Tuesday 21 May 2013
• Tony Blair has recommended a directly elected EU president as the "the most direct way to involve the public".
Mr Blair's suggestion is utterly unworkable, since there is no single Europe-wide 'demos'. Rather 27 different 'demos' exist exclusively in the member states.
Each national electorate would vote only for its own nearest and dearest. Witness Eurovision voting!
JA Barnwell
Dublin 9
Irish Independent
* "When the crop fails, the king dies" is an ancient rule of Ireland, and more than any other law I have read, it is, in my opinion, the finest encapsulation of what political duty entails. Last week, a king of our most important crop, the nation's children, left this realm for the afterlife.
Madam – I write to offer a complimentary word to Willie Kealy on a quite superb article published on your front page (Sunday Independent, May 12, 2013). I find it uplifting, not to say encouraging, when a journalist hits the nail on the head, particularly when the target is one of our careerist elitist politicians. Another of your journalists, Gene Kerrigan, writes with laser-like accuracy in this regard. None fits the target bill better than the subject of your piece last week, Mr Bruton.
Madam – Young or old, it's the human legacy left behind that counts. Last weekend, within a day of each other, two noteworthy people sadly passed on to their eternal reward.
* "When the crop fails, the king dies" is an ancient rule of Ireland, and more than any other law I have read, it is, in my opinion, the finest encapsulation of what political duty entails. Last week, a king of our most important crop, the nation's children, left this realm for the afterlife.
Madam – I write to offer a complimentary word to Willie Kealy on a quite superb article published on your front page (Sunday Independent, May 12, 2013). I find it uplifting, not to say encouraging, when a journalist hits the nail on the head, particularly when the target is one of our careerist elitist politicians. Another of your journalists, Gene Kerrigan, writes with laser-like accuracy in this regard. None fits the target bill better than the subject of your piece last week, Mr Bruton.
Madam – Young or old, it's the human legacy left behind that counts. Last weekend, within a day of each other, two noteworthy people sadly passed on to their eternal reward.
Amanda Abbington - the long-term partner of Hollywood star Martin Freeman - has called it "mean" and upsetting that her bankruptcy woes went public.
DJ Edith Bowman has hit out at the trend for "ridiculous" designer clothes for children.
Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist who was a founding member of The Doors, has died. He was 74.
Seth MacFarlane is too busy to host the Oscars in 2014, he said.
Keanu Reeves surprised fans with his appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, looking scruffy and heavier than usual.
Tom Hiddleston is to return to the West End stage to take the title role in Shakespeare's Coriolanus.
Winona Ryder has insisted she is "proud" of her wrinkles, revealing she has experienced peer pressure to succumb to cosmetic surgery.
The Saturdays star Rochelle Humes has become a mum for the first time.
Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder shared an awkward reunion in New York at a promotional event, just one week after the news broke of their split.
Michael J Fox has taken to Twitter to defend his new TV show, insisting he isn't mocking Parkinson's disease, simply having a sense of humour about his condition.
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