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Lorraine Courtney has taken aim at Scotland’s new “hate-speech” legislation (‘Scotland’s hate-speech laws have been a disaster – are you watching, Simon Harris?’ Irish Independent, April 29).
Sir — On Saturday morning, February 14, 1981, I was 11 — in fact, my birthday was the day before. My mother was doing the laundry, using a twin-tub washing machine that was dragged into the middle of the kitchen.
I bought my house 32 years ago for around €50,000. At that time my earnings were €12,000 per annum, which represented an average wage. Fast forward 32 years, the average wage in Ireland is now €45,000. However, my house is now valued at €550,000. So, wages have increased less than four-fold, while property has increased eleven-fold.
The annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is upon us again when figureheads from the world of big business will spend four days networking and speech-making. It’s by invitation only.
Sir — Blue Monday is tomorrow, January 15. It’s reputed to be the most depressing day of the year due to inclement weather, dark evenings, overdrawn bank accounts, maxed out credit cards, broken new year resolutions and the Christmas spirit fading fast.