In defence of the cabin crew, RyanAir are not exactly the most progressive and empowering of employers.
In the absence of an actual stated policy on the subject, they were probably in fear of their employment if they showed any initiative in doing anything to the racist passenger

Any and every Irish government which attempts to erect customs posts at the land border with N. Ireland will fall, possibly never to be seen again. We fought a civil war over the issue and won't open that can of worms again. If the EU thinks that Theresa May is difficult to deal with, try dealing with an Irish government with it's back to the wall. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN. Even if there is wholesale smuggling across the border, some other means will have to be found to deal with it - random, roving customs patrols; trusted trader schemes; checks at Irish air and sea ports etc.

There is a long an honoured tradition in Ireland of laws formally enacted but totally ignored in practice dating back to the time when the British ruled and the Irish subverted wherever possible. This has been in rapid decline in recent years, but can always come back. Think of the black economy in Italy, Greece, Spain and many Eastern European states. It is characteristic of poorer, less rule bound societies or more divided societies with less consensus around the methods of government.

My German relations coming to Ireland used to be astounded at the very relaxed attitude to law enforcement and observance in Ireland when compared to "Vee haf rulz" Germany. That culture has changed in recent years, but you can force an Irish government to sign any law you like, it simply won't happen in practice. Ireland will veto anything it can in the EU until that situation changes. It is simply an existential issue for the Irish political establishment and many more besides.

Actually, even though the outfit is nominally based in London, it looks like the principals do include three Germans and one Spaniard (not totally unknown from ET denizens).

"Ma personne est sacrée!", "La république c'est moi!"
Mélenchon is a man of many punchlines, obviously.

Ryanair's punishment for racist passenger who called an elderly black woman a `stupid, ugly cow': more legroom

On a flight set to take off for London from Barcelona, an older white guy was filmed by a nearby passenger ranting against an elderly black woman, calling her a "stupid, ugly cow" and an "ugly black bastard."

He demanded she leave his row or he would physically remove her, and he also told her not to speak to him in a foreign language, even though she wasn't.

[...]

What did Ryanair ultimately do? Nothing. Except move the lady to another seat and allow the codger to fly to his destination and luxuriate in row all to himself. This, even as other passengers urged the crew to remove him from the flight.

One passenger said that, "after the black woman was verbally assaulted, dehumanized, moved... the flight attendant took it a step further and went back to console the abuser." His response was basically: I'm fine now that she's gone.

I'm not talking about censorship as in eliminating information from the internets. I'm talking about the social media giants, who don't own the internet, but increasingly are the gatekeepers for most people's access to news. Like the TV networks used to be. But without the transparency : we don't get the same "new". Everyone's FB feed is tailored to optimise the company's revenue stream, which comes mostly from organisations which want to buy clicks or mind share.

Censorship of "fake news" is an alibi to distract from, and implicitly legitimate, that business model.

People will still be able to get information, from paywalled sites in particular (because information is not free) but they are a minority.

Michel Barnier is meeting a delegation from the ERG today, including Lord Trimble and eminent economist Shanker Singham. They will be bordersplaining Brexit to the EU. Here's the fly on the wall after the first hour of the meeting: pic.twitter.com/bZE73GVllM

— The Irish Border (@BorderIrish) October 22, 2018

After the Twitter polemics of the last few days, I'm going to attempt a nuanced view. Bear with me, I new at this.

• In the "good old days", political parties' internal workings were strictly off-limits to the justice system. This was a sort of nuclear stand-off : don't go there, or it's mutually assured destruction.
  
• Progressively, in recent years, parties are expected to actually keep their noses clean, and can expect the cops and judges to arrive at dawn if they think they aren't.
  
• Justice in France still has strings attached, with the government pulling them. The minister appoints the officials who preside the various jurisdictions; but in theory, he no longer gives instructions on individual cases, as was previous practice. Actual practice may vary.
  
• Mélenchon's reaction is inconsistent with his attitude to judicial affairs concerning his adversaries : variations on "Let justice run its course"
  
• The timing of the raids couldn't be better for the government, changing the subject away from various sticky dossiers
  
• The destruction of François Fillon before the last election is an obvious parallel. (Personally, I don't think that was a hit job by the government of the day, but who knows.)
  
• The most embarassing element which has been carefully leaked from the investigation, concerns M's presidential campaign, when Sophia Chikirou was his media advisor. Apparently her bills for services are extremely high. Unfortunately, she is reputed to be M's girlfriend (she was present during the raid on his home at 7am). So the implication might be, again in parallel with the Fillon case, personal enrichment on the taxpayer's euro.

