Bertie’s magazine keeps an eye on state of the nation

FIANNA FÁIL’S new magazine is called The Nation. Presumably the title of the second edition will be The Nation Once Again.

Considering the mood in the Soldiers of Destiny at the moment, maybe The Nation Divided would be a more appropriate moniker.

But you wouldn't think FF was a party at war on numerous fronts when looking at the queue of backbenchers lining up to get their photo taken with the Taoiseach when he launched the magazine yesterday.

The same dissident backbenchers, apparently irate just the night before over Government policies on stem cells and community employment schemes, were smiling and shaking hands with the boss and dishing the out the handshakes and backslaps.

Obviously inspired by the Taoiseach's dealings with Hello magazine during the summer, FF has brought out its own soft focus, soft-soaped coverage, controlled by party headquarters.

"As leader of this party into his tenth year, I can tell you we don't have our own paper," Mr Ahern jested to the gathering at the launch in The Shelbourne Hotel.

The cover of The Nation features a brand new statesmanlike photo of Mr Ahern standing tall beside the pillars of Government Buildings. Mr Ahern answers the tough questions. The winter 2003 edition, bound to become a collector's item, also features inspirational pieces from Micheál Martin entitled Goodbye Smoke, Hello Health and Martin Cullen waxing lyrical on The race Against Waste.

Great to see the public getting some extra productivity for their benchmarking payments from ministerial spin doctors at least.

Ironically, just a fortnight after announcing almost 60 million worth of social welfare cuts hitting lone parents and the disadvantaged, an interview with Mary Coughlan notes: "Coughlan has earmarked the eradication of child poverty as one of her priorities."

The less than comprehensive Arts section contains a couple of book reviews of JFK: An Unfinished Life; The Encyclopaedia of Ireland, and an unsurprisingly upbeat album review of Square One from David Kitt - son of Tom Kitt, Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs Not since the Irish Press collapsed on the mid 90s have the FFers had their own tome. Now published quarterly, 20,000 copies of The Nation will go out to party activists Making a few brief comments for the first time in his life, editor Conor Lenihan TD hoped someday the party would get into a position where it had its own newspaper again.

"I don't want to say too much. I think its important we hear from the Taoiseach," he said.