Queues at petrol stations, empty shelves in supermarkets – someone gave a pig’s ear to Brexit

As the UK threatens to tear apart the Northern Ireland protocol, the Brexit deal it signed on is causing enormous damage to its own pork industry.

in recent weeks 6,000 pigs have been slaughtered on UK farms. The reason is the shortage of butchers. Boris Johnson’s government is now ready to allow foreign butchers to enter the UK on temporary visas to ease the crisis. These artisans had left the country after the UK left the EU.

It was warned that 150,000 animals may have to be destroyed as the shortage of skilled butchers and meat processors led to a situation where a large backlog of animals were ready for slaughter.

This is causing chaos for the British public as empty supermarket shelves abound.

Did they not anticipate this problem and the shortage of tanker drivers, among others, in advance before signing the agreement? It seems that there was not enough thought and planning done before the deal was signed.

It also appears that a number of pigs were told to the British people ahead of the British referendum in 2016 to get them across the line.

Hopefully they will not have the opportunity to strike a final deal (and stick to it) with the EU in the weeks and months to come, and will not do
another pig’s ear out of
all the sorry mess that is Brexit.

Tom towey

Cloonacool, County Sligo

Not all owners are large impersonal corporations

I read with interest Noel Harrington’s contribution (“We Cannot Afford to Lose Skilled Workers: Capping Rents,” Letters, October 9). His measured approach to the housing crisis is welcome at a time when there is so much hysteria around.

However, his statement that ‘a rent freeze is a must’ ignores the reality of Ireland’s two-tier rental market.

On the one hand, the big landlords who have bought a large number of properties for rent and renters face increases well above the 4pc allowed or unable to find housing at all.

How was this authorized? Landlords must register their properties, provide RTB with details of the rents charged and produce copies of rental agreements to the estate agent when they re-let the property. So if that happens, how come the numbers released by Daft.ie and others show that rents are going up beyond the 4pc rules? And what are RTB and government agencies doing about it?

If the existing Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) rules are not working or enforced, how can we expect the rent freeze suggested by Mr Harrington to work?

On the other side of the rental market is a distinct and long-standing group – the roughly 70,000 Irish smallholders, as well as the individuals, workers and families who rent from their homes.

Most of these owners own one or two properties, some left by family members, some purchased with a mortgage, while others are renting out their old homes. The reality for this group – small landlords and their tenants – may be very different.

When the recession hit, the value of their property fell by as much as 50% and rents by up to 30%.

As one of them, I was stunned by the government’s two-year rent freeze in 2015, followed by areas of rent pressure in 2016, which were supposed to be an emergency measure. .

Many landlords and their long-time tenants (or at least those who stayed in Ireland at that time) weathered the recession together and expected better times to come.

But the areas of rental pressure have not stopped, they have spread, meaning that the rents for this group of long-term tenants are much lower than one might expect – in fact, some are still on the low side. levels of seven years ago.

Fast forward to 2021, and small homeowners are still scapegoats like no other small investor has. We must take a stand for fair treatment for all.

With additional government interventions likely, it’s no surprise to me that many landlords are leaving and many tenants face a bleak future.

G Ni Mhuilinn

Co Westmeath

Why Dublin needs more bars like The Cobblestone

I agree with Ian O’Doherty that the Cobblestone bar is important to Dublin (“This is not the first time the beating heart is ripped out in Dublin. It has to stop”, Independent Irish, October 13).

Having lived on the adjacent North Brunswick Street for a while, I was familiar with The Cobblestone bar. Smithfield is located just beyond the main tourist areas of Dublin, but on more than one occasion I have helped foreign tourists navigate their way.

They wanted to hear traditional music and had read information about the bar in tourist guides. Although the building it is in is run down, it would be a shame if The Cobblestone were lost, if only for the reason that it has drawn tourists across the Liffey and away from the main hot spots. visitors.

Baile Átha Cliath needs more bars or cafes where one can experience Irish music and the Irish language.

Seanán Ó Coistín

Trier, Germany

Culture Cannot Thrive When Under Control

I have seen a lot of people pretend to talk about what culture is and is not in Dublin.

Dublin’s culture for one might be traditional Irish music played in a pub session, while for another it might be listening to contemporary music at the Hugh Lane Gallery or dancing in a club night at 2 o’clock in the morning.

For some it has become defined by the 2021 tradition of walking a pedestrianized street in Capel, enjoying the diversity of food, music and community on offer. As individuals, we are not an authority on culture. You are an authority on the memory of your experiences. Culture, of all kinds, cannot flourish under surveillance. With the space and support needed, culture will thrive and we will all benefit.

Gavin Brennan

Dublin 1

We must rethink the reopening of society

Your story, ‘Covid-19 booster shots could now be on the way for people in their 60s’, (Independent.ie, October 14) notes that the government may consider extending Covid digital certificates beyond October 22 and quotes Simon Harris as saying “… if vaccine certificates were to” stay a little longer “, it would allow sectors to remain open safely “.

We are apparently no longer able to open safely as cases are on the rise and hospitals are filling up. If after using vaccine passports for three months the situation not only does not improve but gets worse, what makes him or someone else think that continuing with the same approach will change that? ?

Jacqueline Walker

City of Limerick

We are reaped by the capitalists for their gain

There is a modern equivalent of 17th century capitalists who trafficked in human beings and stole land from indigenous peoples for profit. It’s the surveillance capitalist, the grabbing of your personal data, that the tech giants sell in the whirlwind of targeted advertising.

Are you wondering what cookies are used for? To follow you and advertise you. Wondering why Facebook knows more about you than you or your friends? You give them the data with every click.

These new capitalists are selling facts about you; they sell your feelings of anger, doubt, envy, belief, suspicion, love and joy for others to return goods to you. Ads are popping into your online space, probably happening here now that you are reading this letter online..

But it’s an online space, let’s face it, that you like to use freely. You can argue that personal data is provided voluntarily, but the terms and conditions are still well hidden. Health warning: you are the product.

It is not just the planet’s natural wealth – water, trees, lithium, long-dead marine animals and plants mined from the earth (crude oil) – that are being stolen by modern capitalists..

Our integrity, our sense of who we are, our deepest desires, our fears, are sold for profit. We are human resources, the digital slaves of giant technology platforms. We are caught in the clutches of the ugly evolution of 21st century capitalism – it is eating us alive.

Alison hackett

Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin