“God, Kinch, if you and I could only work together we might do something for the island. Hellenise it”

To the misfits of the world, to all of us who do not conform to the closing of humanity:

Now, more than ever, the world looks two ways at once.

1. There has been renewed talk lately that the ‘turn’ must come, that we are rapidly approaching some point where a widescale, popular resistance to the neoliberal way of life will manifest itself. Conor Kostick, in his talk on Irish soviets for Occupy University, speculated that future historians might even note that we have already passed the watershed without realising it. Now, it is unfair and inappropriate to read the tea leaves through the referendum campaign alone.

I didn't know why I was voting No, exactly. There were a few reasons, a nebulous fog of them, swirling around the pit of my gut and pulsing in my temples.

So, I decided to turn it on its head, think outside the box, innovate, get real in the real world. I went looking for reasons to vote 'Yes' and found jobs, stability, growth, and lots of talk of confidence that didn’t inspire any.

The Irish Exporters' Association tells us that a Yes vote will give:

On theJournal.ie on Monday Senator Katherine Zappone established her support for the Fiscal Treaty in an article titled, ‘I’ve always fought for those who have the least. That’s why I’m voting Yes.’ For many of us who are fans of her academic and political work it will have been a disappointing read - laced with conformism, neoliberal logic and uncritical repetition of conventional wisdom which serves the interests of the powerful.

In the midst of all the bluster about billions and bailouts, the most fundamental consequence of adopting the Fiscal Treaty into law has largely being ignored; namely the threat the treaty poses to the very nature of European democracy.

Throughout the debate around the Fiscal Treaty any argument beyond the purely economic has been entirely marginalised; the Overton window on this discussion is a porthole. By Mike Morris.

Jenny O'Connor takes a look at some of the main arguments that have circulated throughout the Fiscal Treaty referendum campaign, and concludes that 'there is little to lose in voting No'.

Would Ireland be able to secure a second bailout?

The Yes campaign claim that, in the event of a No vote, Ireland would be denied EU funding should it require a second bailout. The No campaign claim that a second bailout could be secured elsewhere, often citing the IMF as a likely source.

Yesterday, Joan Burton declared JobBridge a roaring success based on the fact that 797 people of the 6,840 who have started internships under the scheme have managed to find jobs. This figure is misleading, however, because it includes people who got positions with companies they weren’t doing their internship with.

The recent furore over the closure of closure of the Irish Embassy to the Vatican drowned out any discussion over the withdrawal of other embassies, including that in Tehran last month. Almost unnoticed, Iran has been lumped in with Timor Leste as one of two other Irish diplomatic missions that is surplus to requirements. Ireland now has no resident diplomat in any country in a straight line from Cyprus to India.