You know we’re in the descent into Christmas madness when the television starts playing sickly sweet advertisements from the likes of John Lewis, where a little boy grows an alternative Christmas tree in the shape of a gigantic Venus fly-trap which vomits presents.

IAN Paisley will toe the line on any DUP deal to restore Stormont, so he is badly in need of a distraction.

THERE’S a little café in the village.

CHRISTMAS is coming and for once, I have kicked my inner Grinch out the door.

IT appears that we are not all equal before the law.

This week's cold snap means that most of us will have been more focused on keeping our homes warm than addressing the challenge of global warming.

NO, Alex, the fundamental point of your argument – “The reality, of course, is that the DUP and SF worked very closely together to make power-sharing impossible” – is based on an entirely false premise, namely the notion that the DUP ever wanted to share power with any nationalist or republican party.

DUP and Sinn Féin leaders and representatives, along with the bulk of their party members and voters, are very keen to blame the ‘other side’ for undermining power-sharing.

REAL knowledge and true understanding are probably the best antidote to prejudice and hatred.

Industrial action by three separate sets of workers this week illustrates the severity of the crisis facing our public services.

PETER Robinson has been offering advice on restoring devolution.

YOU would be forgiven for thinking that the Tory government would say “OK, well that’s that then” when the Supreme Court in London ruled that its scheme to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful.

FORMER DUP leader Peter Robinson intervened last week on the party's continued boycott of Stormont, criticising its strategic approach.

DRUG deaths in the north are shockingly high.

AS a fully paid up member of an exclusive club in the UK, I would like to raise a tentative hand in protest about an obvious but unnoticed injustice being visited on our group.

After 21 long and dismal months in which its Stormont boycott has achieved, by its own assessment, precisely none of its aims, it must be dawning on even the DUP's most antediluvian fantasists that it is time to acquaint itself with today's political realities.

JUST when you thought the tide was turning and right-wing fanaticism was in retreat, the Argentines elect a chainsaw-wielding president, the Dutch vote for a right-wing racist, and the centre of Dublin goes up in flames when a mob takes to the streets.

I’VE never been the sort of person who gets emotional about a flag.