Over 99 per cent of people have more legs than average – the average is perhaps 1.99. This fact, though true, teaches us a vital lesson about statistics: Averages belie extremes. Jimmy Kelly of the British-based Unite trade union writing in the Journal last week raged against cited a Central Bank report which, he said [...]

We are so broke that special needs teachers are being cut, taxes are being raised and social welfare is being cut. But you – and all Irish taxpayers – are paying for magic. Abracadabra-alakazam there’s-nothing-up-my-sleeve style magic. The conjuring trick in question is homeopathy. The VHI, the dominant insurer, has no truck with homeopathy, but [...]

Last week, the Finnish government launched an online system where Finns can submit petitions which, if supported by 50,000 more citizens, will go before the Finnish parliament. Meanwhile, the US Patent Office released a system where the public can comment on patent applications for inventions. These are the type of things that I advocated when [...]

Tony Blair was quoted in Tuesday’s Journal saying “society won’t be better if we hang 20 bankers at the end of the street”. This comes as Seán FitzPatrick, two of his executives and the Quinns appear, occasionally, in courts and cells. Regardless of the outcome of those individual cases, Blair makes clear he believes that [...]

The difference between Libor and Dibor tells us why Ireland is failing. London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) is an interest rate which British banks charge when they lend each other money. Banks recalculate it every day under precise rules; it is important because thousands of major commercial loans have their interest rates set by reference [...]

Google tells us lots. At the time of writing, the term ‘salami slicing’ occurs on over 43,000 British web pages. Fewer than one thousand dot ie web pages contain that phrase, and most of them relate to Northern Ireland. The phrase is so rare in Ireland that it needs an explanation. ‘Salami slicing’ means a particular type of budget cut. [...]

IN A RECENT column for TheJournal.ie, Aaron McKenna advocates devolving most of the powers of Irish government to what he calls our “castrated” county and town councils. He is wrong. Irish local authorities (LAs) are bloated, incompetent, corrupt, sclerotic little fiefdoms who attempt to explain their uninterrupted record of failure by trotting out the lie that they [...]