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Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

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Human Rights in Ireland
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Top Scientists Confirm Covid Shots Cause Heart Attacks in Children Sun Oct 05, 2025 21:31 | imc

offsite link Fraud and mismanagement at University College Cork Thu Aug 28, 2025 19:30 | Calli Morganite

offsite link Deliberate Design Flaw In ChatGPT-5 Sun Aug 17, 2025 09:04 | Mind Agent

offsite link AI Reach: Gemini Reasoning Question of God Sat Aug 02, 2025 21:00 | Mind Agent

offsite link Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem finally Admits It is Genocide releasing Our Genocide report Sat Aug 02, 2025 00:54 | 1 of indy

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Top Therapist ?Ousted? After Trans Activist Row Sun Oct 26, 2025 19:42 | Richard Eldred
The leader of one of Britain's largest therapy groups has faced death threats after raising concerns about the safety of treatment for gender-questioning children.
The post Top Therapist ?Ousted? After Trans Activist Row appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Brazilian Chef Rejects Prince William?s Vegan Banquet: ?It?s Like Asking Iron Maiden to Play Jazz? Sun Oct 26, 2025 17:07 | Richard Eldred
A Brazilian chef has ditched cooking for Prince William at the Earthshot environmental awards after being told the menu must be vegan ? calling it a total slap in the face to Amazonian tradition.
The post Brazilian Chef Rejects Prince William’s Vegan Banquet: ?It?s Like Asking Iron Maiden to Play Jazz? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Banal, the Craven and the Sinister at a College Staff Well-being Day Sun Oct 26, 2025 15:00 | Dave Summers
Join Dave Summers for an eye-widening tour of a college staff 'Well-being' day, where the normally inoffensive 'fun, stress-busting' activities take a decidedly sinister turn.
The post The Banal, the Craven and the Sinister at a College Staff Well-being Day appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Fury as ?Hard-Up? Met Police Set to Splurge ?5 Million a Year on 64-Strong Woke Taskforce? as Half o... Sun Oct 26, 2025 13:00 | Richard Eldred
While the Met is axing half its mounted officers, closing stations and slashing frontline policing to plug a ?250 million hole, it's somehow found ?5.2 million for a 64-strong 'woke' taskforce and 63 diversity events.
The post Fury as ?Hard-Up? Met Police Set to Splurge ?5 Million a Year on 64-Strong Woke Taskforce? as Half of Its Mounted Officers Face Losing Their Jobs appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link God Help Us! Students Given Trigger Warning About the Bible?s Death and Violence ? Including Christ?... Sun Oct 26, 2025 11:00 | Richard Eldred
After Homer, Shakespeare and Dickens, the Bible is the latest classic to get a trigger warning for its depictions of violence, including Christ's crucifixion.
The post God Help Us! Students Given Trigger Warning About the Bible?s Death and Violence ? Including Christ?s Crucifixion appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

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Broadband: Another Privatisation Mess

category national | sci-tech | press release author Friday October 19, 2018 22:10author by pbp - People Before Profit Report this post to the editors

Press Release - People Before Profit - 17th Oct 2018

Over half a million households in rural Ireland are missing out on broadband because of a disastrous privatisation policy.

Up to 1999, the telephone network was run by a state company, Telecom Eireann. But the Fianna Fail government decided to copy Margaret Thatcher and sell it off. Ever since then, disaster has piled on disaster.

Instead of providing long term investment to install broad band, a series of private owners simply asset stripped the company, which had been re-named Eircom.


By October 2010, for example, Ireland was ranked 29 out of 30 countries, ahead only of Mexico for broadband speed. Only a fifth of the population had access on that date.

Yet this disaster presented another opportunity for private companies to further blackmail the government.

Eir, which is the latest name for the company proposed, to charge €20 for every pole that the fibre optic cables would be hung on.

It was also allowed to cherry pick the easiest houses to connect and separate these out the more difficult ones.

The result as that only one private bidder, Enet, was left to negotiate a contract for the last half a million homes. It was actually backed by money from the state’s own Irish Infrastructure Fund which was set to take control of the company.

But suddenly Enet was downgraded to becoming only a supplier to a new consortium, Granahan McCourt. A Denis O Brien controlled company was then discovered to be part of the new consortium. They set about trying to squeeze even more money from the taxpayers for the contract.

Secret meetings between the former Minister for Communication, Denis Naughton, and the company’s chairperson, David McCourt, were all about getting these extra ‘incentives’.

Behind the whole sorry affair is a tale of greed for profit.

If the state retained control of its own telecommunications company, broadband would have been completed by now.

Yet again privatisation has proved a disaster.

We need a state owned company that completes the National Broadband plan in the interests of people – not profit

Related Link: http://www.pbp.ie/broadband-another-privatisation-mess/
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