In short. . .
Voter-sceptic star endorses Eurosceptics
Actress Joan Collins yesterday declared her support for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) as it emerged she had never bothered to vote before. She was welcomed to the Eurosceptic party by candidate and former TV presenter, Robert Kilroy-Silk, at a photocall in Nottingham where she is performing in a play.
She said she was flattered to have been asked to join by Mr Kilroy-Silk and shared his views about Britain's future.
The former Dynasty star told reporters: "I do feel that my country - I am English - is losing a lot of what I grew up with. I feel we are eroding ourselves to Brussels."
When asked about the politics of the UKIP, she replied: "I am not a political person." Mr Kilroy-Silk said Ms Collins "has always been an independent woman who has looked after herself, and it is no surprise that, as an independent woman, she wants to live in a country that is also independent." - (PA)
FF TD apologises for non-taxed cars
Fianna Fáil TD Mr Eoin Ryan has apologised after a fleet of five cars publicising his European election campaign appeared on the streets of Dublin without motor tax and with no insurance discs. "I accept that they shouldn't have been out," he said last night. Mr Ryan, who is chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport, acknowledged that the incident was an embarrassment to his campaign.
He said the first he knew of the difficulty was when his office received media queries early yesterday morning.
The "smart cars" bearing Mr Ryan's campaign slogans were taken off the road at 9 a.m. yesterday after queries about their tax and insurance status. They had been introduced into the campaign on Monday.
Mr Vivian Cullen, a co-owner of the car rental firm Nova Solutions, said he had apologised to Mr Ryan for the "clerical error" on the part of his company which led to the delay in processing the insurance certificates required to tax the vehicles. He said the cars would be taxed this morning.
Mr Ryan said: "They have been insured since the word go on a business scheme and they were looking for the individual insurance discs to tax them . . . They are going through the process of being taxed at the moment."
Roscommon voters urged to go east
"Hugh who?" they may well be asking in Roscommon town where Labour's European election hopeful, Hugh Baxter, is working hard with what some might say is very little help from his friends.
Lamp-posts in Roscommon have been adorned with the image of sitting MEP Proinsias De Rossa on posters urging the voters of Roscommon to give their No 1 to Mr De Rossa and No 2 to Ivana Bacik. Not an easy thing to do if you're living miles 100 miles from the Dublin constituency.
A Labour spokesman said the De Rossa posters had inadvertently got mixed up in a batch of Baxter posters put in place by a commercial postering company. "If it was our own people you'd hope they would have noticed."