IF Packie Bonner runs for Fianna Fáil in the European Elections, as is rumoured, it will be the political stroke of the year. And further proof that ‘location, location and location’ is as important in politics as it is in property.

IMAGINE the scene. President Bush is doing a dry run before his State of the Union address. Just as he is running through some problem words and phrases, the door opens. It’s Karl Rove, his key political advisor.

THE draft constitution of the European Union, temporarily sidelined and awaiting a Bertie-stroke to resurrect it, proposes ‘unity in diversity’ as the motto of the new 25-member EU.

YOU may think I’ve got my dates mixed up, but in the current media clamour to get a new angle on Christmas I have been thinking about Mel Gibson’s forthcoming film, The Passion, which focuses on the end of Jesus Christ’s life on earth, not his birth.

By Ronan Mullen I WOULD have liked to write about Saddam Hussein this week, and how his capture might offer a new prospect of stability in Iraq. But I have something more serious to write about, something deeply troubling.

ONE of the more interesting news stories last week was that of Church of England vicar Joanna Jepson, who took the British police to court over their failure to investigate the abortion of a 24- week-old unborn child with a cleft palate.

HAVE the lunatics taken over the Assembly? The Northern elections have left us seeing through a glass darkly as regards the future shape of things on this island.

DEAR Minister Harney,

ANYBODY watching Questions and Answers on Monday night would be left in no doubt that the attitude of the public to abuse claims relating to orphanages and industrial schools is changing.

BEHIND the tragedy of Monday’s suicide bombings on the headquarters of the Red Cross in Baghdad, which killed 35 people and wounded 230 others, there lurks the potential for another disaster: the United States might pull out of Iraq too soon.