They fight for Queen and country. But it has to be said. Some aren't very nice
• They call the website ARRSE "the army's unofficial source of military chat, current affairs, analysis". And it is understandable that our boys might want to let off steam. Most are heroes. No doubt about it. But some are less than heroic, and into that bracket we put those who created the thread "Media Whores R Us", which is dedicated to taunting and insulting Gerry and Kate McCann in the vilest terms. According to the squaddies, the couple are only in it for the money, are self-evidently appalling parents and possibly worse. The only person who comes forward to defend the McCanns seems to be an "army wife, army mother" who posts as Vancysgu, citing a book called The Skinback Fusiliers, which the Arrsers also delight in slagging off because it portrays trainees at Catterick Garrison in Yorkshire as "a gang of nasty little plonkers". There are obviously a lot of "nasty little plonkers" about.
• Another day of triumph for the Queen in Dublin. Who could fail to be seduced by her charm and poise these days? Certainly not Seamus Heaney, for there he was at the Dublin Castle banquet, raising a glass to toast the lady herself. There he was, feted with the top people at the top table, placed between Big Dave and Prince Philip. Not a care in the world and not a thought for the poem he published in 1983. Let us remind ourselves of An Open Letter. "Be advised, my passport's green / No glass of ours was ever raised / To toast The Queen." One-nil to Liz, we think.
• On the weekend, they rest, but on Monday afternoon, the terriers on the public accounts committee will give a public kicking to Sir David Nicholson and other officials over the NHS IT programme, deemed unachieveable in a report this week from the National Audit Office. Promises to be good Westminster sport. But not entirely fair? For shouldn't the inquisitors also be examining those in charge when the disastrous programme got going, notably Lord Crisp who as Sir Nigel Crisp was NHS chief executive and permanent secretary from 2000-06? Or Mark Britnell, the senior civil servant who flitted between the Department of Health and No 10. Or Professor Julian Le Grand, the then prime minister's health adviser – Blair being an enthusiastic advocate of the gargantuan IT plan? All have since been recruited by Big Dave to provide sage advice about the future of the NHS. Two of them, Britnell and Le Grand, are enthusiastic advocates of Tory-style "reform". The NHS IT programme was, in fact, the ultimate top-down disaster. Lessons aplenty to learn on Monday? One would have thought they would be clamouring to help.
• Another day of calm at the London School of Economics, where students yesterday demanded the dismissal of Satoshi Kanazawa, the evolutionary psychologist/flim-flam merchant who posted a blog in a quest to explain "why black women are less physically attractive". The LSE is so far standing by its man, on the grounds of academic freedom. But one can also see why it would want to hold on to the Japanese academic. Consider his work, papers such as "Why liberals and atheists are more intelligent", "Why night owls are more intelligent" and "Are schizophrenics more religious?: do they have more daughters?". Who would give him up without a fight?
• And finally, not so calm at Cannes where organisers move quickly against the eccentric Danish director, Lars von Trier, declaring him "persona non grata" after he claimed to be a Nazi and said he understood Hitler. He must leave, although his film, Melancholia, remains in contention for the top prize, the Palme d'Or. Should he win the gong, he won't be able to collect it. A sensational turn of events by any standards, and one that those who heard him speak the offending words probably saw coming. One might expect that list to include our friends at the Times. Especially as the question that lured von Trier into his gaffe was put to him by the paper's own film critic. But we can't, for there was absolutely nothing about it all in the paper the following day. Big story. Shame they missed it.