Le DÓNAL Ó LIATHÁIN

STEPHEN RAINEY suggests shrugging-off problems and getting on with living

You know that anti-Israeli protests have reached their nadir when gay pride becomes involved, says JASON WALSH

CHRIS GRAY concludes his series on the Roman empire by analysing the reasons for its survival in the east

Apple’s ‘value’ exceeding that of Microsoft is an illusion, says JASON WALSH

Business jargon disguises the fact that moxy is what counts in capitalism. Fine, but can we cut the instrumentalist agenda, asks STEPHEN RAINEY

70 per cent of the North’s economy is state subsidised – it’s time to stop playing with the toy economy, says STEPHEN RAINEY

Blackrock Park’s commitment to Irish is second to all

The North is about to pay a very high price for its isolation from both the British and Irish polities

Slashing government spending doesn’t sound like Keynesian economics but it is when it’s done to prop-up failing businesses, says JASON WALSH

Mock outrage over Ivor Callely’s expense claims is a distraction from real politics, says JASON WALSH

Greece will suffer due to the EU intervention, it’s French and German banks that are getting bailed-out, says JASON WALSH

In the wake of the British general election OWEN POLLEY challenges the unionist parties to come to terms with what unionism actually stands for

With public spending ‘out of control’ the government wants to avoid being seen as ’the next Greece’ by imposing round after round of tax hikes, public sector pay restraint and swingeing cuts to public service provision—but has it worked, asks JASON WALSH

In the first of a series of articles on morality and law, STEPHEN RAINEY gives his answer to forth’s question: Is ignorance of the law an excuse?

PATRICK WEST says Irish football fans shouldn’t be cheering on England come the World Cup—and it has nothing to do with Anglo-Irish relations

Get Irish off life support and into real life, says JASON WALSH

CONNAL PARR looks at the spectre of dissident republicanism

‘Sinn Fein the Workers’ party’, Ireland’s ‘official’ republicans twisted in the wind, says JAMES HEARTFIELD reviewing the Lost Revolution

Intelligent design is as paranoid as Philip K. Dick, says ANDREW GALLAGHER

Philosopher STEPHEN RAINEY considers the morality of the Naseer-Khan decision

The British general election campaign was a rendez-vous with reality for the far left, writes JAMES HEARTFIELD

STEPHEN RAINEY says the euro crisis means we should – finally – treat the EU as the political entity it is

In the third article in his series on classical-era Rome, CHRIS GRAY looks at the efforts of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus to defeat the landowning oligarchy

Recessions are better for the right, says DOUG HENWOOD

Since 1999 Britain’s bomb-happy Labour party has slaughtered more foreigners than the Tories could dream of. Does the new Conservative-Liberal government mean the dawning of a less murderous age or will the internal contradictions win out, asks OWEN POLLEY

forth has an interest in independent publications (for obvious reasons) and so is publishing an interview with Lobster editor Robin Ramsay

Irish public anger at bank bailouts boils over but there is still an absence of political meaning, says JASON WALSH

What does the pharmaceutical industry have in common with the Bilderberg Group? Nothing, says JASON WALSH, who really wants conspiracy theorists to shut up

In the second article in his series on the Roman empire CHRIS GRAY examines the imperial oligarchy

PAULINE HADAWAY says there is no alternative — to remaking society in the interests of the majority

Le DÓNAL Ó LIATHÁÍN

The trouble in Greece underlines two important lessons: austerity packages don’t have to accepted and that frustrated violent actions achieve nothing, says JASON WALSH

forth’s electoral musings

RICHARD DWYER critically examines Labour’s record since 1997 and hopes for a positive Labour-Liberal coalition

DOMHNALL Ó COBHTAIGH asks, why has a hedge fund has been allowed to trump democracy in Greece?

Newspaper designer and editor of the web-mag, The ColdType Reader TONY SUTTON on the future of news in the digital era

Dr STEPHEN RAINEY was not impressed by the lastest Northern Irish leaders’ debate

Tomorrow sees Britain and the North go to the polls but whoever wins there will be winter of austerity, says JASON WALSH

JASON WALSH responds to SpinWatch

DAVID MILLER and CLAIRE ROBINSON of SpinWatch respond to forth

YAEL MAURER is feeling hopeful after May Day in Tel Aviv

Is Apple saving us from the tyranny of Adobe or enslaving us in a Huxleyite passive future – and why will no-one admit computers are broken, asks JASON WALSH

The looming closure of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy represents a move toward ‘cybernetic governance’, reports EDIA CONNOLE

Hooray for the Israeli Defence Force – its found a new high-tech way of dehumanising both female soldiers and enemy combatants, says YAEL MAURER

forth begins a series of articles on Classical-era Rome by CHRIS GRAY with the plebeian fight for equality

The idea that animals have a ‘right’ to privacy is a trojan horse for even madder ideas, says TIMANDRA HARKNESS

Ireland’s bourgeoisie already had its (failed) revolution and today’s grumbling mistakes the ‘middle class’ for a meaningful political category, says JASON WALSH

Gordon ‘send-‘em-home’ Brown should watch who he’s calling a bigot, says TIMANDRA HARKNESS

Calls to start a left alliance amount to political necrophilia, says JASON WALSH

Calls for Libya to stump-up to the relatives of people killed by the IRA are senseless, CONNAL PARR

As Belgium falls apart (while staying together) GERRY FEEHILY says nous sommes tous des Flamands maintenant

Are attacks on the ‘One True Church’ assaults on truth itself, asks JASON WALSH

Dr STEPHEN GINN says drugs are a public issue

David Cameron’s slash-and-burn policies could see the Unionist/Tory marriage collapse before it’s consummated, says STEPHEN RAINEY but there’s another problem lurking in the long grass

We’re supporting Labour. And the Liberal Democrats. But only because Zac Goldsmith is standing as a Tory.

