WASN’T it Queen Elizabeth who first used the phrase “annus horribilis” to refer back to a particularly bad period in her long reign?

WHEN you’re hot, you’re hot.

LISTENING to Joe Duffy’s Liveline programme the other day, you’d really wonder what’s going on in the country.

THE Government that stole Christmas. And stole it, what’s more, from thousands of children and families who need it most and can afford it least.

I HOPE you get a good night’s sleep tonight. I have an awful feeling this is going to be a bad day, and that not a lot of good will come of it.

ENFIELD isn’t far from Mullingar. It was a meeting in Enfield last Christmas that sowed the seeds of Ireland’s Grand Slam in rugby.

FOUR cabinet meetings in a week. Members of the government snowed under with paper.

WHY don’t we admit it? Instead of talking all sorts of gobbledegook about mental health and how much we care, why don’t we admit it is so low down on the list of national priorities it would take some sort of disastrous epidemic for us to begin to take it seriously. We will publish reports, evaluations, strategies, policy documents and manifestos until everyone is fed up talking about it.

IT’S time that all the leading economists in Ireland were locked up.

FRESH thinking and a winning mentality. That’s what I heard the Taoiseach call for on Saturday night.