Oh and by the way, the accurate punchline Mélenchon quote is

Ma personne est sacrée!

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

The linked Eurointelligence article is a good example of Brits not understanding the European Union as a political project.

AFAICT: yes

Out again Fri 9PM - Mon 7 AM

yes, because no deal means no trade arrangements.

However, the real push for no deal isn't coming from Germany or the EU, it's coming from the lunatic right in the UK who wish us to become a low wage, no regulation offshore tax haven whilst they plunder the UK or any assets to sell off and make money.

Then they'll all retire to the south of France where they all own dachas

More optimism about a Brexit deal in Brussels. Less in London - Eurointelligence

What we find particularly significant was the intervention by Angela Merkel who urged both sides to show compromise. As the FT reported this morning some observers saw in her remarks a message that the EU negotiating team should rethink its approach to the Irish border. She also stressed that in the event of a no-deal Brexit there would be a hard border in Ireland, something the Irish government still seems to be in denial about. Her intervention seems to have puzzled some of those present. We are far less puzzled. If you know about Germany's massive dependence on trade with the UK, the last thing Germany needs right now is a hard Brexit. Germany supported a united EU front against the UK. One of the Brexit predictions we made was that Germany would soften its line as talks headed into the final phase. This seems to be happening now.

Would a no-deal Brexit automatically imply a hard border in Ireland?

Rain In Doha, Qatar

Solving an unusual problem, how to get to the car keeping feet dry?

The barefoot, unclothed bedouins at it again.#أمطار_قطر pic.twitter.com/aHSB067QVq

— Leem | (@leemlimetree) October 21, 2018

○ A year's Rainfall In one Day

Total precipitation Doha, Qatar for average calendar year:  75mm

great news that he's recovering.

Wish him all the very best from me please

Wow, that's a relief. Tell him get well soon on our behalf.

Wishing him well :)

Speaking of people being OK :

I visited Melenchthon yesterday in hospital. He has been there since early September, in a coma most of the time.

He is OK. He'll be back on his feet in due course.

He came back from a humanitarian mission in Chad the previous week, feeling unwell, then collapsed and was hospitalised. He was very insistent that people should not be alerted to his condition, at least until the prognosis was clear.

Which is why you, and plenty of other people, have had no news of him. But he's back on the social networks today.

It turns out he has a particularly virulent form of malaria, which has an 80% mortality rate. The doctors were very pessimistic for the first couple of weeks, keeping him in a coma while they tried everything. There were fears for his vital organs. But it turns out there is no lasting damage to anything; he has lost a lot of weight and all his muscle tone, but it's only a matter of physiotherapy now.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Calling For Bloomberg To Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story | Buzzfeed |

Apple, however, has maintained that none of this is true -- in a comment to Bloomberg, in a vociferous and detailed company statement, and in a letter to Congress signed by Apple's vice president of information security, George Stathakopoulos. Meanwhile, Bloomberg has stood steadfastly by its story and even published a follow-up account that furthered the original's claims.

The result has been an impasse between some of the world's most powerful corporations and a highly respected news organization, even in the face of questions from Congress. On Thursday evening, an indignant Cook further ratcheted up the tension in response to an inquiry from BuzzFeed News.

"There is no truth in their story about Apple," Cook told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview. "They need to do that right thing and retract it."

We could call it Transgenerational Boarding School Syndrome, a sort of inbreeding through caning and the likes. There's your British Ruling Class.

ha, oh yea. Whooops. Sorry

My earlier reply to Cat ...

C'mon Cat ...

The regime change offerings by the US Government with Pentagon leadership had full support of the California BIG tech companies. We're fighting TERROR ever since the 9/11 attacks ... don't you know??

Well known are the AT&T taps by the US Government plus the consortium of Five Eyes on global intelligence without borders. Five Eyes has expanded to Nine Eyes and more ... Israel's Unit 8200 and Mossad are fully equipped with raw data from the NSA and GCHQ. Furthermore there has been an active cyber warfare as part of US and NATO intelligence gathering.

I checked the blog archives here at ET and across the pond at BT ... nothing shows in a search for Google's "defection tracker" except my one diary in July 2016. I've written more diaries about colour revolutions and digital information warfare at the start of the so-called Arab Uprising. The Gulf States have weaponized social media to suppress dissent with support from US tech companies.

This is just a small part ...

