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Gearóid Ó Loingsigh ☭ writing in Substack on 24-October-2026.


Photo GOL: African Palm workers Norte de Santander, Colombia

For a long time successive governments in Colombia have talked about solving the issue of illicit crops and drugs and each one promises to carry out the task and pulls from its sleeve its Ace, its magic bullet that kills the monster like the silver bullets in the horror films. But just like in those films the monster is not what it seems and the magical properties of the silver bullet are a folktale.

The problem partly lies with how they define the problem. The peasant, they say, grows coca because he is poor and coca is a profitable crop and so another profitable crop is required as an alternative. The peasant just simply grew the wrong crop and that is why he is poor. They completely ignore the economic aperture that destroyed the Colombian countryside. Even the first version, in English, of the US counter-insurgent and anti-narcotic project known officially as Plan Colombia acknowledged that in the 1990s 700,000 hectares of agricultural land were lost due to the economic aperture.[1]

Given the collapse of the countryside and the production of food the same project proposed that the peasants specialised in exotic crops for the European and US markets. Amongst the crops that stood out were coffee, African palm and cocoa. Though it should be said that prior to Plan Colombia the Samper government (1994-98) made the same proposal. Nothing is original, the proposals from various governments are almost identical, a copy and paste. They all plagiarise each other. Plagiarism is the basis of all policy on the countryside and drugs, regardless of the government, whether it be Uribe or Petro. The all plagiarise each other: the peasant has to be convinced or forced to change crops without any reference to free trade and the domination of the food production chain by a handful of companies.

They bet on a small number of crops that are already extensively planted in the country, such as coffee and cocoa. In 2001, 675,342 hectares of coffee were harvested producing 637,140 tonnes. In 2024, this had increased to 837,685 hectares with 839,846 tonnes. It reached its zenith in 2017 with 903,950 hectares and a harvest of 851,640 tonnes. In the case of cocoa the improvement was even more dramatic increasing from 83,138 hectares to 197,709 hectares with a corresponding rise in production from 36,731 tonnes to 67,678 tonnes.[2]

Despite this the coca crops and the production of cocaine also increased dramatically i.e. these crops and this model for resolving the coca problem did not work. Despite this, all governments talk alike when it comes to proposing a solution. Petro throughout his government spoke of promoting agroindustry, as if he were the first to think of it. In the election campaign, Iván Cepeda took up the baton and acknowledged the impact of neoliberal measures in the countryside and still stated that they want to “strengthen national production, industrialise the countryside, export foodstuffs with value added and create wealth for the nation and rural communities.”[3]

We will revive productive chains such as cotton, yucca, cocoa, coffee and corn articulating production, industrial transformation and commercialisation with value added in the regions. It is not about going back to the past, but rather of creating a new rural prosperity based on the modernisation of production, the creation of employment, the industrialisation of the countryside and economic justice for the peasant and rural communities.

We will plant crops according to the territorial vocation, water availability, productive calendars, technical support and agrifood health and safety. Will protect national production against contraband, unnecessary importations and commercial practices that destroy in-country capacities.[4]

It sounds nice. But the proposal is very similar to the Export Stake for Colombia 2006-2020 of the criminal and Uribe’s Minister for Agriculture, Andrés Felipe Arias.[5] They all mention that phrase “value added” without explaining what it means in practice and how they will go about it. For example, in the case of coffee value is added when it is roasted, ground and packaged. Except for some special coffees which the multinationals are also buying up, the coffee is roasted and packaged in Europe and the USA. What are they thinking of doing? Roasting it all in Colombia and exporting it?

The sale of coffee beans reached 52 billion US dollars in 2025 and Europe dominates the market.[6] The industry is undergoing a concentration into a few hands of the sale of green bean coffee. How are they going to face up to an entire industry? The green bean coffee industry is profitable partly due to the volume of material that it deals with. They are not going to tolerate an upstart in the market and the multinational companies and consumer countries are not going to tolerate a massive importation of roasted coffee to compete with their multinationals. Starbucks’ income is over 30 billion US dollars per year and Nestlé has sales of coffee in excess of 25 billion US dollars. Governments have been overthrown for less.

