AT this stage the turkey looks rather like the economy — skimpy and pared to the bone. But despite the fact that we are heading into 12 months of stringency and hairshirts, it is comforting to know that some of our former ministers are well able to lead the good life and will continue to do so, courtesy of the taxpayers.

THE prospect of another long and expensive tribunal loomed this week after it appeared that Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne was allegedly to blame for the dramatic rise in crime last year.

YOU would imagine that the Church of England has enough to contend with than trying to knock Santa off his sleigh.

YOU may remember that when the Minister for Finance announced in the Estimates that the grant for first-time house buyers was going to be abolished, a group of Fianna Fáil backbenchers were muttering about a revolt.

IT MUST be the longest hang-over in history, but whatever the outcome of the brandy and cigars episode, if there is one, there is a very important point which should not be lost on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, and about which there is absolutely no doubt.

ONE of the deficiencies in our Constitution is that there is no mechanism for dumping a government which has stolen power by perpetrating a massive fraud on the people.

WHEN IT comes to the bloodstock industry, the rest of us simply are not at the races!

SANTA Claus came early to James Kelly in a big way. Otherwise known as Brother Ambrose, he is a convicted paedophile who should have died ignominiously in jail some time in the future, a demise appropriate for a man who wrecked so many young lives through his perverted sexual deviance.

IT IS ironic that the Government, which is urging a Yes vote for the Nice Treaty to protect jobs and our future, cannot protect the jobs in a company in which it is the major shareholder.

ONCE MORE the Northern Ireland institutions are heading for suspended animation because a power-sharing government elected precisely to do that, share power, refuses to do so.