MYSTERY and wonder is all around us at this time of year; magic and enchantment is in the air.

A lot of comparisons have been drawn between Theresa May's vote of confidence and those of Margaret Thatcher and John Major; but it is worth remembering that May never really began her prime ministerial career from a position of relative strength.

Theresa May managed to survive a vote of no confidence on Wednesday but the divisions in her party have deepened and the prospect of agreement on a Brexit deal seems as far away as before.

There are few acts as pathetic and gratuitously offensive as an attack on a place of worship anywhere in our divided society.

Recent clarity around waiting times showed how far we have come from a health service which provides equal access to all regardless of means

THERESA May did at least find the gumption in Westminster this Monday to fire a warning shot at the DUP.

I had intended to write this column about something else entirely this week, but then the latest travel adventures of Ian Paisley set me thinking.

Only a matter of days after returning from a record suspension from the House of Commons, Ian Paisley once again finds himself under scrutiny over yet another lavish family holiday which he has failed to declare to parliamentary authorities.

It is appalling that hundreds of people were forced out of their homes on the outskirts of west Belfast during cold and wet weather in the run-up to Christmas because of a security alert.

Theresa May has been on a whirlwind trip visiting regions of the union in an effort to sell her Brexit deal, however, this charm offensive appears to be futile as it looks increasingly unlikely that it will survive the wrath from her own MPs.

ALMOST no political arguments revolve around the nub of the matter.

HARD to believe we're almost in the twentieth year of the twenty-first century.

Although the confidential report into the serious mistreatment of vulnerable patients at Muckamore Abbey hospital in Co Antrim is harrowing in every respect, there will still be concerns that the complete details of the scandal have yet to be revealed.

There is a hidden poverty in west Belfast that means Christmas will be a time of crisis and unnecessary suffering for many local families.

'TIS the season to be jolly, but my Grinch factor rises exponentially as Christmas approaches.

NOBODY has made a case for the slumbering Stormont.

When Theresa May initially described the decision facing MPs in the much anticipated Westminster vote which had been due to take place later today as `my deal, no deal or no Brexit', she may well have sincerely believed that the first option was still achievable.

After the beginning of the Troubles, which is widely accepted to have started in August 1969, a deathly calm descended onto the streets of the north when at the behest of the unionist leader of the time, James Chichester Clarke, the British Army was deployed to restore order ‘and assert the authority of the British government’.

We’re living in the age of anxiety.

When you live, grow up and indeed grow old in a place like Newry, you can forget that Northern Ireland is not a mono-cultural place.