All of the Colombian governments have supported the coffee crop and market as it currently exists. Really, there is no need to revive coffee nor cocoa. They are going through their best period as regards crop extension. Not so with cotton. There are currently barely 13,000 hectares compared to 350,000 to 400,000 that existed in the 1970s. It entered in crisis in the 1970s, gave some signs of recovery in the 1980s before entering into its definitive decline following the economic aperture of President Gaviria (1990-94). International competition and the impact of the free trade agreements put the growers under pressure. Cepeda mentions the neoliberal measures, but does not say what they were and what he aims to do about them. For example, the use of certified seeds is now mandated. The peasant who seeks credit has to use them. He cannot use the same seeds he gets from the crop or traditional seeds etc. In practice many peasants have to buy these seeds which are produced by multinationals. It has been state policy for some time and the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) and the Colombian Seed Association (Acosemillas) campaign in favour of their use referring to them as authorised seeds. The phrase is not accidental. Now under the new government of De La Espriella it was proposed that an electronic bill of purchase of authorised seeds be presented before loans and other benefits such as subsidies were awarded.[7]

Cepeda’s proposals do not break with the power structure in the countryside and he was open and explicit about it: “This proposal will go forward hand in hand with the agrifood industry that currently exists in the Colombian countryside, supporting it and integrating it into the national transformation of production.”[8] That is to say, the same collection and distribution points and power structure in the countryside. He proposes to integrate the peasant further still into the agribusiness that currently exists. He states that he will strengthen production according to the zones, ideal crops etc. The same proposal as Felipe Arias as was pointed out earlier.

De La Espriella, for his part, took up the issue of cocoa and promises to expand the crop even more and to support the sector. He states that he reached an agreement with Fedcacaco “which foresees the planting of 50,000 hectares of cocoa where there are currently illicit crops.”[9] The same as before. The eternal plagiarism, though he undoubtedly aims to deepen the changes in the countryside and strengthen further still the power of the agricultural bourgeoisie.

The proposals for the countryside and to resolve the coca issue are always plagiarised, by one and all with slight variations and an untouchable backdrop: the domination by large scale national and international capital of the production of foodstuffs. However, the countryside requires a different solution. It requires a break with the past and the existing power structure in the countryside. It needs a proposal from the peasants. Unfortunately the peasant organisations frequently repeat their own takes on the variations of the plagiarists.

All of the harm done by neoliberalism cannot be undone from one day to the next, and less still when they don’t even mention neoliberalism and capitalism. All the governments seek to guarantee the neoliberal model and that the companies that benefit from it in the countryside remain. The peasant is poor precisely due to capitalism and the current neoliberal model. The debate can be dodged but the peasantry time and again runs up against the economic reality. Under capitalism it is fated to disappear and become rural workers as happened in Europe and the USA. The proposals from Samper, Uribe, Petro and Cepeda to promote agribusiness is a proposal to finish off the peasantry. They take advantage of the coca crops to push the peasantry into the claws of its enemy: the multinational food companies. Meanwhile the coca problem is not resolved because it is a lesser problem for capitalists.



Thanks for reading Gearóid’s Substack! This post is public so feel free to share it.







[1] Plan Colombia (1999) Plan For Peace, Prosperity, And The Strengthening Of The State. P.9

[2] Figures taken from FAOSTAT.

[3] Cepeda, I. y Quilcué, A. (2026) Tres revoluciones para hacer de Colombia una potencia mundial de la vida. pp 71 & 72 https://www.lasillavacia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/plan-de-gobierno-2026-2030.pdf

[4] Ibíd., p.74

[5] Min Agricultura (2006) Apuesta Exportadora de Colombia 2006-2020. https://www.academia.edu/175642883/Apuesta_Exportadora_de_Colombia_2006_2020_Docuemnto_Completo

[6] Fortune (07/09/2026) Coffee Beans Market Size. https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/coffee-bean-market-111087

[7] El Tiempo (29/09/2026) Acosemillas propone exigir factura de compra para acceder a créditos y subsidios del campo. María Alejandra Moreno Flórez. https://www.eltiempo.com/economia/acosemillas-propone-exigir-factura-de-compra-para-acceder-a-creditos-y-subsidios-del-campo-3589898

[8] Cepeda, I. y Quilcué, A. (2026) op. cit. p.73

[9] La Razón (17/07/2026) Gobierno electo acuerda con Fedecacao un plan para sembrar 50.000 hectáreas de cacao. https://larazon.co/gobierno-electo-acuerda-con-fedecacao-un-plan-para-sembrar-50-000-hectareas-de-cacao/

⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.

The Mirage of “Resolving” the Coca Issue

The Irish Politics Newsletter ★ Recommended by Ian Major.

Apart from the fact he was a Nazi collaborator

In Dublin, there is a place called Fairview Park, and in that park there is a statue of a man who died of a perforated ulcer in a German submarine. This is the kind of thing that happens in Ireland, a country where the dead are never really dead, and the history is always arriving late like a bus or a train. The statue is of a man called Seán Russell, once chief of staff of the IRA, who in 1940 spent a summer in a villa in the leafy Berlin suburb of Grunewald, being flattered by the attentions of the Nazi Reich. He was there to solicit German help for his war on Britain. The Germans, who were then occupied with other forms of barbaric enthusiasm, were happy to make the right noises and let him ask.

