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It's not a statement of my current state of mind! It's the working title of a new television documentary I've been making about our society's relationship with alcohol. I've been filming it with director Brian Henry Martin, producer Ronan Feely, and cameraman Mark Garrett over the past few weeks. It has been an eye-opening (and mouth-shutting) experience for all of us.

While working on this project, I've been very conscious of more and more news stories about alcohol in Northern Ireland, from binge-drinking to drink-driving, from teenage-alcoholics to the increasing number of women who are developing drink problems. There was even a report, recently, of research showing that people with higher levels of intelligence are more likely to develop a drink problem than those with lower levels of intelligence. I'd be interested in hearing some of your views on the role of alcohol in our society -- and about what we can do to reverse current trends.

I recorded an interview this afternoon with the Irish Foreign Minister, Dermot Ahern TD, who was on a visit to Belfast. Last week, Mr Ahern visited East Timor -- officially known as Timor-Leste -- and we talked about how their Irish government's initiatives in that conflicted society are part of a developing policy of "active neutrality". I explored the relationship between that policy and the assistance given by the Irish government to US military and CIA flights landing to refuel at Shannon Airport. We also talked about the current state of the Northern Ireland peace process. You can hear the extended interview on this week's edition of Sunday Sequence.

At lunchtime, I interviewed Baroness May Blood in Queen's University's Great Hall. May, as ever, was on great form and the audience loved her. She described her upbringing in Belfast and how her family didn't realise they were poor because they didn't have social workers to explain that to them. And she offered some telling verbal pen sketches of many of the people she has known and worked with over the years, including Ian Paisley, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Mo Mowlam, and Tony Blair. She also defended the term "milly" -- as a former mill-worker -- and smiled approvingly when I introduced her by saying that she had gone from Fruit of the Loom to Peer of the Realm.

On tonight's edition of Radio 4's excellent new panel show "The Museum of Curiosity": "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography."

Some of the following figures will take your breath away. According to the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, the war in Iraq has so far cost the US more than three trillion dollars. The Bush Administration's original costing was 50-60 billion dollars.

Three thrillion dollars is a lot of money. In fact, for one sixth of that money, the US could put its entire social security system on a sound financial basis for the next 75 years.

Put it another way: America's annual aid contribution to the continent of Africa costs as much as ten days fighting in Iraq. Stiglitz estimates the US could end illiteracy in the world for the price of two weeks of fighting in Iraq. To place this in some historical context, the war in Iraq has cost more than the Vietnam War; and has cost the US more per individual soldier than the Second World War.

These are the choices we make when we go to war -- and they are moral choices, not merely economic ones. Stiglitz's new book, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, is published next month. He talks about his book on Radio 4's Start the Week, with Andrew Marr (it's well worth the listen). I've now added Stiglitz to my wish list of interviewees.

We had a fascinating discussion this morning, on-air, about the ethics of acting. It was prompted by some statements by Catholic bishops in Italy about the legitimacy of erotic scenes in films. The actor-director Dan Gordon and the actress Maggie Cronin drew on their professional experience for us, while a priest and pastor debated the ethics of nude scenes and simulated sex.

In films such as Shortbus and 9 Songs, actors performed in "unsimulated sex" scenes -- in other words, they had real sex with each other. If the actor in question is married, would such a performance constitute a breach of his or her marriage vows? Would it amount to adultery? What about kissing, fondling, displays of nakedness and "simulated" (faked) sex? David McIlveen was clear in his own mind that displays of nakedness are always wrong -- a judgment that would take in both the play Equus and the film Schindler's List. Others were equally clear that nakedness can be justified for artistic reasons even if it is difficult to specify the criteria that need to be met on those occasions.

The debate continues here. How should actors and directors depict sexual encounters, experiences and affections on the stage and screen? If it is possible to cross the line, where is the line?

The resignation from the Northern Ireland Executive of Ian Paisley Jr. has done nothing to end public speculation about financial propriety at Stormont. The First Minister is now facing the possibility of an investigation by John Lyon, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, who is looking into a complaint about Dr Paisley's employment of his son as his Westminster researcher at a cost of about 拢10,000 per year. The DUP has now confirmed that its MLAs employ 136 staff in constituency offices, of whom 26 are relatives of MLAs.

