On finishing signing, Blair emerged to a cacophony of shouts to the gathered protesters.

And zooming in, he’s on the right -

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Words can’t contain my continuing rage about Dermot Ahern’s kite-flying on ATM charges. A blast of AC/DC has deadened the heat. A little.

Commenting last night on the latest tiger kidnapping where €300,000 was robbed from AIB Clondalkin, Ahern told us all that there’s too much money swilling about in Ireland and that ATM charges should be applied to reduce the amount of money in circulation.

Now Ahern’s argument is distinctly colander-shaped. Firstly, the customers of large money transactions are primarily commercial customers. Charging private customers for seems incongruent and patently unfair.

Secondly, what does Ahern mean by money “swilling” about the economy? If anything, the economy is deflating. Retailers are crying out for custom. That’s why Christmas is starting at Brown Thomas in September. Ahern isn’t the Minister for Finance. I’d like to think he consulted with Brian Lenihan on before he took this solo run.

Finally, what do money advisors like MABS etc thing about Ahern’s ideas? Along with building a plan and budgeting your spending, MABS advocates that individuals use cash – especially at Christmas. Even Eddie Hobbs does. Spending money on plastic, even Laser is an unreal experience. The value of money is lost. The very vulnerable in society - the elderly, families bobbing on the breadline and those with massive debts are either forced to use cash as is or advised to use cash to track spending. How can a government square putting extra financial pressure on these parts of society, now unfortunately, a larger group than previously?

The real reason Ahern is proposing this charge as it would be an ongoing shoehorn of income into the banks. We’re currently sinking tens of billions of Euro into recapitalising the banks. It’s not enough. It won’t be enough for years to come. An ATM charge would be a tidy little earner for the banks. It won’t generate the kinds of money that banks need to fill their balence sheet blackholes, but it’s certainly something they wouldn’t reject.

And then there’s the practicalities of trying to withdraw money from the bank counter. Talk to retailers and they will tell you that the busiest times of the week for retailers are Thursday night and the weekend. Oh and the only bank that used to open on Saturdays – Halifax - has jumped ship. Irish banks aren’t going to be flexible enough to open at those times. There’s things like fighting unions on working at unsocialable hours and changing how they do business on the line. Scary stuff! Not to mention the incentive not to be flexible and charge customers ATM use fees.

Surely common sense will prevail? Looking forward to Liveline already!

Sad day for Suzy and the rest of us Palin fans.

We’ve come to the fag-end of the political year and all I can think about is the joy of the hooking the telly up to the laptop so I can play the greatest hits of the political season back using Windows Media Player.

My Top 5 in no particular order, would be

• Eamon Ryan defending Willie O’Dea
• The Seanad debate on the social welfare provisions in the last Budget
• John O’Donoghue’s long goodbye
• The Seanad Select Committee on Members’ Interests and Ivor’s expenses claims
• Any Seanad Order of Business

Oh yes, and just to whet your appetite – the site is relaunching in September and have a raft of new features coming online in the Winter. Until then, we’re enjoying the Silly Season just as much as you are.

To celebrate their second birthday, the Liberal Society is holding a public debate on the subject “the House believes the Oireachtas is in dire need for reform” in the Bewley’s Hotel, Ballsbridge tonight. Speakers will include Dick Roche, Ruari Quinn, Michael McDowell and Dan Boyle. Admission is free. Via Damien.