In the Irish Parliament this week, Micheál Martin rose to inform the leader of the opposition that the government would not be taking any “lectures” from Sinn Féin on foreign policy or neutrality. This is a time-honoured tradition of parliamentary declamation, in which one party says something the other party has been waiting all week to be offended by. 

Continue @ TIPN.

The Problem With Commemorating Sean Russell

Christopher Owens 🎵 with the 68th in his Predominance series.

“You're always there, inferior. My time to let it go, oh/My brother, now hold that iron.
Time to collide/Your face is strong, your eyes want to unfold inside of me.” @ Sunny Day Real Estate

Horns up 

New Horizons


Stage B – Yesterday Yet to Come

Although never releasing a studio album in their heyday, Belfast’s first gothic punk act were able to support Siouxsie and the Banshees as well as be televised. This release sees the band revisit their early demos, compile tracks from recent releases as well as live tracks (onstage and in session). Fans of post-punk and goth rock would do well to investigate these pioneers via this compilation and hear how their sound has progressed right up to the present day. Recommended.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Bogside Sniper Squadron – s/t

The Philadelphia/Derry based IRA blackened death metal group’s first album sees them add Thin Lizzy to the riffage department (something that is seemingly required of most Irish metal acts once they hit a certain point). ‘Five Demands’ starts off a jig before turning into a d-beat number (obviously a glorious thing) that pays tribute to the hunger strikers. ‘The Procession of Sands’ threatens to be a militaristic march before turning into a jig and ‘Touts Crucifixion’ lashes out at Stakeknife and co in furious fashion. No frills, no fucking around. This rules.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Mass Hallucination – s/t EP

Three tracks in barely four minutes does seem like taking the piss but this Leeds based act ply a particularly scummy and unkempt trade, operating somewhere between Killing Joke and Rudimentary Peni (obviously a brilliant thing if you ask me) and this EP makes for a savage listen. ‘Dragging a Rope’ contains a rather filthy bassline while ‘Lacerated’ just plummets the listener around the head. Next time, put out a full LP lads as we could do with even more.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

The Body and Cel Genesis - Whole Wide World

Fresh from their excellent gig in Dublin a few months ago, the ever-prolific Portland duo team up with electronic act Cel Genesis for an album that pounds (due to the presence of two drummers) and has a crunch to the electronics that gives the noise a digital dirt that is often lacking in records of this ilk. ‘Remind Me’ is the obvious standout but ‘Everything’ comes a close second due to its mangling of rave euphoria, turning into being akin to descending into hell.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.


Golden Oldies


Broken Bones – Without Conscience

Taking nearly 5 years to record this record and then having Bones reform Discharge around the same time meant this LP was going to be overshadowed. And it shouldn’t be. Although lacking the more overtly metal elements that made ‘F.O.A.D’ such an exciting listen, it’s a ferocious piece of UK hardcore tracks and tracks like ‘8 Second Seizure’ and ‘.co.uk’ demonstrate this.
 


Lydia Lunch – Retrovirus

This live album from 2013 sees Lydia teaming up with underground hero Weasel Walter, former Sonic Youth drummer Bob Bert and former Swans bassist Algis Kizys for an evening of her songs stretching across her various collaborations. They’re a testament to the power of Lydia as a songwriter and a performer but also just how fresh and powerful her band makes them. Closing with a cover of Alice Cooper’s ‘Black Juju’ is an astute move.


⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.

Predominance 68

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand One Hundred And Thirty Eight

 

Religious Derangement Syndrome @ 22

 

A Morning Thought @ 3309

Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain ✊ On 26 September 2026, the sold-out Leaving to Live: Women’s Blasphemy, Apostasy and Freedom conference brought together feminists, ex-Muslims, lawyers, secularists, artists, campaigners and people with direct experience of leaving Islam for a day-long gathering in London.

MCed by Fariborz Pooya and Haram Doodles, the conference addressed the many ways women pay a price for questioning, leaving or challenging religion, through state repression, imprisonment, threats, family and community coercion, asylum and migration, concealment, isolation and the long process of rebuilding a life on one’s own terms.

The conference was united by a central question: who gets to decide the terms on which we live? Betty Lachgar’s imprisonment in Morocco, the experiences of women living as closeted ex-Muslims in Britain, the difficulties apostates can face in the asylum system and the psychological consequences of leaving high-control religious environments were not treated as separate issues but different manifestations of the same struggle over who has authority over women’s beliefs, bodies, relationships and lives.

At the centre of the conference was the case of Moroccan feminist and rights activist Ibtissame Betty Lachgar, imprisoned in Morocco since 10 August 2025. Betty’s sister, Siham Lachgar, opened the conference by speaking of her “sister in blood and in struggle” and of Betty’s long history of feminist and civil-disobedience activism. She described both Betty’s deteriorating health in prison and her continued solidarity with other women there. In words relayed from prison, Betty said that although detained she remained “revolutionarily free” and faithful to her feminist principles.