We learned today, courtesy of a lot of digging by our Investigations Correspondent Mike McKimm, that Gregory Campbell MP is renting an Assembly constituency office in Coleraine from his wife at a cost of more than 拢12,000 per year to the Assembly. Mr Campbell's financial arrangement with his wife is absolutely legal -- even though such an arrangement is prohibited at Westminster -- and he has been very open about his finances. It appears that he is not alone in renting offices from a family members; Mike McKimm is currently looking into other MLAs' rental arrangements.

All of which presents the Assembly with a significant challenge in terms of public accountability and the public's perceptions. Should the Assembly introduce new rules to respond to these kinds of investigations? According the current rules, an MLA is quite entitled to place his spouse and children on the Assembly payroll, along with his nephews and nieces, while renting offices from his father or mother. All of this would be entirely legal. But is this kind of political family business tenable any further in the judgment of most of the public?

One can understand why politicians in Northern Ireland would wish to employ trusted family members -- particularly in the period of the Troubles when many politicians faced threats to their personal safety. Some MLAs may still face security risks. But the politics of Northern Ireland have changed dramatically; and with those changes come new expectations of accountability and transparency. Perhaps the Assembly should consider the introduction of two new rules:

1. No MLA may rent office space from a family member or a spouse's family member.
2. MLAs must advertise all staff positions and appoint on the basis of merit. Family members would be eligible for employment on the same basis as other applicants.

Would these rules bring greater transparency and accountability to the Northern Ireland Assembly? Are there other rules you would like to see introduced?

UPDATE:

You've been busy already. Here are some of your suggested new Assembly Rules:

* No MLA may hold a second political job (e.g., local councillor, MP, MEP) while sitting as an MLA.

* Banning MLAs from hiring their sons and daughters, etc., as researchers (not just office staff in constituency clinics).

* All MLAs be required to provide receipts for every item they wish to claim as an expense.

* Fair employment legislation should apply to party political employees just as it does to the rest of the employed world

Edwin Poots, the culture minister, is back in the news. Not long ago, he made the headlines when he told me on-air that he believed the world is only six thousand years old and that modern science has got the dates wrong. Now, in his capacity as Northern Ireland's sports minister, Mr Poots has hit out at the Belfast Titans, a gay rugby team founded less than a year ago, with the claim that the team's existence is a form of sporting apartheid.

He says, "It would be unacceptable to produce an all-black rugby team or an all-white team or an all-Chinese team. To me it's equally unacceptable to produce an all-homosexual rugby team and I find it remarkable that people who talk so much about inclusivity and about having an equal role in society would then go down the route of exclusion."

The Belfast Titans have explained that heterosexual players are welcome to join the team, and that provision is maintained in the team's constitution (in fact, the team has some heterosexual members). The Titans will take part in this year's Bingham Cup tournament, which is hosted in Dublin in June.

According to the official website, "The Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Rugby Tournament is the largest amateur 15s rugby event in the world. The 2006 tournament, hosted by the Gotham Knights RFC May 2006 in New York City, saw thirty international teams and over 700 rugby players competing over three days. Endorsed by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), the 2008 competition will take place at the Dublin City University (DCU) Sports Complex on 13-15 June, and will include both women鈥檚 and men鈥檚 rugby."

The Mark Bingham Cup, incidentally, is named in honour of the gay rugby star who died on September 11, 2001, after fighting against hijackers on board United Airlines Flight 93.

Edwin Poots has provoked a public debate -- which, at the very least, brings some publicity to the Titans. Prior to the minister's comments, most people here would have been unaware of the existence of Northern Ireland's first gay rugby team. Some will regard it as odd, to say the least, that a sports minister should be knocking an amateur team, and may suspect that the comments reveal a certain religious or moral judgment on his part.

In any case, Mr Poots maintains that a team based on sexual orientation is lacking in inclusivity. We wait to find out what he makes of teams limited to players with disabilities, women-only teams, or indeed competitions limited to teams with a particular religious or political affiliation (such as the Churches' League for football).