○ Clinton Is No Democrat - Dallas Morning News
○ Google planned to help Syrian rebels bring down Assad regime, leaked Hillary Clinton emails claim

Internet stayed available for the rebels in Syria thanks to tech support from Western nations and companies.

Recent "discovery" in The Netherlands for similar "non-lethal" support to murderous jihadist factions in Syria.

○ Dutch government faces legal trouble after aiding terrorists

`The Saudis will find a scapegoat' for Khashoggi, says exiled Prince Khalid | DW |

In an interview with DW, Prince Khalid bin Farhan al-Saud accused Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of being behind the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He currently lives in exile in Germany.

DW: You are closely following disappearance and suspected murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. What do you make of the most recent developments in the case?

Prince Khalid bin Farhan: I can say that Khashoggi had ties with the royal family and that he objected to being labeled as an opposition figure. He did not pose any political danger to the royal family. Even in his criticism, he was cautious. I don't see him as having been a direct threat to the Saudi government.

DW: What information do you have exactly?

PK: I know the mentality of the political leader in Saudi Arabia, King Salman. He ruled the province of Riyadh for 50 years. He resorted to violence because he had no political experience, but was bestowed with great power. Now that he has finally become king, he is ruling with the same political style -- also in international affairs.

DW: Does that mean that orders to kill always come from the very top -- in other words, from King Salman?

PK: Correct. It is well known that opposition voices who were kidnapped from Europe had their fates sealed by orders from the king. The more prominent dissidents were personally punished by order of the king. It is the king who gives the orders.

It is the same with Jamal Khashoggi, the world-renowned journalist from The Washington Post. When such an act is carried out, naturally it requires the consent of the head of government.

I could not say that King Salman is directly involved but I believe the decision and the implementation of the killing leads to his son, Mohammed.

With admittance Jamal Khashoggi is dead, the MbS politics is moving fast across the globe and Arab world ...

Starting with religious fundamentalists.

+ Pferd kracht durch Windschutzscheibe https://t.co/qz2aqJ2NfG pic.twitter.com/xXvdpEGc7B

— ntv (@ntvde) 19. Oktober 2018

Only light injuries for the driver.

So grave is the fallout from the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi that King Salman has felt compelled to intervene, five sources with links to the Saudi royal family said.

As Khashoggi crisis grows, Saudi king asserts authority, checks son's power | France24 |

Last Thursday, Oct. 11, the king dispatched his most trusted aide, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, governor of Mecca, to Istanbul to try to defuse the crisis.

World leaders were demanding an explanation and concern was growing in parts of the royal court that the king's son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to whom he has delegated vast powers, was struggling to contain the fallout, the sources said.

...
Initially the king, who has handed the day-to-day running of Saudi Arabia to his son, commonly known as MbS, was unaware of the extent of the crisis, according to two of the sources with knowledge of the Saudi royal court. That was partly because MbS aides had been directing the king to glowing news about the country on Saudi TV channels, the sources said.

That changed as the crisis grew.

"Even if MbS wanted to keep this away from the king he couldn't because the story about Khashoggi's disappearance was on all the Arab and Saudi TV channels watched by the king," one of the five sources said.

"The king started asking aides and MbS about it. MbS had to tell him and asked him to intervene when Khashoggi's case became a global crisis," this source said.

Role of Mecca Governor Prince Khaled al-Faisal ...

○ Erdogan meets King Salman in push for Qatar mediation | The National UAE - July 23, 2018 |

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with King Salman in Saudi Arabia as part of a push for mediation efforts to resolve the crisis with Qatar. Mr Erdogan was greeted at his aeroplane by the governor of Mecca province, Prince Khalid Al Faisal.

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani met today with  @CENTCOM commander Gen. Votel .
-#Qatar #USA pic.twitter.com/w6N6yl9xEN

— وزارة الدفاع - دولة قطر (@MOD_Qatar) July 23, 2017

UK politicians have shown very little understanding of Irish politics and many have taken their lead mainly from the DUP. Being a small country beside a much larger one means that you have you have to be very aware of its politics. Brexit is an even bigger issue for Ireland than it is for the UK, and yet it is driven entirely by our bigger neighbour with little regard for its impact elsewhere. Without the EU on our side, there is little we could have done - a fact which probably annoys Brexiteers even more and reinforces their hatred of the EU.

The US media coverage of the UK focuses almost entirely on the royal family. The vast majority of Americans have little knowledge of or interest in contemporary Britain, and do not know about and could not care less about Brexit. Any thought that the US might somehow bail out the UK from its problems is completely off the track.