Betty’s lawyer, Ghizlane Mamouni, then gave a detailed account of her case, the application of Article 267-5 of the Moroccan Penal Code and the grave danger to Betty’s health. Mamouni told the conference that what was happening to Betty was “not only her story” but “a warning to all of us,” and asked the question increasingly heard by activists in Morocco: “Who will be next?” She described the deterioration of Betty’s prosthesis, the repeated rejection of requests for medical release and the wider chilling effect of repression on activists, artists and others who speak publicly.

Betty’s case showed in its starkest form what can happen when religious authority is backed by state power. But the conference repeatedly returned to the fact that coercion does not begin or end with the state. It can also operate through family, community, social isolation, threats, shunning, economic dependence and the fear of losing everything that makes ordinary life possible.

The first panel, on Women’s Blasphemy and Resistance, brought Mamouni together with Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, artist and ex-Muslim activist Haram Doodles and Head of Campaigns at the National Secular Society Megan Manson. Gaylor spoke about FFRF’s support for Betty and the decision to award her the 2026 Avijit Roy Courage Award, established with Bonya Ahmed in memory of the Bangladeshi-American atheist writer murdered in Dhaka in 2015.

The discussion considered blasphemy, secularism, freedom of religion or belief, the political power of religious-right movements and the particular consequences for women who challenge sacred authority. It also addressed the false opposition between defending minorities from racism and defending women, atheists, ex-Muslims and dissenters from religious fundamentalism.

Manson stressed that freedom of religion or belief necessarily includes the freedom not to be religious and the freedom to criticise religion. She argued that secularism is essential precisely because it protects both religious and non-religious people from the imposition of belief through the state.

Haram Doodles spoke about art, visibility and the importance of ex-Muslims being able to tell their own stories. The discussion emphasised that leaving Islam is often about much more than changing one’s mind about belief: it can raise questions about authority over women’s bodies, sexuality, clothing, relationships, mobility and futures.

The conference also screened a Human Rights Tattoo film on Betty and an extract from Inna Shevchenko’s Gods and Girls, bringing film and art into the wider discussion about women confronting religion, patriarchy and political power.

A new song for Betty, Hurriyah (Freedom), produced by singer-songwriter Shelley Segal and SA’s Simhala Foundation with Motown legend Lee Garrett and Betty Lachgar, was premiered during the conference. Participants also took part in filming for the music video during the break.

The same questions of freedom, coercion and consequences continued throughout the afternoon. Giulia Tranchina, Senior Associate Solicitor at Wilson Solicitors LLP, spoke on asylum and women’s apostasy, drawing on her experience representing refugees, apostates, political activists and LGBTQ+ people. Her contribution examined what happens when questioning or leaving religion makes it impossible for someone to live safely in their country of origin, and when the right to disbelieve becomes inseparable from the right to seek asylum.

The conference also paid tribute to the late Marieme Hélie-Lucas, the Algerian feminist, internationalist and founder of Women Living Under Muslim Laws who later co-founded Secularism Is A Women’s Issue. In a tribute delivered by video, feminist and human rights activist Yasmin Rehman reflected on Hélie-Lucas’s insistence that women’s rights could not be subordinated either to religious fundamentalism or to communal and identity politics.

The tribute recalled Hélie-Lucas’s insistence that it must be possible to oppose racism and religious fundamentalism at the same time; to defend minorities from hatred without handing religious or community leaders ownership over the women within those minorities; and to defend a woman’s right to practise her religion while defending just as fiercely another woman’s right to leave it.

Writer, journalist and feminist activist Rahila Gupta, a trustee of Southall Black Sisters, then spoke with counselling psychologist Savin Bapir-Tardy about Leaving to Live: A Psychoeducational Guide for Ex-Muslims. Their discussion explored the process of rebuilding identity, safety, trust and relationships after leaving a high-control religious environment. As the session introduction put it, leaving Islam is “not necessarily the end of the story.” For many people, it is the beginning of working out who they are without beliefs, rules and identities that previously shaped their lives. As Bapir-Tardy stressed, “There is no such thing as a successful recovery or a linear process.”

That discussion continued in the final panel, chaired by Gupta, with Daisy, Esme, Lamah Al Saif and Bapir-Tardy. The panel brought lived experience directly into the discussion.

