Maman Poulet

Sniffle… Peninsula Ireland have appeared on Maman Poulet’s hall of shame before. Invariably they are described in the media as an employment law firm, one with a penchant for tabloidesque press releases, they never fail to get their guff covered in some paper or other.

‘Peninsula offers a full range of services covering health and safety, tax and employment law. These services provide bespoke assistance to you and are designed to allow you to concentrate on the day to day needs and priorities of your business.’

So every so often they do a few phone calls, release a press statement, and get air time spouting ‘rubbish’ from their ‘research’, while they try not to hawk their ’services’. The actual research statistics are never published for sociological analysis – just a press release full of noises to make bosses worry and fill pages of Metro and a column inch or two in the Irish Times.  (Journalists are not free from my ire here – stop fecking printing press releases and do some research of your own!)

This weeks press release is about Swine Flu. Seemingly 7 out of 10 employers think that employees are going to fake swine flu. Alan Price, Managing Director has given us the phrase Pandemic Panic and said

“The problem many employers face is that some members of their workforce will see Swine flu as a good excuse to take some time off, and this is where employers need to take action and be fair but firm.”

He advised investigating the matter thoroughly if you suspect employee sickness to be fraudulent and conducting back-to-work interviews, pointing out the impact the individual’s absence has had on the business in order to discourage further offending.

“There have been cases where an employee has stated they wouldn’t be coming in because someone in the office may be showing symptoms. This is unacceptable and employers are well within their rights to record this absence as unauthorised and take appropriate action. As much as employers should be understanding and careful, they do need to ensure they protect their bottom line.”

Can you imagine the team meetings in Peninsula HQ about the next PR/Panic initiative? – Next week they’ll be publishing research on the amount of time spent by employees skiving off to visit Ikea! They could of course publish research on the amount of time Peninsula’s own employees spend visiting blogs and leaving comments pretending to be ordinary punters but failing.

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When word went out earlier that Jim Corr was going to be on the Last Word on Todayfm you could hear radio switches click and kettles boil in anticipation. It is nearly a year since we were all agog listening to Jim’s intervention into the Lisbon Treaty Campaign.

Well Jim was back today to tell Matt Cooper he was right and the world is imploding – and we’ll end up with a world government, world currency and some sort of global domination and control freakery. You can listen to it here.

Now this interview was only one part of my audio feast today because as I slumbered this morning I happened to wake up to the Northside tones of one Royston Brady on Newstalk with Ger and Claire. (No sign of Ivan yet thank goddess, Ger Gilroy is bravely battling on – more about eh, Ivan, eh soon!)

Now if you think a Corr Brother is a bit off the wall well a Brady Brother is not too far behind if you listen to this assessment (file embedded below). McCreevy is wanted back for a start, and Royston likes New Labour (whoever they were) if Fianna Fáil won’t have him back. (I noted that Ger or Claire tweeted that Royston was being very indiscreet off air – he continued on air in such a manner also. Actually I wonder if Royston is looking to be the tabloid Noel Whelan!)

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Did you ever get the feeling that Ryan Tubridy has not got over Hillary Clinton not winning the Democratic Nomination for the US Presidential Election?

On Saturday night’s TV show during a cooking piece with St. Nevin Maguire of all people, Ryan picked up two bags of icing, one white and one brown and laddishly squeezed them going ‘Barack Obama – John McCain wahay….’ Wtf was that all about?

Yes Ryan we know that Obama is black and McCain is white – do you need to make a joke (and a really crass one at that!) about it?

You can watch it all here - (Click on the Saturday 25th October piece featuring Nevin Maguire) the piece starts about 8:10 in if you don’t want to hear all about Nevin’s marriage proposal and his fawning over Mary McAleese.

Add to this a completely pointless piece on Today with Pat Kenny yesterday morning regarding what would happen if a presidential nominee died before the inauguration. I kid you not… RTE seem to be on death threat execution watch.

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I know there has been a lot of commentary and citizen activismonline about those signs in the last few weeks.

To recap briefly – Commuters and pedestrians have noted the dangers presented by the signage and many others have commented on the deal that was done, the cityscape that was sold and the execution of the project by the advertising company and their agents.

I realise I’m late to the party but I had noted the arrival of the signs when I came back from holiday and had the phone all geared up to take a pic/video or two when I came across one that would cause me and the mothership a problem or 20. (Rumours that I was planning to ram raid them in Henry St. are greatly exaggerated… well maybe!)

