Michael D mastered the speech of protest the better to deliver it from the palace balcony, writes Gerard Howlin

The troika told Joan Burton Ireland would “have to give us everything you have” in a flash of “vicious bluntness” the Tánaiste revealed.

AND herein lies the North’s problem. The public sector grew so large when the Northern Ireland Office was running a virtual war economy that no party dares put it up to NIPSA, the public sector trade union and one of the last communist refuges between Havana and Pyongyang.

AS the election campaign nears the end of a second week, it offers an opportunity to step back for a moment and reflect on matters more general.

A male streaker leapt onto the stage while British Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy was making a speech.