Saudi-born ex-Shia Muslim activist Lamah Al Saif described coming to the UK as an asylum seeker as an ex-Muslim and queer woman, and spoke of actively seeking out ex-Muslim support groups because of the loneliness she experienced. “I feel the most comfortable joining the women’s support group because our issues — we can relate more to each other… the shame that was instilled in us women is far beyond anything that I think a Muslim man or an ex-Muslim man would ever think about.” Esme similarly spoke of the importance of finding support after years of navigating life as an ex-Muslim and ex-hijabi. “When you tell somebody that you are an ex-Muslim, they think you just decided one day. It was years and years and years of questioning and going back and forth,” she said.

A statement from Daisy, who could not speak publicly under her own identity, was read to the conference. She described remaining closeted about her disbelief because she fears her child could be used to pressure her back into Islam and damage their relationship. “I am closeted about my disbelief. Nobody in my life knows,” she said.

These experiences placed Betty’s case within a wider continuum rather than in a separate category. Betty faces prison and the possibility of devastating consequences for her health. Other women may face shunning, surveillance, family rejection, loss of housing or financial support, forced dependence, threats, concealment or the possibility of having their children or relationships used against them.

These are also central themes of Leaving to Live: A Psychoeducational Guide for Ex-Muslims, which has now been published by the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. Written by Savin Bapir-Tardy, the book draws on CEMB support groups, clinical work and psychological research. It addresses coercive control, concealment, shunning, shame, fear, sexuality, bodily autonomy and identity, before turning to practical questions of safety, self-trust, boundaries, grief, relationships and rebuilding a life shaped by personal choice. CEMB runs several monthly groups led by Bapir-Tardy, including mixed, women’s, psychoeducation and pre-joining sessions, providing regular spaces for ex-Muslims to access support, share experiences and rebuild their lives.

The book does not assume one ex-Muslim experience or present public disclosure as the measure of freedom. It explicitly recognises that some people leave openly while others must remain closeted for reasons of housing, finances, immigration status, family relationships, physical safety or access to their children. Its central concern is whether people are genuinely free to question, disagree and leave without serious consequences. That distinction was fundamental to the conference.

Some women resist publicly, as Betty Lachgar has done, confronting religious authority through civil disobedience. Others resist privately, sometimes saying nothing because disclosure would put their safety, children, housing or relationships at risk.

As Maryam Namazie, spokesperson for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, said in her opening remarks, Betty may be imprisoned by the Moroccan state while another woman sitting in London may be imprisoned by her family. “They are not the same, of course,” she said, “but both enforce the same system of control, teaching the same lesson: If you leave, if you speak up, you will pay.”

That is also why public apostasy and blasphemy matter. As Namazie argued, “Apostasy makes hidden dissent visible. Blasphemy makes sacred authority contestable.”

The conference ended with Shelley Segal’s Find Our Way to Freedom.

As CEMB approaches its twentieth anniversary in June 2027, the closing message was that the need for ex-Muslims to organise, support one another and speak publicly has not disappeared. The movement has grown precisely because people who were once told they did not exist have made themselves visible.

As Namazie said in closing, despite the difficulties, Cwe are fighting back. We are demanding our right to live and love and think the way that we want.”

Leaving to Live made clear that the right to leave religion cannot be reduced to the private freedom to stop believing. It must also mean the right to live after leaving: without imprisonment, coercion, forced silence, shunning or fear, and with the freedom to build a life on one’s own terms.

That is the freedom at the heart of the struggle for Betty, for ex-Muslims and for all those who refuse to let religion, the state, family or community decide the terms on which they live.

The conference was supported by Awards for All, the National Secular Society and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Support our work

As CEMB approaches its 20th anniversary, we are raising funds for our Celebrating Dissent conference in London on 19 June 2027, marking twenty years of organising for the right to leave religion and live freely. Donations will also help us put printed copies of Leaving to Live into the hands of people attending our support groups and enable us to continue our support, campaigning and public activities.

Please donate and help us continue this work.

Notes

1. Videos of the conference can be viewed here.

Leaving To Live 🪶Women Defy Religious Control And Claim Right To Freedom

Heartlands Tribune ☭ Written by Paul Knaggs.

NHS Single-Sex Guidance: Why Did It Take So Long?

NHS England has finally ruled that hospital wards and changing rooms must follow biological sex. The scandal is not the decision. It is the six years, the two court cases and the million pounds of public money it took to arrive at it.

At three in the morning on an acute medical ward, dignity is not an abstraction. It is a curtain that closes properly. It is a nurse who knocks. It is the knowledge, as you lie in a backless gown with a cannula in your arm and no strength to argue, that the person on the other side of the thin partition is not a man. Women have understood this forever. It took the National Health Service the best part of a decade, two employment tribunals and a Supreme Court to catch up.

