Declan Gaffney
@greyskiesthinking.bsky.social
Research, analysis & grey-skies thinking on labour markets, social security, public finance & equality. Usual disclaimer. djmgaffneyw4 on twitter, @declangaffney@mstdn.social
Reward for getting up earlier than I wanted to on a Sunday is getting to the bakery before they've run out of ficelles, the smaller thinner sibling of the baguette with the most perfect ratio of crust and crumb imaginable.
Pleased to report that there was no vegetarian option whatsoever at Wynn's. Inconvenient for me admittedly but impressive nonetheless.
Meeting someone for lunch later this week in Wynn's Hotel on Abbey Street. Quite excited about this because as a Dubliner I have obviously never set foot in the place.
Yeah, people getting hammered for thinking earnings should be reported monthly, as if that wasn't a reasonable assumption given that's how the rest of the system now operates.
They should have reformed the calendar before embarking on all this. There was plenty of time as it turned out.
I find I cannot hold in my head simultaneously (a) the Universal Credit assessment period (b) weekly, fortnightly or monthly pay cycles and (c) the Gregorian calendar. Guess I need to make a model :(
Well that was wonderful. Haven't seen it in at least 40 years.
PSA: Lubitsch's Shop Around The Corner on BBC iPlayer.
Ophuls' Letter From An Unknown Woman is also still there. A dream double bill of Hollywood Mitteleuropa.
PSA: Lubitsch's Shop Around The Corner on BBC iPlayer.
Yes, not a fan at all but at the same time - and this is the great irony - SF relative electoral success since 1998 is part of the peace process (imagine if they'd failed politically) and so is to be welcomed.
Same here but not a family thing. Product of late 70s circumstances that made you unwilling to have your politics defined by your position on the National Question.
I have never been enthusiastic about the idea of a 'left' grand coalition led by SF. Putting it mildly.
Thanks. I can't filter or block because I also need single use codes to access the account.
Two questions that reform proposals have to answer: to what extent is DWP policy already locked in by IT and administrative systems? and how can we be sure the solution isn't even worse than the problem?
The problem lies in the monthly payment and assessment cycle for UC, compounded by benefit deductions and shortfalls in housing support. The latter can be addressed (at some cost) but the former is highly intractable afaics without a complete redesign.
They don't have my Microsoft password and I presume if they had my email password they would have got in (all the hacking attempts were denied).
Some of the worst features of UC will be easy to reform, but the issues raised in this brief are going to be really difficult. Earnings at the lower end of the distribution are very volatile and whether UC serves to offset this or to reinforce it is erratic and arbitrary.
Had a look at activity on my Microsoft account and the number of failed attempts to hack into it from all over the world must be in the hundreds in the last month alone. Each of these generates an email with a single-use code, clogging up my inbox. Don't know what to do about it.
Barnes is very charming seen from the other side of the river.
The Sixteen doing Monteverdi's Vespers on R3 right now. I saw them doing this at Temple Church years ago and it was one of the best things ever.
Feel that Michael Young deserves two slots, for Family & Kinship in East London (with Peter Willmott) and The Rise of the Meritocracy.
Resisting the urge to check the National Accounts methodology here. (Guessing a trivial impact on the CPI partly offsetting the trivial impact on GDP.)
And it's observed, or seems to be: the sluggish duck, the kettle like a goose, it's not just a conceit being filled out with standard barnyard furniture.
I think we didn't get the whole poem, after the first two verses it seemed all new to me.
It's lovely isn't it? Do you remember when you learned it? Primary or secondary?
Picked up this great dual-language edition of Seán Ó Ríordáin in Dublin (Books Upstairs of course) and found a poem that must have been on the syllabus when I was a kid but had completely forgotten about.
Catching up on 1st episode, just heard the presenter pronounce Howth with an 'ow' rather than an 'oh'. 😬
Can't understand why Ireland doesn't make more of Elizabeth Maconchy (current composer of the week on R3). I only recently learned she was Irish.
Can't understand why Ireland doesn't make more of Elizabeth Maconchy (current composer of the week on R3). I only recently learned she was Irish.
Can't understand why Ireland doesn't make more of Eliabeth Maconchy (current composer of the week on R3). I only recently learned she was Irish.
FWIW and on the basis of no privileged information, I think any non-Conservative government would repeal the two-child clause in the 2015 act as part of their first social security reform legislation.
The alliance between pro-redistribution progressives and right-wing natalism hypothesised here would be far from unprecedented- the design of family benefits in some European welfare states still shows natalist influences dating from the interwar period. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
When even Suella Braverman lectures Labour on child poverty, something is very wrong | Gaby Hinsliff
If even the Tory right-winger sees political capital in opposing the two-child benefit cap, Keir Starmer needs to think again, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
www.theguardian.comAlso: that missing fada on 'Pháidín' in the quoted post will dog me to my grave.
Reading the sleeve notes on Bandcamp and there's a fine tribute to 'obar an Uasail Tim Robinson', fair play.
New to me: An 424 by Trá Phaidín, 2023 album of mainly instrumental avant-rock (?) from the west of Ireland named after my favourite bus route (Galway ->Carraroe). Reminded variously of 90s post-rock, early Can, African jazz.
As I understand it the tents were due to the Irish government withdrawing accommodation from single adult male aylum seekers last year? Certainly nothing to do with Rwanda.
👀
Wait what x.com/jp_biz/statu...
JPCampbellBiz on X: "The High Court in Belfast has basically struck down the Illegal Migration Act in Northern Ireland because it breaches the human rights provisions of the Windsor Framework. Expect a government appeal." / X
The High Court in Belfast has basically struck down the Illegal Migration Act in Northern Ireland because it breaches the human rights provisions of the Windsor Framework. Expect a government appeal.
x.comDid you have to buy a boat ticket to get the cheap rail fare?
Everything on the boat is Joyce-themed but they missed the obvious in calling the bar Bloom's rather than The Sirens.
Part of this being that they aren't constantly trying to screw the last penny out of a captive clientele. Good veggie breakfast €14.95.
Was cursing my decision to get the boat to Dublin last night as going back involves a 6 a.m. start, but Irish Ferries' Ulysses is a very civilised travel experience.
New to me: An 424 by Trá Phaidín, 2023 album of mainly instrumental avant-rock (?) from the west of Ireland named after my favourite bus route (Galway ->Carraroe). Reminded variously of 90s post-rock, early Can, African jazz.
Charles Lloyd said 'Bird discovered the atom' and that's the closest I've heard anyone get to just what happened there.