In today's Irish Times, Patsy McGarry named the next bishop of Ireland's second-largest Catholic diocese as Monsignor Noel Treanor (54), a Clogher priest currently heading the church's lobby group in the European Union. His official title in that capacity is Secretary General of COMECE (Commissio Episcopatuum Communitatis Europensis), the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community.

There has been no official confirmation of the successor to Bishop Patrick Walsh of Down and Connor, but Patsy's story is based on a well-placed source. This news follows John Cooney's report in Saturday's Irish Independent that the bookmakers Paddy Power have suspended betting on the appointment following a curious flurry of bets on Thursday. In the space of four hours, no less than 67 bets were placed on Monsignor Treanor as the next bishop of Down and Connor. According to John, some "church-watchers ... suspect the unthinkable -- that a priests' syndicate was banking on ecclesiastical insider knowledge."

It is expected that the Vatican will make an official announcement of the appointment at Easter.

Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister, says it's wrong to use the Darfur issue as the grounds for boycotting a world sporting event that brought nations together. She was speaking following news of Steven Spielberg's Olympic snub. But there's nothing new about this story: politics have always been involved in the world games. When nations compete as nations, then national and international politics will inevitably become an issue. Perhaps Tessa Jowell has her eye on the 2012 London games and is concerned that those games will also face some boycotts. We'll be talking Olympic politics on tomorrow's Sunday Sequence, with guests including Olympic athletes and political analysts. That item begins after the news at 9.00 am. In the first half-hour, from 8.30 am, we'll be talking about Rowan Williams, the US presidential race, and the big ideas movies nominated for Oscars at next week's Academy Awards.

Disestablishmentarianism: there's another long word. Not quite as long as floccinaucinihilipilification, but it has more journalistic currency. Gordon Brown's intervention this week -- with his suggestion to the Archbishop of Canterbury (AKA the "ABC" in Angican circles) that he clarify his position on Sharia Law -- seems to have helped Rowan Williams make it through the week without a riot at Lambeth Palace. But now that the dust has settled on the Sharia controversy, more and more commentators are asking for a public debate of another kind.

The ABC has accidentially triggered renewed calls for the disestablishment of the Church of England. His difficulties this week have persuaded some that part of the problem he faced was his role within the British Constitution. He is simply not as free as other church leaders to fly philosophical (or theological) kites. Secularists have seized the opportunity to make a case for a religionless state; and some religious groups have made a similar argument. The secularist disestablishmentarians see a state religion as a threat to society. The religious disestablishmentarians see the state as a threat to the integrity of Christianity's message. One suspects that if Rowan Williams were not the current super-primate of Anglicanism, he might grant that the latter group, at least, has a point.

Some insults cut deeper than others. Brian McClinton, editor of Humanism Ireland and a regular contributor to this blog, has thrown down the lexical gauntlet with the claim that the longest possible (non-technical) word is floccinaucinihilipilification, which apparently indicates an attitude of deprecation. So now you know. Actually, it sounds pretty technical to me; but who am I to disagree with the editor of Humanism Ireland. In any case, Brian also claims that some postings on this blog are floccinaucinihilipilificative. I assume he means some of the comments, rather than my posts in the main page; but with an insult as esoteric as that, it's hard to know.

... to the MacBook. This is the first of many postings from my gleaming white new Mac. After years in the PC wilderness, I have finally seen the light and now I know what all the fuss was about. I remember, years ago, a paper by Umberto Eco in which he argued the the contemporary PC-Mac division is a virtual worlds equivalent of the Wars of Religion. When I hear other Mac users talk, impassioned, about their love (yes, love) of their system, I see what he means. Yesterday, a friend told me he loves his Mac more than anything else in his life. He was only slightly overstating the point. Another told me if his house was on fire, he'd rush in to save the Mac -- then, and only then, would he pull his partner from the house. I really hope that was a massive overstatement (it was, after all Valentine's Day).

I don't expect to become quite so obsessive about my new purchase. Some users speak of having mystical experiences when removing the packaging from their machines; others record that sacramental moment on video and place the record of their unveiling on YouTube. That strikes me as particularly sad -- perhaps even maniacal. I fully expect, having written this, that other Mac users will write with accounts of iMystical experiences, and that appropriately cynical PC users will write to excoriate the Mac types for their techno-idolatry.

