I’d got to the stage of elasticated waists, edge-to-edge jackets and raucous necklaces designed to distract from the horror lower down, those necklaces matched at the other end by extra-high heels in the attempt to look tall enough to be this fat.

THE motorcade was impressive. The army officer with the white gloves did a salute as the French president emerged from his car.

One of the many reasons no sane person should ever consider politics as a career is that it’s the only profession where ears matter.

The conviction that we can deliver a happy childhood to those to whom we give birth is linked to two other unquestioned certainties: That every child is entitled to a happy childhood.

Action should be taken on this because, unless someone is watching child pornography or snuff videos..., it’s nobody’s business what any of us watch on our computers, least of all a massive entertainment multinational which can make commercial gains from the information.

A FRIEND spent the weekend in Prague and came across open-air stalls in the side streets where they sell old Soviet memorabilia.

Because of climate change, sea levels are set to rise.

IT’S CERTAINLY without precedent. Indeed, it’s hard to believe. But it’s a fact. As far as American media is concerned, the valedictory tour of Europe by President George W Bush is of little or no interest compared with Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.

She made herself sound like someone going for a middle management post in a manufacturing plant, rather than the aspirant leader of the United States of America.

IT HAS its competitors, but the single most overused word in the lexicon at the moment is “passion”.