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Ruth Dudley Edwards: Brooks seems unlikely to spare her friends

STANDING outside the offices of his wife's solicitors last Tuesday, racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks said of the serious charges made against him, Rebekah Brooks and others: "I feel today is an attempt to use me and others as scapegoats, the effect of which is to ratchet up the pressure on my wife, who I believe is the subject of a witch hunt."

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Boris won by breaking the mould

AT a time when his party has been trashed in the mid-term elections, incumbent London Mayor, Conservative Old Etonian classicist, intellectual and flagrant adulterer Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, defeated Labour ex-Mayor Kenneth Robert Livingstone, whose impeccable working-class credentials included being educated at a comprehensive school.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Romney can draw line under Etch-A-Sketch blooper

THE fun's gone out of the race for the Republican nomination. Barring something unforeseeable, Mitt Romney's too far ahead to catch. Newt Gingrich's vote collapsed in Illinois last week, and he finished fourth behind the libertarian Ron Paul.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Obama faces negative advertising on huge scale

WHO should pay for political parties? The candidates? Their parties? Their members? The taxpayer? Wealthy individuals? Corporations? Trades unions? Bank robbers?

Ruth Dudley Edwards: A triumphant year when we were finally cured of Anglophobia

I learned last weekend that I had a Nazi past. Visiting Owen, my big brother, he rocked me with the revelation that at the age of two I had marched into the kitchen performing what I explained was a German salute. This had been taught to me by Grandmother Edwards (nee McInerney), who lived upstairs.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Nobody emerges with credit from Boston College fiasco

THERE is a huge row going on at the moment in which the main dramatis personae include -- in no particular order -- Boston College (a highly successful Jesuit-run university which funded the Belfast Project -- tapes of interviews with retired paramilitaries); Ed Moloney (who covered the Troubles for southern media and wisely moved to New York before he published A Secret History of the IRA); Seamus McKendry (whose mother-in-law, Jean McConville, was murdered and disappeared by the Provos); and Gerry Adams, named by bitter ex-Provos the late Brendan 'Darky' Hughes and Dolours Price as having ordered the murder of McConville.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Twisted concept of honour shames any civilised society

You probably saw last week the terrible story of the Shafias. Mohammad Shafia was an Afghani, who -- after making money in property in Dubai -- emigrated to Canada.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: When he's in good form, Philip really is Prince Charming

WITH Prince Philip in hospital, there were grim moments over Christmas for those involved in planning Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Super-gags virtually dead in Twitterland

IT WAS a remarkable week on the freedom-of-speech front last week.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Black confident he's ahead of the rest

HERE'S an end-of-year report on Conrad Black, who spent last Christmas in the Coleman Federal Correctional Facility in Florida predicting -- to jeers from his media enemies -- that he would shortly be released. In the event, after the US Supreme Court cast doubt on his three fraud convictions, having served 870 days of a six-and-a-half-year sentence, he was out on bail in July and back in his Palm Beach home.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Tribulations over, Conrad is back home

The email that turned up from admin@-inmate message.com at 11.46 on the morning of May 4 was terse: "Inmate 18330424 -- BLACK, CONRAD no longer has access to the Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System; therefore, he/she may not send or receive messages." It was official: Black had been freed.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Silvio shows he still loves playing party politics

GENIAL ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi turned up on Friday at the Milan courthouse where he's being tried on charges of abuse of office and paying for sex with an underage erotic dancer.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Read all about it: we can actually learn something from Murdoch

WE need some perspective on this. Most people in the UK, as in the rest of the world, are worried about keeping or finding a job, about increases in the cost of living, declining standards in public services and vague apocalyptic threats of economic meltdown.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Why France is titillated by Sarkozy's private life

IT really matters to France and to Europe -- and, indeed, to the world -- who wins the French presidential election that kicks off today. Honestly, I've been taking it very seriously. But being a strong believer in getting what laughs I can as I trudge through life, I've been enjoying the gossip and the nonsense too.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Che Guevara should not be immortalised in Galway

READING about the proposal to raise a statue in Galway to Che Guevara, I was reminded of the ugly mosaics on either side of the altar in the Chapel of the Resurrection in Galway Cathedral.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: The strange case of the two Roy Greenslades

There are two Roy Greenslades. The professor of journalism at City University London since 2003 is the distinguished Dr Jekyll Greenslade, upholder of high journalistic standards.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: It'll be Rombo v Obama, say Facebook forecasters

ON Tuesday, voters will turn out in (Republican) Arizona in t-shirts and (Democratic) Michigan in overcoats to give their views on who should be the Republican presidential nominee.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Santorum is just another twist in this evolving tale

THE story so far: the race to be the Republican nominee began with everyone agreeing that President Barack Obama would be defeated by anyone half-way decent.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Ceremony for Forgotten Irish marks efforts of two 'fighters'

'How many times can a man turn his head, pretending he just doesn't see?' asked Bobby McDonagh, Irish Ambassador to the UK, as he addressed supporters of the Forgotten Irish on Friday evening.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Obama's best hope lies in a savage media

Unless you're reading this indecently early, you'll now know the result of the South Carolina primary. Not being enough of a mug to do any predictions, I'll just offer a few thoughts about the latest episodes in the Republican Party reality show that last week evicted two more contenders.

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Dublin Sightseeing Reaches New Heights

Ireland’s most iconic venue, Croke Park Stadium, announced the opening of the much anticipated Etihad Skyline tour on the roof of the historic ground. Sponsored by Etihad Airways and opening to the public on Friday 1st June, the tour offers access to a unique Croke Park rooftop walkway and spectacular panoramic views of Dublin city.

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McAreavey suspect accuses police

Avinash Treebhoowoon, 30, confessed to police about his involvement in strangling Michaela McAreavey, but now insists he was forced to sign the statement.Treebhoowoon and co-accused Sandip Moneea, 42, deny murdering the 27-year-old teacher on her honeymoon at the Legends Hotel.

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