I HAVE just spoken to a neighbour whose son moved to Canada five years ago. Apparently what astonished the Canadians most about Brian Cowen’s Morning Ireland interview wasn’t his ramblings on the radio, but the subsequent interview with his colleagues cheering him on like he’d scored the winner in a hockey match.

IN response to Eamon O Cuiv’s proposal to make social welfare recipients work for their entitlement, I’ve been unemployed for two years and I’ve written to him volunteering to work in the Standards in Public Office Commission.

A FRIEND of mine had two days’ dole money stopped because she had the cheek to go on a course to try and improve her job prospects — so I find Family and Social Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan’s double standards in excusing Bertie Ahern’s acceptance of vast sums of money deeply offensive.