Yesterday, NHS England published two guidance documents, one covering same-sex accommodation for patients and one covering physical facilities for staff, confirming that single-sex provision must follow biological sex. Trusts are told to audit their estates for gender-neutral and single-occupancy alternatives, to record in writing any departure from the rule, and to report it as a breach through the Strategic Data Collection System.

Continue @ Heartlands.

Biological Sex Returns To NHS Wards

Caoimhin O’Muraile ⚽ Old Trafford, home of Manchester United certainly since the dawn of the modern era, the Premiership, was for twenty years the undisputed citadel of football. 

Like ancient Rome, Old Trafford was considered by many to be impregnable as United won 13 Premier League titles under their emperor, Alex Ferguson, a modern football version of Caeser Augustus. Then in 2005 a gang of crooks invaded, namely the Glazer family, who stole - just like the Visigoths did Rome in 410 - Manchester United. Caeser Augustus, AKA Alex Ferguson, was strong enough and good enough at his job to hold back the tide of corruption this gang of marauders brought to Old Trafford. 

Other lesser clubs suffered similar takeovers but it was the decline of Manchester United having ruled supreme which was most notable. Since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 United have had, including the present incumbent Michael Carrick, twelve would be successors including caretaker managers and interim post holders. Did Alex Ferguson retire because he could sense the winds of change which even he may have been powerless to stop? He had just won his 13th league title and was it better to get out while at the top? 

I firmly believe he had another two seasons in him and had Manchester United, rapidly becoming a corporation with a football team attached, being managed at the top properly he may have stayed on. Perhaps he realised the wall of corruption built by the Glazers was growing in size and it was time to get out and if this was the case who could blame him! Alex Ferguson was in the managerial hotseat at Old Trafford for 26 years and during that time he had total control of buying and selling players, total command of the dressing room and all the latitude he required when dealing with the media. On one occasion he told Match of the Day’s John Motson he should have “known fucking better than to ask” and “fuck off” after the veteran commentator asked questions about Roy Keane.

The first of the twelve managers to be brought in, David Moyes, was reportedly Ferguson’s choice and, for me, was not given the time needed. Perhaps Ferguson in recommending Moyes thought the man would be given the time he himself was given to win a trophy, four years. He wasn’t and the rest is history. Michael Carrick, our present ‘Head Coach’, started off his temporary tenure with an unexpected win, 2-0, over bitter rivals Manchester City at Old Trafford with United completely outplaying the Blues that January day. This success was continued away at Arsenal where Man United came away, again unexpectedly, victorious 2-3. Things were looking brighter for Michael Carrrick as United finished third in the league and had regained entry into the once prestigious European Cup. In fact, if the league had started in January 2026 Man Utd would have pipped Arsenal to the title so good had been their form under Carrick.

Michael Carrick was given the job of ‘Head Coach’ – the job title relegated from Manager – later in 2026 after the team had taken the league by storm the second half of the 2025-26 season. They had played brilliantly at times and the future for the first time looked rosy. How wrong these perceptions were, United went down 2-0 away to Hull City on the opening day of the 2026/27 season and continued to underperform only beating Ipswich Town, 5-2, in the league so far. How in the space of a couple of months could players who had played so well, world beaters, in the latter half of the previous season suddenly not deliver the goods? They all hailed the arrival of Michael Carrick, after Ruben Amorin, a ‘breath of fresh air’ welcoming their new boss on a permanent basis. So, why are they not playing, just merely turning up? 

A European Cup away tie at Athletico Madrid proved difficult with the Red Devils going down to a 2-0 defeat. After the game United star, Lisandro Martinez, attacked, and rightly so, the club’s hierarchy - the Glazers and Jim Ratcliffe - but saving special criticism for Jason Wilcox, Director of Football (whatever the fuck that is), for not strengthening the squad sufficiently during the summer. United have Jim Ratcliffe, the Boss of INEOS Petrochemicals, now as a minority shareholder owning about 27% of shares and taking charge of the football side of the business. Ratcliffe like the Glazers knows fuck-all about the game, its culture, the club’s fans, the club or anything about the sport. Martinez attacked Wilcox and indirectly Ratcliffe which he was forced to apologise for, giving a guarded apology after the Madrid defeat. United then got a deserved draw away at in-form Leeds United, 1-1, and the club put a gagging order on players talking to the media. Captain, Bruno Fernandes, angrily told the press he was ‘not allowed’ to talk to them. The Head Coach does not have the call on who the club buys and sells -  that final decision rests with the Glazer’s, Ratcliffe, and Wilcox with Carrick having a minor consultancy role. Now, could anybody imagine Manchester United telling Alex Ferguson he no longer had control over the buying and selling of players, that he would have to ask Wilcox!

