Draw Breath

I recall being in South Africa a few years ago and seeing the minister for justice rejecting a national High Court ruling on the SA government's bonkers HIV policy on the grounds that, because the court was in Pretoria, it had no jurisdiction beyond the Guateng province. It was a depressing moment, combining a disgraceful political stance with a sneering dismissal of the role of courts in maintaining the principle that society ought to be ruled by laws not people.

Beverly Cooper-Flynn's re-admission into Fíanna Fáil last week, based on a unanimous decision of the Parliamentary Party, was just as dispiriting.