Gordon, Don’t look back in anger

Gordon Brown’s recent insistence on hunting out all immigrants in the UK’s national health service to review their credentials as a potential terrorist ready to unleash their wrath on the country is a short sighted, blinkered view of eliminating any threat to his nation’s security because, the fence has already been jumped: they’ve been there, done that and grabbed the headline (They being the medical practitioners being questioned and charged following the most recent round of attempted plots on London and Glasgow).
Granted, in his own admission, he has only been in the position for a number of days but surely his viewpoint from the crows nest of number 11 and his willingness to embrace the role before and during his predecessor reign would make him knowledgeable that lightning never strikes in the same place twice; once a loophole or a weakness has been identified and utilised to whatever degree of ‘success’ ( I use the word with regret), when it is public knowledge that it has been permeated, the repairmen move into patch it up while the next round of wanna-be murderers are sneaking in from behind ready to assume the next vulnerable point in society. It could also be argued that the stringent airport security checks are futile - the attack by air is in the past tense. Even the Glasgow attack was by land, however we still don't know why the airport despite hyperbabble on rolling news channels that they were going to make their way onto the runway (if that was the intention, why make such an impact on the front door.
It is a phenomenon of governments that they feel everything must be regulated and controlling measures eliminates risks. What terrorist attacks, among other 'headline' events, tell us is that there is no such thing as predicatbility. Life is a Black Swan; a large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare event beyond the realm of normal expectations. Moves like Brown's clampdown on Health service workers is dealing with the previously unexpected only after the revelation, thinking it can be minimised through a heavy reliance on observations. It is not factoring for future possibilities only dealing with the here and now - the bell curve or normality. Progression can only be made by, to utilise a business buzzword, thinking outside the box.

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Ironically, with a new Premier comes a new ‘justification for jihad’. While the antics of Iraq and Afghanistan plagued Tony Blair it appears that the Royal honours bestowed on Salman ‘Satantic Verses’ Rushdie is the reason for Brown’s premature test of leadership.

GPO is fragile - Handle with Care

As the 100 year anniversary of the Easter Rising appears on the horizon, plans for the future of the GPO has been revealed - is it any suprise that retail may play a part?
I am not opposed to the concept of transforming the use of this historical public space. The conservative in me do wish it be maintained and used as it has been: to do 'exactly what it says on the tin' as it were. However, think tank visions of development with a mix of museums, galleries, restaurants and shops around the inner courtyard, covered by a glass roofing, and with a number of performance areas could be the saviour of O' Connell Street, itself a centre of much needed rejuvenation (even if it did mean the removal of those old trees and that old floozy in favour of a large metallic structure and little saplings).
The idea of being tempted into the GPO by the sound of some talented musician and to sit and people watch with a coffee or with a beer in one of McDowell’s beloved 'European-style' bars is very inviting. The removal of the Post-office counters can be sacrificed for this greater good; it may even mean the closure of the grotty GPO arcade around the corner on Henry Street. Noel Ahern, who is party to the discussions, is even quoted as being in favour of using the space beyond 'dawn to dusk' and create a facility for Dubliners and tourists well into the night - Champs Elysee on the north side is nothing to be snuffed. The names attached to these discussions (Foster& Partners, the London Architect behind London's City Hall and Millennium bridge as well as New York’s new World Trade Centre) is encouraging, only two elements strikes fear in me; 'shops' and 'apartments'.
Why must such a significant place in the nation be subject to 'upmarket' living quarters? The site is public and every centimetre of that should remain so. The near-by derelict Carlton Cinema does not hold the same significance and, failing The Abbey Theatre's successful acquisition of the site as a new, bigger and better National Theatre, then a retail/accommodation mix is not objectionable - but to scar the GPO with "charmingly proportioned 1-beds" and "spacious, luxurious penthouses in one of the nation's most desired locations" is a sin worthy of the death penalty (perhaps held in Kilmainham Gaol in a painful irony of previous events on the same site).
Retail space is a reality in a commercial city but to put a single chain store or convenience store in the GPO would be do deaden the idea of redevelopment; careful thought and even bias should prevail when handing the keys to the shopkeepers. O'Connell Street, Henry Street and Mary Street is already flooded with cheap stores, minimarkets, high street fashion chains and fast-food joints - they have no place in the GPO. Dublin City Council in their (delayed) wisdom has applied the brakes onGrafton Street by carefully reviewing any plans for yet another Spar or mobile phone shop. A little late but a positive move to ensure that the reason for pedestrianising the street and creating it as a location to view the stars from the eighties humble position of the gutter is justified.
It may appear to be snobbery, and to some degree it is but careful sculpturing of the Irish capital is essential to maintain its dignity and to shed any grotty image. Like all cities, certain thoroughfares are how a city, its people and its country is judged by outsiders and can provide inspiration for how a community conducts itself: to pack the GPO, the scene of the single most seminal moment in the nations history with a Supermacs, Centra, Penneys and Cinema below a living space with either lavish surrounds or room to swing a cat would not only be a mistake, it would be a disaster.