WHEN will people stop blaming Margaret Thatcher for all the ills of the world?

AUGUST is traditionally seen as the “silly” month for serious news, as national politics take a downtime and the media fills the vacuum by chasing after anything, sometimes going into overdrive, like what is happening with the race to Áras.

I AGREE completely with Cork Councillor Joe O’Callaghan’s motion to outlaw the wearing of burkas.

I HAVE never read so many patronising and sometimes uninformed articles about the effects of the forthcoming demise of Bank of America in Carrick-on-Shannon from a mainly Dublin-based national media.

IN A RECENT letter, Michael Mernagh (Letters, August 20) makes a valid, but rather lame point about the detection of social welfare fraud.

THE current Leaving Cert system has many flaws but I agree with Micheál Ó Fearghail (Letters, August 20) that repeating the experience of other countries, which proved the failure of continuous assessment, is not the way to go.

AN economics professor at UCD was reported recently as recommending a mortgage forgiveness scheme that would only cost us €5 billion or €6 billion.

WITH reference to “Cork city councillor calls for ban on burkas and hoodies” (Examiner, August 19) I would like to present some food for thought in an era where multiculturalism is under threat abroad from a discourse devoid of any complexity; demonstrated here by Joe O’Callaghan’s call for a liberation of Muslim women.

IT’S bad enough there is now a painting of Bertie Ahern in Leinster House, one that’s not hanging in the toilet, but now we are expected to pay for a portrait of Brian Cowen.

FORMER lord mayor Joe O’Callaghan has made a call for the banning of the burka and of the hoodie.