I was wondering how long it would take blind and visually impaired people to speak up – and now they have – cane users in particular face huge problems as their canes will go under the signs as the bases are not solid and they will walk straight into them.

Dublin City Council are again assessing things. At this stage in the whole debacle Cllr Daithi Doolan should be hanging his head in shame as chairperson of the committee responsible as should his colleagues!

All those signs for a few hundred bikes that only able bodied people (including the muppets who nick them) are going to be able to use and oh Cllr. Doolan was spouting some rubbish about controlling the presence of advertising in the city on Liveline last week like some sort of born again urban connoiseur. Tiocfaidh ár Gaudi .

(Hat/tip to my sister for the latest ska! She thought I might have an opinion! Cough…)

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I’m sick and tired of men. I’ve had enough of their whining and this does not apply to John Waters. (But I bet he gets in on the act too!)

Why when responding to the announcement of a campaign to encourage people (of all genders) to campaign for women’s health care and in particular access to better breast care services do some of the lads pop up with the oh so funny
‘So….. www.twoballsandavote.com, anyone? or how about www.oneballandtheremovalofvotingrights.com ?’

Maybe because nobody has yet got off his hairy arse to do it. (I don’t have much experience of men’s arses to know if they are hairy or not…forgive me…)

Or perhaps if it were prostrate cancer screenings that were being misread, delayed, mismanaged and ignored then we would see more immediate action. Or infact those screenings aren’t mismanaged and indeed most of men’s health issues are managed well because those at the highest levels of medical management in this country are wait for it …. men. (I do try not to believe that last point – but it’s very difficult to be dissuaded when you experience the health service on a regular basis!) By the way the blood test for prostrate cancer has been available for years…the one for some forms of breast cancer is only now being developed.

Someone else posted a comment elsewhere about men’s fatality from cancer being higher – if this is true then yes we should all be doing something about it – like making sure men go to the doctor and do something proactive about their health. Women trying to be proactive about their health are getting fucked over in this country – that’s a scandal. (Other scandals involving women’s health in recent memory, Hepatitis C, Neary in Drogheda.)

But actually lads you don’t seem to see the fact that by campaigning for better cancer services for women that everybody would benefit by making sure that the roll out of the National Cancer Strategy was properly done.

And of course not all men are like the fine specimens I mention above – Squid gets it, as does Conor, Cian, Damien, Rick, etc.

Get your mouses clicking, sign the petition, send emails to your friends, facebook it, tell your mothers, fathers, brothers, best friends. Tell the Government and the HSE to stop stuffing it up for everybody.

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John Waters hates blogs…ah poor diddums. Is he crying over it like he was over Katy French? Thanks to Twenty for the clip I missed. Satanism…ah there was always a devilish streak in me!

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While the debates about the ban on traditional lightbulbs continue it’s probably about time that the many people living in Ireland who will be physically and emotionally affected by the move to low energy (CFL) bulbs put their two cents in.

For those of you who are not light sensitive or allergic to UVA rays may not know that CFL bulbs and other forms on non-incandescent lighting cause extreme difficulties for those with lupus, forms of eczema, sjorgens disease, dermatitis, epilepsy etc.

Personally I have no low energy bulbs in my home, I have also avoided a lot of other forms of lighting because I can’t cope in brightly lit or luminous conditions. I have had problems with this since my teens and the lights in the classroom used to cause me huge difficulties. Teaching also brought it’s problems with me sitting in the dark if I wanted to retain my concentration – the students probably thought I was a vampire.

As it is with incandescent bulbs I sit in the dark in my office a lot and only use lamps or candles at home. Low energy bulbs and the banning of the ‘old sort’ is going to cause me a lot of discomfort in terms of my sight and concentration but it’s minor in comparison to the skin rashes and other painful blistering and outbreaks that other will contend with from the UV rays emitted. I fear that lightbulbs are going to be added onto the prescription list along with the pills and potions.

I wonder how much consultation John ‘lights out’ Gormley will being doing with all the groups effected? More here on the British campaign to raise awareness of how environmental concerns harms those with long term medical conditions. I see Joanna Tuffy from Labour has thought about those with various medical conditions who will be affected. Today she called the Minister ‘Google Gormley‘ (I prefer ‘Lights Out’ myself) – but when he tells people to look up the internet for advice on how to dispose of the dam things he sounds so like the junior minister who talked about the emergency plans and the iodine tablets on Marian Finucane show and didn’t have a breeze about what he was talking about.