Following the draw at Leeds United Man Utd travelled to Italy for a game against minnows, Como. This should have been a formality for the Red Devils and the question was by how many would we win? Nothing could have been further than what happened with United going down 4-1!! So where is the rot, where did it start? Answer, it started back in 2005 when the Glazers took over the club acquiring it by nefarious means. Michael Carrick is not, in my view, the problem. How could a team which stormed the league latterly last season play so bad barely four months later for the same Head Coach? Are the players disillusioned with the club’s bosses? Are they protesting in their own way? If this is the case, and it’s only a theory, then perhaps Carrick should be supporting them. 

The club Captain, Bruno Fernandes, was played well out of position against Como, something which was unavoidable due to injuries, he was substituted. He complained about Carrick’s tactic’s almost stamping his feet like a spoilt brat. Imagine if Matt Busby back in the 1968 European Cup Final when he played Brian Kidd further foreword than usual due to striker Denis Law's knee injury, if he, Kidd, had started creating like Fernandez! He may have played his last game for United, 19th Birthday or none. Matt, in fact, could have played George Best in goal with immunity so much was his managerial hold over the club and player’s respect. Both United’s great managers, Matt Busby and Alex Ferguson, had total control of the players and there were no glaring eyes, no stamping of feet, and those who tried, Roy Keane comes to mind, were on their way. Michael Carrick’s lack of this authority such as that enjoyed by a manager could be proving a difficulty, and a case could be made for not taking the job until full control of playing matters was given. United’s greatest ever manager, Matt Busby, warned back in 1970 against the interests of the sport “being sacrificed on the altar of big business” which is what has happened. And this is where the problems begin but don’t end!!

After Sunday’s humiliating home defeat to Bournemouth the players again looked to me lethargic. Michael Carrick might be caught between players who are less than interested in playing and the hated club owners, the Glazers and Ratcliffe. The Stretford End are still with Michael, and rightly so, perhaps it’s time to up the ante in the get rid of the Glazers campaign! Against Como, Michael Carrick hauled off Skipper Bruno Fernandes who was frankly playing fucking shite, as were the rest of the team. Fernandes anger showed when he glared in the direction of his Head Coach expressing his dissatisfaction. Michael Carrick had played him out of position which he had little choice but to do. No manager likes putting players in less familiar positions but sometimes ‘needs must.’ Alex Ferguson often had to play somebody slightly out of position but there were never any tantrums like Fernandes expressed and being the club captain he should have known better. Imagine him glaring at Ferguson like that! Carrick had no option and if Jason Wilcox had done his job properly in recruiting players the situation would probably not have arisen. Better still let the manager manage and let him buy and sell players. The fault therefore lays not with Michael Carrick but Jason Wilcox and, indirectly, Jim Ratclifffe.

Manchester United have had 11 managers – including caretakers and interim – since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, and they have sacked 6 of them. United have had success, the League Cup, the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup which, at any other club would have been considered successful. However, at Old Trafford these days coming fourth in the league appears to carry more weight than winning the FA Cup, though not with me and many of my generation. For us fourth place means fuck all, winning the FA Cup or even the League Cup is silverware. Albert Einstein is often misattributed to have said “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” something Manchester United have done six times and now, if reports are to be believed, are embarking on doing the same again! That logically means those at the top at Old Trafford are a bunch of clueless imbeciles who perhaps should be in a place where they can be cared for, a secure institution.

Michael Carrick will according to reports be in charge for the game at Chelsea this weekend. I for one hope he’ll be around for some time to come and not relieved of his post by halfwits who know fuck all about football, the players, the fans or the culture, a culture rapidly being eroded.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Rome Once Impregnable ⚽ Fortress Old Trafford Once Undefeatable

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand One Hundred And Thirty Seven

 

A Morning Thought @ 3308

 

A Morning Thought @ 3307

Jim Duffy ✍ I am always bemused at the angst in Ireland when there are long queues for beds in hospitals, and when annual expenditure on health always exceeds the budget allocated. These problems entirely are government-created, not created by the health service.

The shortage in bed was entirely created by deliberate decisions by Mary Harney and the first head of the HSE. They insisted Ireland had far too many hospital beds and slashed the number to a far too low level. (Note: a 'bed' does not mean the physical bed but also the staff needed to look after that patient.) Until the disastrous decisions of Harney and Drumm are completely reversed there will always be people on trollies unable to get a bed.

Secondly, the HSE blames 'bed-blockers' for the queues, meaning patients who should not be in hospital but at home or in care facilities, but cannot leave hospital as the care package for being at home, or space in a retirement home, is available. There actually is a simple solution - turn one of closed hospitals into a step-down facility where the person can be moved to, and receive non-medical care, until the final home can take place. That was the obvious use that Baggot Street Hospital could have been put to. Instead it sold it to a developer. The County Infirmary closed down in I think the 1990s. It too would have been ideal as a step-down facility for the north east. Instead the 18th century was left to go semi-derelict, then sold to a developer who is letting it go completely derelict (you can see through the roof as it is disintegrating) so it can be knocked down. 

