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In March the Revenue Commissioners will post property tax demands to 1.9 million homes.  People will be asked under threat of penalty to register by 7 May (forms) or electronically by May 28. The Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes (CAHWT) is calling on householders to ignore the forms and to refuse to register.

The latest Irish Times (IPSOS/MRBI) opinion poll has been widely discussed in the media in recent days, with claims being made that it heralds the rising from the grave of Fianna Fail. In reality, this is a gross spinning of the facts and an attempt by the media and the establishment to demoralise anti-austerity activists, and rehabilitate Fianna Fail.

A new drug, Kalydeco, will be made available to Cystic Fibrosis sufferers in Ireland. The drug, which treats a mutation specific to 10% of CF patients, will lead to a significant increase in quality of life.

There is no question but that the Property Tax is the anti-austerity issue this year, writes Cllr Matthew Waine. The planned robbery of peoples’ wages, pensions & welfare payments by a government that includes the Labour Party is the final straw for many people.

Since the anti-globalisation movement of the late '90s and early 2000s, wherever the political representatives and economic thinkers of capital met, they encountered protest and opposition. The anti-worker and environmentally unsustainable implications of their free trade and neo-liberal agenda were exposed at Seattle, Genoa and worldwide.

Eyewitness reports of Garda violence at South Dublin County Council, on 11 February. Photo: Paul Murphy MEP being arrested by plain clothes Gardaí.

Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, sets out to depict – but according to Bigelow not necessarily endorse – the “greatest manhunt in history”, the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Despite Bigelow’s claims of artistic neutrality, her film is a grotesque and blatant propaganda piece for US foreign policy post 9/11 and its criminal use of torture in particular.

What a rancid state and political establishment. Even the whitewash of a report by  devout Catholic, Martin McAleese illustrates intimate state involvement of various hues in the Magdalene Laundries. Yet, the mealy-mouthed immediate response from the government constituted a blatant shirking of responsibility, and a refusal to apologise, or even clearly admit wrongdoing on behalf of the state.

The following letter was sent by Paul Murphy MEP to Minister Varadkar, to clarify the facts made on the 27 January episode of The Week in Politics. Below is a link to the program for any who missed it,

The ‘butterfly effect’ is used to explain a complicated theory touching on mathematics and meteorology. It posits that the flap of the slender wings of a butterfly could create minuscule changes in the atmosphere that might ultimately be sufficiently enhanced to accelerate or delay a faraway tornado or alter its path. The idea might help explain recent dramatic events in the Sahel region of north Africa, notably the French military intervention in Mali and the murderous events at the In Amenas energy plant in south east Algeria.