The era of the ‘paywall’ is upon us but publishers need to provide something worth paying for, says ADAM MAGUIRE

Media coverage of the British leaders’ debates is all about who won the debate – this isn’t politics, say JASON WALSH and T. UÍ FINNTHIGHEIRN

A Tory government could, ironically, be good for the Irish language, says OWEN POLLEY

Leaders’ debate or no leaders’ debate, British politics has been emptied of eccentrics and it’s poorer for it, says JASON WALSH

Conservative pseudo-liberals are already celebrating the ‘end’ of flight due to the eruption in Iceland but sedentary lifestyles are nothing to celebrate, says JASON WALSH

Los Angeles police commissioner, who claimed blacks died in greater numbers than ‘normal people’ while in custody due to medical conditions, has died

The Penny’s moral panic is a sideshow – the real story is the infantalisation of adult women, says DAN JEWESBURY

JAMES HEARTFIELD journeys through the poetry in motion of logistics

COLETTE BROWNE is not impressed with the ‘fighting Irish’

Calls to have the Pope arrested when he visits Britain are not only mind-bogglingly stupid, they also threaten national sovereignty and follow in the footsteps of the wars on Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, says atheist JASON WALSH

Today’s earthquake in China wasn’t caused by gays, communism or climate change – but economic development could mean fewer deaths in future

DOMHNALL Ó COBHTHAIGH explains how Anglo, AIB and Bank of Ireland forced him to leave Sinn Féin and how Anglo in particular typifies the follies of Irish economics

Just because you cannot programme a computer does not mean you cannot create, says JASON WALSH

Suggestions on what to do with the parasitic new Anglo Irish (Bank) class from forth contributors GERARD CASEY, STEPHEN KINSELLA and JASON WALSH

The shotgun marriage between the Tories and Ulster Unionists won’t see the dawning of a bright blue future, JASON WALSH

Libertarian and philosopher GERARD CASEY doesn’t agree with Roger Scruton but he’s ready for the debate

Quinn’s diversification and attempt at vertical integration was its ultimate insurance against tough times – it’s a pity the authorities in the border counties didn’t think similarly, says JASON WALSH

A reader responds to forth on legislation in the sex industry

It’s no surprise that Marx’s zombie bones won’t stay interred at Highgate Cemetery during a global recession but why is it always the worst parts of Marxism that stalk us today, asks TP D’INVILLIERS

England’s new tougher regulations on lap dancing are a victory for middle class hypocrisy, not women, says ELEANOR TAMS

Good science must be apolitical but our response to it should be democratic,
says SWIREK STASS

Complaints about news being distorted by commercial interests are frequent but the tendentious vainglory of news editors is less well understood. By involving themselves in news, journalists do a disservice to the public, says STEPHEN RAINEY

The Guardian newspaper has published over 50,000 editions since setting up in 1821. What has it been saying over those years? MURRAY MCDONALD finds out in a forth essay

One British political party wants to not only stop immigration but introduce what amounts to an internal passport system – but it’s not the BNP. It’s the Greens.

Vincent Browne wants to know why the public isn’t angry – it’s because they don’t exist, says JASON WALSH

The Quinn Group’s difficulties reflect failure of Irish economic policy – and the government’s response, says DOMHNALL Ó COBHTHAIG

Calls to ban head shops are illiberal and silly but so are pro-drug voices who complain about alcohol and tobacco, says JASON WALSH

The inclusion of gay women in a Holocaust memorial despite an absence of persecution shows how victim culture has captured the political elite

The British government is about to call a general election but the stakes have never been lower, says JASON WALSH

James Lovelock’s authoritarian complaints about humanity are not only undemocratic, they’re wrong

Space isn’t just a vision, it’s a place we should be going, says TIMANDRA HARKNESS

Even anarchists accept authority so long as it can be freely challenged. Irish politics is careering toward nihilism, not freedom, says JASON WALSH

‘What do we want? Not much. When do we want it? Er…’

Adding green to the red, white and blue doesn’t make forced deportations, colonisation or militarisation acceptable, says JASON WALSH

Social Development Minister, Margaret Ritchie, today announced the commissioning of new public art, the ‘Bax of Fegs’, for Fountain Street in Belfast City Centre

Nationalisation is not public ownership, says JASON WALSH

A disastrous ‘bad bank’ and worse policy, the National Assets Management Agency has one thing going for it: at least people are talking

A note from the editor’s desk

The spectres of Brendan Hughes and Jean McConville are stalking Gerry Adams, but there is more to this story than meets the eye and the IRA isn’t the only party that comes out of it covered in dirt, says JASON WALSH

Why is the Conservative candidate for Richmond upon Thames funding so many of the environmental groups that ought to be attacking the Tories, asks WILL DEIGHTON

Why do we have to ‘break’ information technology devices to get them to do what they were supposed to do in the first place, asks TERENCE J. LAVERTY

Links between a orangeman and the BNP aren’t scandalous or surprising – nor are they illegal, says JASON WALSH

The decision to open pubs on Good Friday is the right one but it’s being done for the wrong reasons, says JASON WALSH