About Maurice O'Brien
Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist speaks out on the issues of the day.

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Maurice O'Brien

Last updated: 31st December, 2009 10:00am

Cheque out the cheek of banking cheats

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

DESPITE the massive dig-out we've given them over the past year or so, it's not every day your bank owes you money.

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Last updated: 24th December, 2009 02:00pm

Snow prep was hardly a military operation

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

THROUGH the Stygian gloom of late Sunday afternoon a ghostly apparition appeared in the headlights, forcing me to take evasive action.

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Last updated: 17th December, 2009 10:00am

Lack of legal muscle behind Chilcot - a blessing in disguise

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

THE major misgivings surrounding the Chilcot inquiry are its lack of legal muscle and the guarantee that nobody will get nailed at the end of it. But perhaps that's the beauty of it.

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Last updated: 10th December, 2009 09:00am

Wake up in a straitjacket - you're about to be left out in the cold

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

ONE consolation for the ever decreasing number of psychiatric hospital beds is that it prevents our rulers using them as a penal threat.

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Last updated: 3rd December, 2009 10:00am

The stuff bridges - and engineers - were made of

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

AS A Royal Engineer's son, the highlight of long summer holidays was having the run of various army camps; and open days.

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Last updated: 28th November, 2009 11:00am

If they're not handling our balls they're holding us by them

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

THE poor old Irish thought they had this Europe business sussed. No more us and them. Referendum sorted. Hands across the sea all the way.

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Last updated: 19th November, 2009 11:00am

Too many teachers spoil the nurse?

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

EUCLID, they told me, was the Father of Geometry.

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Last updated: 13th November, 2009 09:00am

Lest we forget how truly awful TV tribute can be

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

SIX years ago this week the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance reached its nadir.

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Last updated: 5th November, 2009 04:00pm

No honour among thieves

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

ONCE upon a time the very idea of a bunch of teenagers, however well intentioned, conducting a mock session in the House of Commons chamber would have been deemed an act of contempt.

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Last updated: 22nd October, 2009 09:00am

Don't dilly-Dali, keep on the straight and narrow

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

VETERANS of Reading's roads have seen it all since the surrealists hijacked the highways department a few decades back.

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Last updated: 24th September, 2009 09:00am

We're cheering on Ireland to stop the EU superstate

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

THE Irish nation has given the world poets, scholars, musicians, doctors, scientists, statesmen, sporting heroes and warriors but a 'no' to the Lisbon Constitreaty next week will surely be one of its greatest contributions yet.

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Last updated: 17th September, 2009 10:00am

Lord Mandy's sleight-of-tongue doesn't fool us

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

WHEN they promised us Lord Mandy on the radio on Monday morning I started counting.

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Last updated: 10th September, 2009 02:00pm

Playing the funny old game of democracy

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

FUNNY thing democracy. Means different things to different people.

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Last updated: 4th September, 2009 11:00am

For peat's sake, what is going on in Brussels?

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

THERE'S this little game of pretence they play in the House of Commons. No, not that one.

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Last updated: 28th August, 2009 10:00am

So who comes out tops in the compassion stakes?

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

FOR years I've thought it would be fascinating to sit in on one of those summit conferences where Tony exchanged hair care tips with Muammar, or George W swapped bubblegum cards with the Karzai of Kabul.

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Last updated: 21st August, 2009 06:00pm

This casualty needs more ER than ooh-err

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

HOW come the debate we should be having here about the NHS is instead taking place in the United States?

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Last updated: 13th August, 2009 09:00am

Picking a GP nominee is a blinding stroke of genius

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

OKAY, I'll come clean and admit it. Boy Dave and his Clueless Cohort aren't clots after all.

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Last updated: 6th August, 2009 08:00am

It's the season to be silly - but not stupid

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

YOU may have noticed it's that time of the year they call the silly season, when newspapers are supposed to have nothing to write about.

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Last updated: 30th July, 2009 09:00am

Quietly gerry Mandy-ing a bloodless coup

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

HIS little tick-the-boxes elf might have won him a rare by-election victory, but Boy Dave's heart must skip a beat every time Old Prudence drops another brick.

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Last updated: 23rd July, 2009 08:00am

Let the MPs take a break - it might prove less costly

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

SOME people are saying it wasn't just the holiday MPs were taking when they bunked off for their record 82-day break this week.

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Last updated: 16th July, 2009 09:00am

Brooding Bob is the bearer of bad news

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

THE Prime Minister clearly expected the worst when he named brooding Bob Ainsworth as Britain"s fourth Defence Secretary in three years.

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Published: 25th June, 2009 11:00am

Letting computers behind the wheel is asking for a crash

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

COMPUTERS and I are sworn enemies. Viruses seek me out. Those little icons round the screen are clearly demons.

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Published: 18th June, 2009 08:00am

Shopping drug dealers is fine, what about the rest?

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

DEFINITELY an inside job instead of something devised by a high-powered advertising agency and costing millions, but as police campaigns go it"s really rather poetic.

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Last updated: 11th June, 2009 01:00pm

Priceless moments of love and affection during horrors of war

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

MY UNCLE Bob was on HMS Belfast on D-Day.

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Published: 4th June, 2009 06:00pm

Sixty and no bus pass - I'll walk to the polling booth

Profile by Maurice O'Brien

IT WASN"T that I was expecting a telegram from the Queen or anything.

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