The Other Hand

In conversation with author, blogger and columnist, Professor Chris Grey

Post the Labour landslide election victory, some of us have smiles on our faces. Does the result mean we can now really turn the page on the chaos and mendacity of the last 14 years?

Is Keir Starmer relying on dumb luck for success? Is this the last chance saloon for the UK?

"Stability, Investment and Reform". How deliverable are these things? Will they be enough, particularly as there is no money?

Labour is placing a big bet on getting construction going again. Who is going to do he building if immigration is to be reduced?

How do you do he right thing if you are subsequently politically crucified?

Can the UK really move closer to the EU with Farage in Parliament and the rabid Brexit media waiting in the wings?

And much more! Enjoy!

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The Irish finance minister is drowning in cash. Booming tax revenues the clearest indicator - much better than GDP - that the economy remains robust.

Politics over economics: Charlie McCreevy once said when finance minister, "If I have it, I'll spend it'. It's not what the budgetary watchdog or the central bank would endorse - quite the opposite of course. But if its bad economics, is it good politics? If so, the upcoming budget is going to be something else.

Will that budget be quickly followed by an election?

The UK, of course, has just had its own election. We discuss the many and varied takeaways. Chris suggests that the UK electing a centrist government after 14 chaotic and crazy years is cause for celebration and could just change the economic narrative, whatever the political fallout. Maybe Liz Truss did us all a favour and has given a salutary lesson to those who would flirt with batshit crazy populism. Maybe even in Ireland.

Joe Biden and the Democrats have to change the narrative. Make Kamala Harris president.

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In this podcast we welcome back regular guest, Professor Shane O'Mara, neuroscientist and professor at Trinity College Dublin.

I a review of an important new book by Dan Davies, professor Brad de Long of Berkley asks the question: given we are over 15 times better off than our pre-industrial ancestors, why are we so miserable. Davies gives one answer: things have become so complex, few people know how anything works any more and nobody is in charge. So nobody is accountable. 'Nothing works any more' is a constant refrain and Davies gives us his ideas about why so many of us feel that way. His answers may also give pointers as to why the established order - which seems to to make us so unhappy - was overthrown by Brexit, Trump and is going that way in many other countries, not least France.

Professor O'Mara pushes back, gently, against some of this. Demagogues know how to trigger the 30ish % of us that have latent authoritarian tendencies. Make us afraid of immigrants, the deep state, Brussels - we all know the mantras by now. Le Pen & co just know how to get a significant minority afraid and angry. Maybe it was ever thus. Chris argues that something has, in fact, changed and some things are worse.

Shane says there is plenty of evidence that says we are happier than the headlines suggest. But measuring 'life satisfaction' is nuanced and tricky.

But isn't it obvious where the increase in unhappiness has occurred? France, the US the UK?

The UK was the first to give manifest expression to its anger with the rupture - disaster - that was Brexit. Maybe because of a form of collective PTSD, Brexit cannot be talked about because of the fear of triggering precisely that post-traumatic stress. Maybe its just too soon to have the adult conversation. But those who brought forth the trauma are about to get their just deserts. Maybe. Populists appeal but cannot deliver - or just govern.

Some more thoughts on Biden and cognitive decline - don't jump to hasty conclusions.

And much more! Enjoy! We certainly did!

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The French elections will likely reverberate across Europe. Perhaps even alter the course of the war in Ukraine.

The UK will now see the final death throes of the Tory Party. Farage is on the cusp of another victory. Of sorts.

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Jean-Claude Juncker, ex-head of the EU Commission, once famously said that policymakers know what is the right thing to do, but don't know how to get re-elected if they do it. That is true too much of the time. But is there a unique opportunity for the Irish government, for once to do the right thing and to be rewarded for it at the ballot box?

Finance Minister McGrath has promised a tax-cutting budget. Is he missing a trick? Housing has such political salience in Ireland, if he threw the kitchen sink at building more homes instead of tax cuts, maybe that is also a vote-winning strategy? And also an opportunity to give Sinn Fein a good kicking while they are down?

Meanwhile, data emerges that shows the Irish tax system becoming even more unbalanced. That's storing up problems for the future.

San Francisco hasn't had an earthquake lately but its commercial property sector is crashing. Vacancy rates are probably higher that the 30+% reported as some big companies are effectively squatting in very under-utilised space. Why not just covert all this space into housing? Lots of other cities, including Irish ones, are in the same position.

Rishi Sunak's damage limitation exercises backfire. Labour can't believe its luck.

Keir Starmer's irish influencers.

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