Each day this week, 大象传媒 Radio Ulster's Days Like This programme features stories from 大象传媒 presenters in Northern Ireland. The week kicked off today with Stephen Nolan remembering the day he got to move from the subs bench to the goalposts (listen again here), and it continues tomorrow with my story. I talk about the day I flew to America, at the age of ten, with , to spend six weeks living with a family in upstate New York. You can hear my day to remember at 11.55am tomorrow and again at five to midnight. Full listen-again options are available on the Days Like This website, and there are videos (courtesy of Vinnie) of presenters talking about what happened next. My story owes a great deal to Pauline Currie, one of our senior producers, who heads up the Days Like This project. She got me into a studio to talk about a particular date in time. Radio presenters are the worst people in the world to actually interview, since we are all more comfortable asking questions than answering them; but Pauline briefed me, spotted the real story in what I had planned to say, then skillfully talked me into removing all the extraneous stuff. I am always a little nervous about talking on-air about my family or personal background, but Pauline was so easy to talk to, it just flowed out of me. Afterwards, I told her she'd make a fortune as a psychotherapist. Listen in tomorrow at five to noon to hear the final version.

If you would like to tell your own story on Days Like This, Pauline, Valerie and the rest of the team would love to hear from you. Full contact information is available here.

Cardinal Desmond Connell has in the Dublin courts that pitted him against his successor, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. The cardinal was trying to stop the clerical abuse investigation gaining access to six thousand files from his period of tenure, which Archbishop Martin has proposed to make available to the investigation. This was, to my knowledge, a legal challange unprecedented in the history of the Irish Catholic Church. It was always going to be a lose-lose situation for the cardinal and the church. If he won the case, the public woul believe he was hiding documents useful to the investigation. If he lost the case, he would look like he was trying to thwart the investigation. Perhaps a senior Vatican official has had a word in the cardinal's ear.

I was presenting Talk Back today and we covered the Church of England's General Synod live on the programme with input from Ruth Gledhill of The Times. She said, "You always know a church leader in in trouble when they blame the press". That's been my experience too, in the main. She was referring to the Rowan Williams story/crisis an his efforts today to . Apparently, his old friend the prime minister has been in touch with the archbishop to sugest, ever so politely, that he should "clarify" his earlier comments. For which, read: "You better put this right fast or I'll be dealing with calls for the disestablishment of the Church of England." Thus, a prime minister raised in a Presbyterian home came to the defence of an archbishop who was raised in a Presbyterian home. The archbishop has since made his speech to the Synod and explained that he accepts full responsibiltiy for any "unclarity" in his earlier comments. Significantly, he also claims that part of his role is to stand up for other religions. (Expect cynics to say: we always knew the Church of England was a broad church, but is it really this broad?) Will this be enough to save the archbishop's bacon? I suspect that Gordon Brown's intervention will serve to calm the storms a little and that Rowan Williams will return to Lambeth less stressed out than he left it. I don't think his resignation was ever a serious possibility, but this whole affair has left him severely weakened; his reputation is in tatters with much of the public, and his moral credibility is at an all-time low. All of which places him in some difficulties as he prepares for the most controversial Lambeth Conference in the history of the Anglican Communion later this year.

Carmel Hanna, MLA, the chair of the Assembly's Committee on Standards and Privileges has called for the introduction of new Assembly rules so that all publicly funded posts will be publicly advertised with appointments made transparently on the basis of merit. This is in response to the Derek Conway affair in the House of Commons, and the revelation (which wasn't much of a revelation, because the dogs in the street are aware of it already) that that many MLAs employ members of their families on their payroll. No MLA is currently breaking any law or rule by employing a family member, and the practice is commonplace in all the legislative bodies in these islands. But is it right? Carmel Hanna made her comments ahead of the next meeting of the Assembly Committee on Standards and Privileges (on Wednesday) in conversation with Sir Alastair Graham, until recently the Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. Sir Alistair agreed with her proposal as an appropriate response to the public's concerns. He argued that the introduction of new rules of this kind by the Assembly is perferable to new Westminster legislation extending employment and equality law to legislators. Listen again to the discussion on ther Sunday Sequence website.