I happened to know that hospital well. My mother was a nurse there. I often dropped into her there when in Navan, and she showed me around it. The upper floors were the nurses used to live were derelict but the rest of the building was perfectly fine for use as a care facility.

However, joined up thinking is not something the HSE, a monstrous incompetent bureaucracy, is capable of. One part closes a hospital, while another part never thinks what other uses do we have for that building? If the HSE created a step-down facility, then potentially hundreds of beds in hospitals could be freed up.

The biggest farce is that every year the health service spends more than the budget allocation given by DPER (Dept of Public Expenditure). DPER throws a hissy fit, as to commentators in the media, and accuse the Department of Health of losing control of spending. It hasn't. It knows, and people in politics knows, the DPER never ever gives health the budget it needs. It always gives too little, so invariably proper necessary spending exceeds the budget allocation. It always will. If it stuck within the budget, then it would have to decide to allow X% of patients die.

The average health spend across the EU is 10% of GDP. Ireland spends the fourth Lowest in the EU on Health - at 6.6%. Only Hungary, Luxembourg and Romania are lower. (Eurostat figures). And yes I know the GDP percentage is problematic in Ireland. Even if you use GNI, Ireland is way below the average. So it is no wonder the health system is in the mess it is in when Ireland is chronically underspending on Health. If DPER gave Heath the correct allocation there would be no "overspends". The so-called 'overspends' are entirely a creation of inadequate allowances by DPER. It constantly gives Health far too little money, then throws a tantrum when Health inevitably "overspends", meaning it spends the right amount that it needed to spend. One former Health Minister openly admitted to me that there are no health overspends. The 'overspend' is simply the amount that the heath service was underfunded by DPER.

Then again, DPER has long shown itself unfit for purpose. It doesn't allocate funds based on what is necessary for a system to function, but clueless book-keeping. It doesn't focus on limiting excessive spending but on chronic underfunding that in health would mean patients would die if the health service stuck to its budget. It so chronically underfunded Defence that it left the Defence Forces unable to fulfil its basic duties.

Then again it continually insists that Ireland has too many nurses. As anyone in hospital knows, it hasn't. It has too few. A TD who is a friend of mine went on a rant on there being too many nurses. I was in Beaumont Hospital, in a ward with a couple of elderly patients. They were confused and had mobility issues. They were supposed to have a nurse full-time watching them. However our nurse had to look after three wards - two with large number, one a single room with a seriously ill Covid patient.
I ran that TD at 3am to tell him the reality of the shortage of nurses. The nurse for two hours had been stuck in the woman's ward dealing with a series of problems there. I was going through radiation and chemo and was not supposed to be out of bed, but I and a young man opposite has spent the last two hours helping elderly male patients go to the toilet, and changing the sheets for another patient who was incontinent and had shat in the bed. We then had to bring him into the shower to clean him up. That young man and I were acting as nurses looking after a ward of patients despite being patients ourselves. The nurse was in the other ward doing the same with elderly patients there. One nurse physically could not look after those three wards. Yet she had to because Beaumont couldn't hire another nurse.

The young man and I both left the hospital on the same day. The night before, the nurse thanked us both for all the help in acting as stand-in nurses and that she would miss us enormously as she we did things she couldn't do as she was stuck in the other women's ward fulltime. She would hear bells going off in our ward but she was in the middle of helping old women go to the toilet, or cleaning up people who had thrown up. She would get back to our ward as quickly as she could, only to find to her relief that Dean and I had helped all the old men get to the toilet.

The TD was initially miffed at I calling him but at the end said he was glad I had. He had no idea what was really happening. He later withdrew his statement that there were too many nurses and realised there were too few in many hospitals. There were a large number in daytime, but they too were so busy to be spared so they could work nights.

Yet, whenever the government gives money to hire nurses they would find that most of it wasn't used for that, as the HSE used it to hire yet more bureaucrats for itself.

So the next time you hear about about a supposed overspend in health, realise that there was no overspend. They are simply spending the basic amount they needed to run the health service. The problem isn't that they are overspending. It is that DPER never gives enough for the health service to run. It chronically underfunds the health service, then has a hissy fit when health spends the funds it has to spend to keep the health service functioning and stop patients dying. Ireland in fact chronically underfunds health. Countries that are far poorer than Ireland, like Slovenia, Czechia, Greece, Malta and others spends a far greater amount in percentage terms than Ireland. Ireland spends just 6.6%. Slovenia spends 9.3%, Czechia spends 8.4%. Malta spends 8.8%.

⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.

The Myth Of Health Overspend

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