For the moment I cannot but agree with Philip Scott in his thoughts on the Great Green Gaff…(his wife has migraines, another condition affected by these so called green saviours)

stock up on as many incandescent bulbs as you can before these dimwits cast yet further gloom across the world.

And, at least incandescent light bulbs have the unusual property of actually illuminating a room.

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I get more than a few visits to the blog – Google is kind to me – lots of google searches for Steve Staunton, Niall McElwee, more recently People in Need land here. This morning a commuter from yesterdays Dublin-Waterford 4.25pm train searched visited and went to the post on signage for people with disabilities on trains. I felt her comment deserves a post of its own to remind us of some of the issues (and absolute wankers) facing those who need a seat on a train.

Thanks for visiting Fionnuala, and thanks for doing what you did on the train yesterday – pity you had to!

I have witnessed something obscenely rude and ignorant on the train yesterday evening.

The 4.25pm train from Dublin to Waterford.
It was very busy (as usual) and there were many people standing, beside me were a very elderly couple, the gentleman had a walking stick and the lady with him was quite frail looking (I later found out that they were both in their nineties!!!) and they were standing while young people all around them could see them and were sitting in seats.

I felt very strongly about this (I had no seat either but I am only 27 years of age and able-bodied so I was well able to stand – not very comfortable but it wasnt going to be a problem for me)
I went to the top of the carriage and in a polite manner asked if there was anyone who was willing to give their seats to this needy couple.

I was met with silence – until a young man said that he would put his seven year old son on his lap and give his son’s seat willingly, I thanked him for this and the elderly gentleman was told by his wife to take the seat (as he had a walking stick)
The train continued on and the elderly lady was still standing, eventually a person was getting off the train and a seat became vacant, I brought the old lady down to the seat and she was delighted as she said that she had been feeling rather unwell and faint due to the long time she had spent standing.
I asked a gentleman in the seat next to it if he could move into the vacant window seat as I didnt think that the elderly lady was going to be able to manouvere herself in past him.

I was met with a glare and then a torrent of the following:

“I have paid for this seat (not reserved)and I think that you have victimised the people in this carriage”
I said to the man (in his thirties and able-bodied) that I thought he was a disgrace, he could see how frail and ill the lady was and he should be ashamed of himself!
He did not agree however and continued to argue his point that I should have done nothing and left it as it was!!!!

To be honest I felt like giving him an absolute torrent of abuse but I held my tongue as the lady was going to get what she needed albeit grudgingly.

The man got off at the next stop and while passing me by (I am still standing at this stage and called me a dogooder!)

I mean for god’s sake this couples need was obvious, glaringly obvious!
What is wrong with people? This couple could easily have been his parents or grandparents!!!

Seriously disheartened by this.

Fionnuala.

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So the holiers were blissful and I return post ‘C’mon Everybody‘. What did I miss? Gwan fill me in!?

28 degree Tenerife turned into freezing Dublin quickly enough today and I had my first hot chocolate of the ’season’. Whilst waiting for herself to emerge from Butlers on Henry Street I had a first. I was sitting in the Mothership aka mobility scooter, loaded up with shopping bags having a smoke, snuggled up in my fleece thinking about my sunburn. A man in his early 50’s approached, fumbling in his pocket and produced a load of change in his hand. He looked at the basket of the scooter trying to locate the collection box. There wasn’t one – he looked at me. I exhaled in a cloud of smoke – ‘I’m not collecting’.

The money quickly went back into the pocked, he shuffled off mortified…I laughed cos it was a first and there was nothing else I could do. I would hope the next time he sees someone with a disability, he doesn’t reach for his fecking pocket. But that would be hoping for far too much.

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I would like to apologise to listeners to Newstalk’s Taste programme. In my review of the Sunday papers last night I brought you the story from the Sunday Tribune of how Fine Gael want to change the national anthem opening line to ‘Sinne Fine Gael.’ If that doesn’t work the story says they want to do a Your a Star on and pick a new one.

It was about 10 minutes ago when reading this story (h/t Slugger) that I realised that I had been had and should have fecking checked the date on the paper. I should say that I was a last minute replacement and was not thinking at all about what date it was, that and an earlier debate with some TD’s on another programme had me off my game.

Eejit, and I bet the story from the Sunday Mirror about the guy who posed as Bono in the Clarence is a load of tosh too…

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