The%20Committee%20on%20the%20Adminstration%20of%20Justice%20has%20published%20a%20report%20entitled"War on Terror: Lessons From Northern Ireland". It argues that breaches of human rights had prolonged the conflict here and warns that the fight against terrorism is not advanced by curtailing civil liberties in Britain.

Read the report here. Essentially, the report recognises that human rights abuses can provoke further unrest, adding to the terrorist threat.

An update on the Bishop of Liverpool story. The book chapter in which James Jones describes his change of mind on the theology and ethics of same-sex relationships is now available online. (Full text .)

Rowan Williams . Again. Politicians, media commentators, other bishops, and even some ethnic minority campaigners are joining forces to deliver a few Sharia-like lashes against the archbishop's back (rhetorically speaking, of course). I recommend reading what the archbishop actually said (full text ), since some of the reports I've read have significantly mangled the points made in Dr Williams's speech at the Royal Courts of Justice. It is clear that the archbishop is not recommending that anyone should be subjected to Islamic law against their will; and he is certainly not proposing that Sharia criminal codes be incorporated into UK law. Instead, he is merely trying to begin a conversation about whether it would be appropriate to permit Muslims to have a particular civil case resolved in a Sharia court - in the manner of binding arbitration. Some commentators say this breaks apart a fundamental legal principle, namely, that all UK citizens should be governed by the same laws. Since the UK includes more than one legal system, with sometimes significant variations in both criminal and civil law, this principle would not appear to be threatened (or any more threatened than at present). In the US, opt-outs already exist in some states for those native Americans who wish to have a particular case processed in a native American court, with the courts ruling recognised as a binding judgment in law. Why couldn't such a provision be granted within the UK? We'll explore some of the legal, moral and political dimensions of the big religious news story of this week on Sunday morning at 8.30am.

On a separate point. However we evaluate the argument Rowan Williams has made in his controversial speech, isn't it refeshing to have a church leader raising a public debate about such a complex issue?

Update: A comment from the Muslim Council of Britain has been released to the press. Read on.

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In case you missed this: on the eve of Super Tuesday, Stephen Colbert reported on how religious voters may influence the race for the White House. His guest was the evangelical preacher and Democrat voter Tony Campolo, author of "Red Letter Christians: A Citizen's Guide to Faith and Politics." Watch .

I am still wondering what to make of this story, published in today's Guardian. Apparenty, one of the Anglican Communion's best-known evangelical leaders has changed his mind on the legitimacy of same-sex relationships. In a new book, A Fallible Church, of Liverpool argues that there are "authoritative biblical examples of love between two people of the same gender most notably in the relationship of Jesus and his beloved [John] and David and Jonathan". Bishop Jones also apologises for opposing the appointment of the gay cleric Dr Jeffrey John as bishop of Reading.

Clearly, I would like to see the book in question, because if this report is accurate, this represents a remarkable change of mind by a leading conservative evangelical leader. Bishop Jones, you may recall, has been involved in the recent dispute at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, where a theological ground war has been fought between conservative evangelical staff and more progessive evangelical fellows. He is chairman of this evangelical school's governing Council. Presumably, if this story is accurate, the bishop's new stance will not be welcomed by the college's controversial principal, Dr Richard Turnbull. We await to see how Bishop Jones's Damascene Road conversion will be interpreted by his erstwhile conservative colleagues across the Anglican world. Since the bishop also broadcasts frequently on Radio 4's "Thought for the Day", perhaps we can expect him to address the issue on the Today programme in the very near future.

As predicted on this blog, the next Moderator of the Presbyterian Church will be the Rev Dr Donald Patton(57), minister of Old Church Randalstown. Dr Patton was nominated by 11 out of the 21 Presbyteries who met today throughout Ireland to vote for a new Moderator and will take up office on 3 June in succession to Dr John Finlay who continues as Moderator until that time. Last year's runner-up, the Rev Joseph Fell, minister of Ebrington, Londonderry, received 6 nominations, and the Rev Derek McKelvey of Fisherwick in Belfast received 2. The Rev Dr Ruth Patterson of Restoration Ministries (and the first woman to be ordained a minister in the history of the Presbyterian Chuch) received one nomination, as did the Rev Norman Hamilton of Ballysillan.

