The sweeper system works

In the great film The Last Mitterrand the dying protagonist and president of France identifies indifference as the critical quality required for leadership. It’s the necessary detachment — especially from friends and former causes.

In December last year Donald Trump took to twitter to lambast the United Nations calling it “a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time”. 

Jeremy Hutchinson is one of those people who changed the world they were born into. Dan Buckley on a sparkling career and a wonderful man still going strong at 100.

Spandau Ballet put a bitter breakup behind them to hit the road again, writes Ed Power

Mandy Rice-Davies — one of the women at the centre of the Profumo affair which rocked Harold Macmillan’s Tory government in the 1960s — has died.

Mandy Rice-Davies, a key figure in the 1963 Profumo affair, has died after a short battle with cancer, a spokesman for publicist Hackford Jones said today.

The electoral mathematics of the next general election could dictate a Fine Gael/Fianna Fail/Labour coalition, if each is not prepared to bed down with Sinn Fein. Anyone in doubt should look to history.

A history of the world in the first half of the 20th century is contained in 17 lots from a Skibbereen autograph collector to be sold at Whyte’s in Dublin on September 20.

Dromina House is set in Woodstown, linked in the past Jackie Kennedy and John Profumo. Tommy Barker says spacious home is in good decorative order.

THIS time it’s not the White House that’s embroiled in a sexual scandal, it’s the Elysée Palace. Location apart, there’s nothing to beat a full-dress political scandal except, that is, a full-undress one.

“EVENTS, my dear boy, events.” Harold Macmillan’s truism recast as cliché, ranks with the often inaccurately quoted aphorism of Enoch Powell about all political careers ending in failure as the great barstool platitudes on politics.

Not quite free of its troika handcuffs, the Government is reasserting its sovereignty by backtracking on the privatisation of key State assets and very few, if any, are complaining.

Fifty years ago, Christine Keeler and John Profumo brought down a government and changed a nation forever. Clive Irving on the scandal that rocked Britain

The demise of the golf membership entrance fee in Ireland has become a reality as we head into 2013, writes Brian Keogh

The British government has restated its opposition to a third runway at Heathrow as a senior Tory challenged David Cameron to show if he was a “man or a mouse” by reversing the policy.

AN American woman named Anne-Marie Slaughter, first female director of policy planning at the State Department in the Obama administration, has gone and said it.

Politics is, as we have been assured so very often, the art of the possible.

Lasers lit the sky and an actor relived the emotional moment 50 years ago when independence leader Kwame Nkrumah declared Ghana “free forever” to kick off celebrations today in the first sub-Saharan African nation to break from Europe.

Knowing your competition and knowing your customer are vital in business. And in politics.

IF there is evidence of a second Down’s syndrome cluster in Dundalk then it should be investigated.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday described John Profumo, who has died aged 91, as "a politician with a glittering career who made a serious mistake, but then underwent a journey of redemption".

JOHN PROFUMO, centre of the most sensational sex and security scandal of the 20th century, did penance for parliamentary dishonour with more than 30 years of charity work among the poor in London.

John Profumo has died at the age of 91 after suffering a stroke.

Countdown’s iconic presenter Richard Whiteley has died just days after undergoing heart surgery.

RICHARD WHITELEY, the much-loved presenter of Channel 4’s Countdown, has died, Carol Vorderman’s agent said last night.

I KNOW, Trevor, I know. The Greens have no pre-election pact with anybody. That doesn’t stop you attending this tutorial.

Political Editor Harry McGee finds former British leader John Major in a reflective mood.

MY father is of a generation old enough to have regaled us spoilt city brats with ‘béal bocht’ stories about having to walk to school in bare feet carrying hot potatoes to keep his hands warm.

THIS week a decomposing body was discovered in a derelict house in Co Kildare. It was that of a young woman who had been missing for a fortnight.

WHEN he proclaimed his dogma of decentralisation, it was not Charlie McCreevy’s intention that he should lead by example.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern signalled the most radical Cabinet reshuffle of his tenure last night following the dramatic announcement by Charlie McCreevy that he will become Ireland's next EU Commissioner.

LISMORE paid tribute yesterday to the Duke of Devonshire who has died aged 84.

RUDY GIULIANI was in Cork the other night, talking about leadership.

FORMER British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan put it this way: “Events, dear boy, events.”

Christine Keeler, the woman at the centre of the Profumo scandal, claims she was made pregnant by the then Secretary of State for War.