Bertie must play it cute to duck the bullet in Prodi’s two-speed gun

ON his trip to Dublin this week, Romano Prodi displayed gross bad manners and practised extremely bad politics.

When the European Commission came to town to meet with Bertie Ahern and his Government it was supposed to be a friendly Cabinet-commission think-in designed to mark the working start of Ireland's six-month presidency of the European Union.

However, by mid-afternoon on Tuesday all the blue flags and yellow stars couldn't hide the divisions between the commission president and his hosts on the question of a two-speed Europe.