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The Presbyterian Church's 21 presbyteries will gather tomorrow night to elect their new Moderator. This event is likely to be overshadowed internationally by the results of the 24 US states voting for a presidential candidate in the Super Tuesday caucuses on the same day -- though I suspect the chances of a Fox News interview with the new Moderator were always quite slim.

The new Presbyterian figurehead will take up office in June, leaving the current Moderator, Dr John Finlay, slightly media-challenged for a few months. The presbyteries -- regional governing bodies -- will select the new Mod from a list of seven candidates: Rev Willis Cordner (First Bangor), Rev Joe Fell (Ebrington), Rev Norman Hamilton (Ballysillan), Rev Derek McKelvey (Fisherwick), Rev Wilfred Orr (St. John's, Newtownbreda), Rev Ruth Patterson (Director of Restoration Ministries), Rev Dr Donald Patton (Old Church, Randalstown).

Presbyteries are made up of ministers and lay elders from every congregation across Ireland. There are some (shall we say) "interest groups" who often vote as a block across various presbyteries. For example, members of the conservative-leaning Westminster Fellowship will often vote for a candidate who may best maintain their interests during the year. These interests may include not sharing worship with a Catholic bishop or a female Presbyterian minister (it's hard to say).

Joe Fell was the runner-up in last year's election, but I'm hearing rumours that some conservatives are backing off from this candidate and switching allegiance to Donald Patton. I would place Donald Patton as the favourite on the basis of various soundings. He is a traditional evangelical in theology with a PhD in religious history. If memory serves me well, he wrote a doctorate at Queen's on James McCosh, the 19th century theologian and phiosopher who left Belfast to become president of Princeton University. Donald Patton is unlikely to disturb the right-wing of the church, while his quiet style will prove agreeable to many centrists. In his previous congregation -- Lowe Memorial in Finaghy -- he was involved in a controversy over infant baptism which divided that congregation and had to be resolved in the higher courts of the church. The issue was whether someone could be ordained as a church elder (a lay leader) if that person opposed the church's teaching on infant baptism. Since that difficult period in his ministry, he has concentrated on parish work in his new congregation in Randalstown.

That said, I wouldn't understate the chances of Norman Hamilton. This is the first year he's been nominated, but he is an experienced media-performer and is widely-known throughout the church and across society. If elected, he would hit the ground running on some of the key social issues the church is facing in contemporary Northern Ireland. In 2006, he was awarded an OBE for services to community relations following the role he played in defusing tensions between loyalists and nationalists in North Belfast over controversial parades and the Holy Cross school dispute. Norman Hamilton's theology is also classically evangelical -- he worked previously in the university Christian Union movement and has served as the national chair of that movement.

What sets these two candidates apart is probably their attitude to the church's relationship with society rather than any fundamental theological differences.

Dr Donald Watts, the Clerk of the Presbyterian General Assembly -- the church's general secretary -- has written to every Presbyterian minister to "clarify" the church's position on the role of female ministers in Ireland. The full text of the letter is below.

When I asked Dr Watts, this morning, if ministers are somehow unsure about the church's law, he said it wasn't ministers but others, including the press, who are unsure about the church's law. Which rather begs the question, why write to the unconfused ministers in the first place, rather than publishing a press release? The clarification offered today by Dr Watts amounts to this: that the male minister in the Portadown pulpit row is not breaking the law of the church. In my previous interviews with both Christina Bradley and the Presbyterian moderator, Dr John Finlay, I raised this point specifically and in each case it was clear that Stafford Carson had not broken the church's law; so I'm not aware of any lack of clarity on this point in Sunday Sequence's coverage of this story.

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The editor of the Church of Ireland Gazette, Canon Ian Ellis, joined me this morning to discuss the Gazette's 1 February report that Ireland's Catholic bishops are not engaging with the Eames-Bradley Consultative Group on the Past. When i asked him if he regretted the fact that the Catholic bishops were not engaging with the Group, Ellis said: 鈥淚 regret that this situation exists and I hope it may be able to be repaired鈥�. He refused to express regret that a Catholic bishops have adopted this stance.

The Consultative Group on the Past, co-chaired by Lord Eames and Denis Bradley, provided us with the following statement in response to the Gazette story.

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