Paul MacDonnell

Chair of Reform UK, Wells & Mendip Hills. Policy analyst in social security, economics, technology, and finance.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@Ed_Miliband You are living in a hall of mirrors. In three years' time your career and this daft policy will be roadkill.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@FulkFurlong A valid treatment of the material. Faltonia Betitia Proba (315–366) rearranged texts of Virgil to tell the story of Christ. This puts Nolan's Odyssey into perspective—as it transforms the sorrow of death into a personal and historical self-awareness. We are all the sea peoples.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@SharkeyAli94062 @GeeMan620 @HamasAtrocities You won't get an argument from me on that!

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@Tuftybeat @patcondell I'm not sure that you understand what the word "contrarian" means.

Either that or you're a truculent teenage girl.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@GeeMan620 @SharkeyAli94062 @HamasAtrocities I saw Bob Geldolf give an interview to MTV in New York in 1982. I recall him saying, "It's a good movie. But the music is shit". And he was its star.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@Tuftybeat @patcondell The Irish are conformist and consensus-driven in their political and cultural beliefs.

A contrarian takes unpopular and contradictory positions within his own society. The Irish? Hardly ever. The political culture is entirely corporatist. How do I know? I'm an Irish contrarian.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@Irishchutzpah Cool

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@Tuftybeat @patcondell Contrarians is exactly what they're not.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@patcondell The certainty is inversely proportional to the understanding. It is pretty remarkable.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@RepGregLandsman Why are you giving "aid" to anybody In the first place?

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@banie01 @SJAMcBride 1. The public sector grew. It was an engine of social advancement for educated Catholics.

2. The discrimination was cultural. GAA replaced sports / pastimes formerly played by Catholics.

Please concentrate on what I said rather than making straw men out of what I did not say.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@banie01 @SJAMcBride Culturally, theu are discriminated against. Economically speaking, the Irish public sector was expanded to provide employment opportunities for Catholics, while Protestants were represented in commerce. Politically, their position may be analogous to that of Jews.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@impslayer @yaroslav_mar International law isn't a thing.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@FlashForFreedom Give her a good time. You don't want her complaining to her husband.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@DavidGHFrost I caught what I thought was the end of it on the radio. Didn't it end with Finzi?

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@NicholasLissack Maybe it's shocking. But it's not surprising.

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@narindertweets @LBC It's amazing how the left respects the law when it agrees with them. Otherwise it's all "resistance" and "direct action".

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@JakeWSimons Who cares what students think?

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@RigoIrizarry You mean she turned him black?

Holy shit!

[Paul MacDonnell @paulmacdonnell]

@AllisonPearson Your feelings should not be mixed. She should not have been arrested for something like this. That's all there is to it.

[Christian @InTheTrenchesUK]

I am intellectually incapable of explaining how my policies would actually function in practice so I will instead list three-word slogans and hope you do not ask follow-up questions. I have never bothered to learn that rent controls have been tried and failed in New York, San Francisco, and Stockholm, where they reduced housing supply and created a two-tier market that benefited the already-housed at the expense of newcomers. I am unaware that France, Sweden, Germany, and seven other countries repealed their wealth taxes after discovering that rich people can simply leave, taking their tax contributions and businesses with them. I believe nationalising industries will magically solve underinvestment problems, despite having no plan for how to fund the buyouts, manage the operations, or prevent the same inefficiencies that plagued state-owned enterprises in the 1970s. I have confused moral posturing with economic literacy, bumper stickers with serious policy, and the desire to sound radical with the ability to solve problems. I am a slogan in a hemp shirt and you exposed it.