Normal service has returned

First an apology, due to unforseen circumstances, well I'm not
a psychic, the Scotsman has been off line for a few weeks, but
normal service has now returned.

And so what has been happening while I have been away?

America has spoken and voted for it's new president elect,
which is all very cool and groovy, forward thinking and other
such high brow talking and such and so on, and now I am totally
bored listening to the whole thing, give me a shout when Barak
parts the Red Sea and then produces enough buns for Mary
Harney out of a mouldy donut from the local petrol station and I
will take notice again. For now I've heard enough about the
second coming to last me a while.

Brian 'I knocked this up on the back of a fag packet while
down at the local' Lenihan produced the worlds first bouncy ball
budget. It was a budget designed to hit the most
vulnerable in society and protect the civil 'jobs for the boys'
service, and was provided with the full backing of the cabinet
until it had to be reversed and then you had such as John
'honestly I didn't agree with it in the first place but was too
busy talking to a pot plant to say anything about it at the time'
Gormley come out and attempt to avoid the backlash. Though it
was certainly summed up by our esteemed Minister for foreign
affairs when he pointed out that as is usual in Irish politics, it is
perfectly acceptable for the government to make a complete
dog's dinner out of the country as long as in four years time you
grant as many planning decisions and solve as many boundry
disputes as possible, while kissing babies and telling everybody
the next four years are going to be rosy.

The biggest travesty of all which has occured in my absence
however has to be the death of free speech on the BBC. While
Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand's trick phone calls could be
said to be wholly juvenile, and not particularly funny, they
really didn't warrant the furore that was caused.

If it was justified then why has the X Factor not been removed
from our airwaves, and why was Jeremy Beadle never put
against a wall and shot.

At the end of the dat, surely performers such as Ross and
Brand are paid to be juvenile, and if their humour isn't to your
taste then don't listen, or better still, move to Iran, they like
censorship there and I'm sure all the puritanical wingers would
have a great time throwing stones at the disgraced entertainers
or burning their effiges in the streets.

Since normal service has returned to the Scotsman in Ireland
page I think it is very important to make this call for free speech,
otherwise I would have to go offline for life. But wait, don't tell
me this is the Irish cabinet armed with pitch forks advancing
down my driveway, no it's ok it's just a charity collection party
from the Cope Foundation/