Little risk of queen going Dutch and bowing out 

Royal watchers are in a bit of a frenzy over Queen Elizabeth's future. Might she be planning to abdicate?

A crock of gold for libel tourists who bring cases to Emerald Isle 

Ruth Dudley Edwards

Ah, the good old law of unintended consequences pops up again. Who would have thought that Irish jobs could be affected by the passage at Westminster last week of the Defamation Act?

Gallic 'Jimmy Carter' is a man who is in desperate need of a personality 

I'm no fan of President Francois Hollande, but how can one not be sorry for the poor wretch. Less than a year ago, this dull, unattractive man defeated Nicolas Sarkozy to become the second socialist president of the Fifth French Republic – the one that came into being in 1958 and beefed up the power of the presidency. The first was Francois Mitterrand – that wily friend of Charlie Haughey, and, it turns out, sometimes Margaret Thatcher – who was dodgy but a political heavyweight.

Hers was truly a life less ordinary 

Writing, reading, watching, listening, talking and thinking, I've been immersed in the last act of Margaret Thatcher's extraordinary life ever since Monday, April 8, when her death kicked off an extraordinary national conversation about her significance in the history of the United Kingdom.

Our President betrays his leftie leanings 

President Higgins insists that he well understands the constitutional limits of the Presidency, but appears to let his political prejudices show.