THE discussion, if you could call it that, over recent days on the prospect, or even the possibility, of cutting the minimum wage gives just a flavour of the great arguments and potential for deep bitterness that lie ahead. Hard choices, as we face ever fewer options, will make for difficult times and fraught, fiery relationships.

FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan said Rabobank/ACC Bank’s actions in forcing Liam Carroll and John Fleming to seek court protection by resorting to examinerships for their companies with borrowings of more than €1 billion each, has highlighted the need for the establishment of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

Pharmacies across the country are threatening not to dispense drugs to people on medical cards and those with chronic long-term illnesses because of cuts by the Department of Health. Over 1,000 pharmacists gathered in Dublin to protest against the cuts.

THOUGH the Financial Regulator yesterday wrapped himself, metaphorically and partially, in sackcloth and ashes, it is difficult to overlook the impact that office’s failure has had on our society and economy.

TODAY Prof Harry Kennedy raises the ever-more pertinent question – on the next page – about when one person should be responsible for making decisions for or about another? He also wonders who should make decisions for us if we are incapacitated.

WHEN Frank McCourt’s great memoir Angela’s Ashes was published 13 years ago it was immediately recognised as a wonderful, benchmark memoir.

IT is the kind of story that anyone running a business or worrying about job security and who suffers from a dicky heart should avoid.

WE seem to have developed an addiction to disconcerting news and dire predictions – our day now seems incomplete without a calamity to chew over or fretting about the one looming just below the horizon. Either that or we have been forced, kicking and screaming, to confront the realities of our time.

HISTORY all too often shows us the darker side of humanity; too often it records a litany of atrocities and of betrayals, too often a catalogue of suppression, inhuman injustice and terrible brutality.

THE reactions to the McCarthy report were as polarised as they were predictable. Some were provoked by fear, others by a sense of injustice, more by an angry feeling that the weakest in our society were disproportionately targeted.