The Echo Chamber from Tortoise Shack

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As the UK Government announce a U-Turn and an additional £18bn in cuts, we are rejoined by listeners favourite, Professor Richard Murphy to ask what it all means beyond the schadenfreude.

We talk about the economic realities and the political choices ahead, none of which are very attractive. We discuss the impact this creative destruction ideology is and will have on the social fabric and Richard outlines why we "need a new song" to help move us from isolation of neoliberalism to embracing the participation in society.

Follow Reichard @RichardJMurphy

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It was a pleasure to be joined by WTS Podcast Co-host, Graham Merro Merrigan, Latinist Academic, Siobhán McElduff, Sunday Times journalist, Aoife Moore and Mr Election Projections, Harry McEvansoneya.

We talked Cllr Crowe's apology to the Traveller Community, Cuba voting for same sex marriage, Brazilian exit polls, the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis, Ireland's Future events, the no-budget bounce polls, housing and the homelessness stats that shame us all.

Thanks for all the support over the last 900 episodes.

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You guys, our fantastic members, have asked us to look into the Government switcheroo that is due to take place in December and how inserting a right to housing into the Irish constitution might change things, or not.

So we got Constitutional Law lecturer in NUIG, Dr Eoin Daly, to dig into both of these issues. The result is a very informative podcast that shows the scope of powers that a Taoiseach has and raises concerns that a referendum might not be the best use of housing activists energies at this particular time. Hope you enjoy.

Please , please, please click on patreon.com/tortoiseshack and have a gander.

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On Saturday October 1st at 1pm in Dublin's 3 Arena, Ireland's Future will host the largest public meeting about the plans for a United Ireland that this island has ever seen.

Joining us (again) on the podcast is Queens University Belfast Human Rights Lecturer and member of the Ireland's Future Management Committee, Professor Colin Harvey. We talk about the meeting, who will be there and who won't, how to broaden the tent and what are the aims for what Colin sees as a huge opportunity to improve the lives of all in a new rights based society.

Tickets will be available at the door. See irelandsfuture.com for more.

Craig Murray is curator for the Duxford historical site at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, working within the Cold War and Late 20th Century team. His main specialism, apart from the history of RAF Duxford, is the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He is currently planning and researching the IWM's 2023 Northern Ireland exhibition. In this episode Craig talks about the challenges and opportunities of curating an exhibition on our contested and violent recent history.

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In this Reboot Republic, Rory gets the analysis and responses to Budget 2023 from Michael Taft, economist with SIPTU, Head of Social Justice at SVP, Dr Tricia Kielty and Louise Bayliss, of Focus Ireland.

We discuss inadequacies in the Budget that will result in poverty and deprivation rates rising, particularly for lone parents, children and other disadvantaged groups, as welfare increases are falling behind inflation and low income individuals and families simply do not have the financial capacity to withstand an escalating cost of living crisis.

We also analyse the Budget for its overall impact on inequality, housing, homelessness and what could (and should) the Government have done (and still must do) on energy costs, rents, evictions and investment in public services.

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Constantin Gurdgiev returned for what was one of the broadest, but most informative podcasts we've ever done. We discuss events politically and economically in his now home of the US. We look at the ideological barriers to addressing the "cost of living crisis" and the need for long-term thinking and not widening the subsidy net.

We also discuss the issue around young people thinking about leaving Ireland and the threat that is to our entire societal and economic system. Finally, Constantin, gives us his views on the future of Putin and the war in in Ukraine.

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This Reboot Republic podcast is part of the Budget 2023 special series, and in it Rory talks to Hugh Brennan of the not-for-profit housing developer, Ó Cualann Co Housing Alliance. Ó Cualann is building the only affordable housing for sale to home buyers in the country at the moment.

They are building genuinely affordable housing, such as a two-bedroom apartment in North Dublin for €165,000. Hugh explains that the Ó Cualann not-for-profit housing delivery model could be replicated and scale up across the country. He highlights barriers to this such as land issues -accessing affordable state land (the cost and debt attached to state lands), procurement benefitting the 4 or 5 big players rather than smaller contracts for SME builders, the need for initial development cost finance support for not-for-profit housing organisations, the need to support community led housing schemes who have the energy and desire to self build housing.

Ultimately how policy is still reluctant to 'interfere' with the market, when in housing, we need the non-market providers to be central to housing supply and delivery. This is a podcast of real hope and solutions!

Edited and Produced by @tricksterworld

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This week we were joined by PBP TD, Paul Murphy, Barrister, Seána Grant and Fingal Cllr, Daniel Whooley, for what was a very eye-opening Live Show.

We talk about the Fingal Library twitter (J.K Rowling) controversy that saw Daniel wake up to the him been quoted on the front page of the Sunday Times. We discuss the NI Census results, the UN saying the Mother and Baby Home redress scheme is inadequate, the Al jazeera Labour Party investigation, the Cost of Living Coalition's first National Protest, protests in Iran, creeping anti-intellectualism in FG and more.

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Produced and Edited by @Trickstersworld

PBP TD Richard Boyd Barret joined us for the first time since early 2020, so we had plenty to chat about.

We discuss the cost of living and housing crises, the upcoming Budget, the radical solutions that are actually just commonsense and his position pre any future general election on the potential for a government of the left. Hope to see lots of you at Parnell Square at 2:30pm!

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Produced and Edited by @tricksterworld