lack of your posts of economic cheer. When things get bad in a few weeks time we will need you for the discussion on remedies which should be great fun.

I am most flattered by your remarks and yes, I have been known to be Optimist-in-Chief on these fora and on P.ie but I haven't had much to go on from that point of view in the last few months. What I would say is to look to the long term and there, regardless of today's gyrations, you will see the inherently strong fundamentals of our economy coming through and ensuring a strong, sustainable level of growth for us into the future. However, while we wait for that to arise, things shall remain exceptionally challenging.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Hello again everyone. I once again did a disappearing act as between lectures, debating finals with the Phil and representing the same society at the UCD IV and recovering yesterday while receiving family guests, I have been unable to chat to all my wonderful fellow Machine Nationals. How is everyone?

You just like this thread, don't you.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Hello again everyone. I once again did a disappearing act as between lectures, debating finals with the Phil and representing the same society at the UCD IV and recovering yesterday while receiving family guests, I have been unable to chat to all my wonderful fellow Machine Nationals. How is everyone?

You just like this thread, don't you.

And the Sibín one EVM!

AT, is it possible to look up lists of past students in TCD ? Are past classes lists or such publicly available. e.g.the Law class of 1985 or suchlike.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

AT, is it possible to look up lists of past students in TCD ? Are past classes lists or such publicly available. e.g.the Law class of 1985 or suchlike.

I think I know the people who could make that possible. Do you know someone from the Law class of 1985?

I also had the indignity of watching my avatar being cruelly deceased over the weekend. The Return of the Jedi was the Sunday film on UTV and Luke Skywalker had to ruin it by being so prudish and not joining his Dad in running the Galaxy. Total cop-out Lucas, it was going so well up to the last half hour.

I *heart*

Great to be back - and hope to be around more in the future. Plenty of interesting discussion here about energy, mechanics and other tasty things.

Hey Peter, where in God's name were you ?

How many extra trees do we need in Ireland to meet our carbon targets ? Just though I'd throw that question in there as it was on my mind.

Quote :

Hey Peter, where in God's name were you ?

On sabbatical

Quote :

How many extra trees do we need in Ireland to meet our carbon targets ? Just though I'd throw that question in there as it was on my mind.

More than we can possibly fit in this country! We can't keep the ones we have.

There's one company going carbon neutral by 2020 and that's the ESB - that's what we should all be doing.

I wasn't away, per se, just very busy. The PDs are dead, the night of the living dead was faithfully reported by David Davin-Power on Saturday and Harney is still (!!!!) in the Cabinet. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Seán of the Dead, Zombie banks, Private Equity Vultures ... You've popped in to have a look at the rotten decaying corpse of the Celtic Tiger have you Slim ? Could anyone tell you that anything healty will spring out of the humus that the body which the Tiger will become ? Maybe we've created a new form of vegetative life where a whole ecosystem is populated by weeds and parasites only - a giant fungus jungle bog ? How far can I drag this out ? If I keep going I will end up on the jungle-planet Dagobah



How are you and UBS ?

Auditor #9 wrote:

Seán of the Dead, Zombie banks, Private Equity Vultures ... You've popped in to have a look at the rotten decaying corpse of the Celtic Tiger have you Slim ? Could anyone tell you that anything healty will spring out of the humus that the body which the Tiger will become ? Maybe we've created a new form of vegetative life where a whole ecosystem is populated by weeds and parasites only - a giant fungus jungle bog ? How far can I drag this out ? If I keep going I will end up on the jungle-planet Dagobah



How are you and UBS ?

UBS heading to zombie status. Single-handedly destroyed Swiss banking secrecy. I am open-minded on this issue. As far as I am concerned, Switzerland does not need it. It should be done away with. I have the impression that banking secrecy is very much a double-edged sword and Switzerland would in the long run be better off without it but (having first dealt with the UBS problem) concentrate on the overall strength of its financial services sector.

When is Machine Nation's first birthday? Is it not within the week?

Howdy all

march 11, seathrun.

Howdy yourself.

Kate P wrote:

march 11, seathrun.

Howdy yourself.

But Kate P - surely you joined before 1 March 2009? Or are you an impostor, a reincarnation or a clone?