MEAN-SPIRITED, cheese-paring, but above all dishonest. That is the only conclusion you can come to when you take the time to read the Book of Estimates in full, and think about the rationale behind it.

YOU may have heard that I’m in the process of changing my day job. I don’t suppose my politics have been a secret to too many people up to now, but I’m now being asked to put them into practice again.

WE all, dear reader, know the strange and mysterious tale of Dr McDowell and Mr Minister.

“I AM drawing a line in the sand,” Ray Burke once said, after he had contemptuously swept aside a whole series of legitimate questions about his so-called political donations.

A LONG time ago, a senior Irish politician went to see President Reagan in the White House. It was something of a breakthrough at the time in Irish-American relations which, up to then, had played second fiddle to Anglo-American relations.

THE leadership election in the Labour Party could well have a fundamental bearing on the future shape of our democracy. It is that important.

DOES RTÉ need a licence fee increase? Yes, it does. Can we afford to pay one? We can’t afford not to. Should we see an increase as another one of the “stealth taxes” that seem to be a feature of our lives these days? No.

McCreevy is hyping non-existent fiscal crisis so he can cut services.

IT has been impossible, these last few days, to watch the images broadcast from Soham without sharing the sense of desolation felt by the families involved.