The scariest thing in Ireland at present is the sound of Eamon Ryan waffling on RTE’s Morning Ireland, avoiding every question asked of him, with that trademark condescending verbal smirk, pretending he and his Green colleagues have even a smidgin of understanding of what is going on.

Scuffles between Gardai and protestors broke out today at a rally against Tony Blair in Dublin (see video below). Four men were arrested and later charged with public order offences at to Store Street Garda station. By Sean Carroll. Additional reporting by Malachy Browne

The protest took place this morning outside of Easons bookshop on O'Connell Street where Mr. Blair was promoting his recently published memoir. Gardai closed off the street and erected steel barriers around the shop. Abbey street was also closed; those hoping to have their book signed lined the street.

Merrill Lynch warned against the guarantees that the government provided the banks. By Vincent Browne.

On September 24, 2008, the government asked Merrill Lynch to advise on the options in dealing with the emerging Irish banking crisis.

At 6.43pm on Monday, September 29, 2008, the night of the bank guarantee, Henrietta Baldock, managing director of investment banking at Merrill Lynch - one of the few women in senior positions in the financial world - e-mailed another high-flyer, Kevin Cardiff, the then head of the Department of Finance’s Taxation and Financial Services division, and now Secretary General of the department. She attached the 24-page Merrill Lynch report in her e-mail.

Brian Cowen should remember Ozymandias before his Newsweek listing among the foremost leaders of the world goes to his head.

Ozymandias, alias Ramses II, who ruled another legendary empire around 1,250 BC for all of 66 years, was the subject of the famous sonnet by the English poet Percy Shelley in 1818. It ended with the lines:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains: round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away."

What is it about politics that so few people make lasting friendships through their work? By Vincent Browne.

Politicians are, in the main, nice guys (and girls).

Yes, there are some nasty people in politics, but in general, they are personable and nice. People who you’d be happy to have a drink with - and that’s the test, isn’t it? The reason is obvious: most of them would not have been elected were they not nice people.

Most of them are able, too. And most of them are genuine, seeking to improve things for their constituents and for the populace generally. It is not the integrity or competence of politicians that I think is the issue, but rather their politics - what they stand for - and what they do.

At a public meeting in Dublin last night, an audience was told of the socialist alternative to capitalism. An outline was also given of the efficiencies in socialist democracies. By Shane Creevy.

Hosted by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), and led by UCD sociologist Kieran Allen, the audience was told that the need for societal change was unarguable.

But the idea put forward by many socialists, of a utopian world, is a mistake because it mixes up “a model of how to move out of capitalism with a model of how we got in to capitalism”. Capitalist enclaves could exist within socialist enclaves, but not vice-versa, said Dr. Allen.

Opposition TDs are questioning the relationship between property developers, the Office of Public Works and the National Assets Management Agency after it emerged that the government spend on rents increased 25% last year. By Vincent Ryan.

Figures uncovered by Fine Gael deputy Brian Hayes show that over a three and a half year period €400m was spent renting government offices. The expenditure on rents increased by €22m from 2008 to 2009 rising from €109m to €131m.

Labours finance spokesperson Joan Burton and Deputy Hayes are both calling on the OPW to clarify its position in relation to leases it holds on properties that will ultimately end up in NAMA.

Ireland is not broke, just dysfunctional and that could be easily remedied if the political will to do so existed. By Vincent Browne.

ON RTÉ the other morning there was another example of the station’s relentless mischaracterisation of the present crisis, a mischaracterisation that, coincidentally, fits neatly into the agenda of the Government and, as it happens, of an elite here.

It was just a remark which one might normally ignore but since it was so much a part of that mischaracterisation agenda, it deserves attention. It was simply: “we are broke”, meaning the country was broke or this society was broke.