Leading Articles
Leading article: Fugitives from justice and the flawed logic of this amnesty
Published: 24 November 2005
War is a hateful, messy business causing much grief and pain. So too, is its aftermath and the business of clearing up in its wake, as the Commons illustrated yesterday when considering the question of IRA fugitives
Leading article: Cack-handed, but correct
Published: 24 November 2005
The ban on fat people having hip and knee surgery imposed by Ipswich Primary Care Trust this week is right for the wrong reasons. The directors of the trust have highlighted an essential truth about the NHS, but they have done so in a way that was cack-handed, ill-judged and insensitive
Leading article: At midnight, we can drink to a more liberal regime
Published: 23 November 2005
Tomorrow is the long-anticipated D-day: D, that is, for drinking. Once midnight has struck, it will be legal for premises with the appropriate licence to sell alcoholic drinks to paying customers around the clock
Leading article: A vote about more than a constitution
Published: 23 November 2005
Do not make the mistake of taking yesterday's referendum in Kenya at face value. On the surface it was about proposals for a new constitution, which has been unchanged since British colonial powers pulled out
Leading article: This bold gamble deserves to pay off
Published: 22 November 2005
Ariel Sharon has sprung many a surprise in his 77 years on this earth. But his decision to couple his request for new elections with his resignation from the Likud Party must count among the greatest about-turns of our times.
Leading article: A rebate that can no longer be justified
Published: 22 November 2005
Jack Straw got a limp joke out of a meeting of Europe's foreign ministers in Brussels yesterday that he chaired. At the end of another deadlocked discussion on the EU budget the Finnish foreign minister said: "As there is nothing new to discuss, I have got nothing new to say." The Finn, said Laughing Jack, deserved an award for making the shortest speech at an EU meeting.
Leading article: After Bradford we need calm debate not hasty change
Published: 21 November 2005
I is a measure of how peaceful Britain still is that the killing of a policeman or woman remains mercifully rare, and still has the power to shock. The latest case has touched a chord in practically everyone, because, rightly or wrongly, the public feels even more shocked when the victim is a woman and the mother of young children. In short, we all mourn the passing of PC Sharon Beshenivsky whose pointless, tragic death while coming to the aid of a travel agency has devastated a family as well as prompting a fresh debate on whether the police need more firearms.
Leading article: The Bush sermon and a missed opportunity
Published: 21 November 2005
The sight of George and Laura Bush outside one of Beijing's handful of registered Protestant churches, having completed their Sunday worship, was on one level a heartening one.
Leading article: A victory to savour
Published: 21 November 2005
How susceptible we remain as a country to Continental smiles of appreciation when it comes to what many of us think of as our weak point - our supposedly awful food.
Leading article: Arms are not the answer
Published: 20 November 2005
Should the police be armed? It would be too abrupt to answer the question in the simple negative. Just as it seems disrespectful of the grief of Sharon Beshenivsky's family for Michael Winner to call immediately for all police officers to carry guns
Leading article: The chance for a cleaner world
Published: 20 November 2005
It is a shame the Canadian city of Montreal cannot be shifted, just for a while, about 1,500 miles north-east. As it is, the delegates amassing there next weekend for vital global warming negotiations would be well advised to preface their deliberations by chartering a fleet of airliners to fly low over Greenland's dripping glaciers
Leading article: Good things come to those who wait
Published: 20 November 2005
"It's corked." "That's not what I ordered." "We'd like the bill some time this week." Do be careful how you speak to your waitress or waiter. Rudeness reflects badly on you, of course. But there is another, much less important, incentive to good manners. You may end up as a thinly fictionalised grotesque in a Whitbread short-listed novel. Rachel Zadok was just another immigrant waiting on tables in a slightly bohemian south London café. Now she is a Richard-and-Judy-fuelled literary sensation. So what do her fellow waiting staff make of her? Lo and behold, it turns out that they, too, lead double lives as actors, musicians and designers. You may simply see a means of conveying food and drink to the area in front of your mouth. A more discerning eye might see the genius behind the latest breakthrough in knot theory or the creator of the next big thing in ringtones.
Leading article: America has finally woken up to President Bush's 'big mistake'
Published: 19 November 2005
The United States, for all its claims to stand for innovation and mobility, is not a country that violates its conventions lightly. So it is a measure of the gravity of the Bush administration's current troubles that two especially hallowed White House conventions have been broken within the week.
Leading article: A question of selection
Published: 19 November 2005
It is odd that a Prime Minister who delights in challenging outdated Labour Party shibboleths should be so unwilling to consider the merits of a return to selection by academic ability in secondary schools. Why is Tony Blair so determined to close down public debate on this thorny but increasingly vital issue?
Leading article: The wrong direction
Published: 19 November 2005
By Sri Lankan standards it was a remarkably peaceful campaign. But this week's presidential election also marked a crucial moment in that country's troubled recent history.
Leading article: Sensible reforms and the need for equality
Published: 18 November 2005
Speculation about the final proposals of Lord Turner's Pensions Commission has been rife for weeks. And the account in yesterday's Financial Times of its conclusions bears all the hallmarks of kite-flying
Leading article: The price of safeguarding public health
Published: 18 November 2005
The progress of the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals Directive through the European Union's legislative machinery has been slow and painful, but the end is in sight
Leading article: Bush is betraying the founding values of his nation
Published: 17 November 2005
Leading article: Cyberspace does not belong to one nation
Published: 16 November 2005
We have grown used to the US acting unilaterally and ignoring world opinion in recent years. But surely the internet is one place (because it isn't a "place" as such) where this kind of behaviour would be pointless, and indeed, impossible? In fact, no. Today, thousands of delegates will gather for the World Summit on The Information Society in Tunis to grapple with the tricky question of who should govern the internet. This refers to the protocols and machines that ensure your e-mail gets to its destination, and that when you head for Google's website its content is delivered from almost halfway across the world without fuss.
Leading article: Rich man's world
Published: 16 November 2005
Tell me, how do you feel when you read that Mr Donald Trump has put a house on the market for $125m (£72m), which is three times the amount he paid for it only 12 months ago?
Leading article: A glimmer of hope
Published: 16 November 2005
Yesterday's deal to open up the borders of the Gaza strip, two months after the Israeli withdrawal, has the potential to provide a welcome boost to the Palestinian economy. At the moment Gaza is in a desperate condition. This narrow strip of territory is riven by massive levels of unemployment and widespread poverty. Now that trucks and buses are to be allowed in and out of the territory - albeit with restrictions - its economic fortunes should improve.
Leading article: Heading off in the wrong direction
Published: 15 November 2005
The patience of Britain's environmental charities has been exhausted. When Tony Blair announced his intention to make climate change a priority during Britain's presidency of the G8 last December he was applauded by the likes of Greenpeace and the WWF. But less than one year later, that applause has given way to accusations of betrayal.
Leading article: An attempt to excuse the inexcusable
Published: 15 November 2005
An accusation of the utmost seriousness has been levelled against the US military. Evidence has emerged that appears to show that the US military used white phosphorous bombs against civilians in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in November last year. If this turns out to be true, a war crime has been committed.
Leading article: Some modest successes, one big failure
Published: 14 November 2005
When the Prime Minister addresses the Lord Mayor's banquet in the City of London this evening, he is expected to focus on the high principle of global interdependence in the 21st century and the hard necessity of reaching agreement on a new round of world trade talks at the Hong Kong summit in December. Equity in world trade is one of Mr Blair's favourite themes, and a worthy one. It is a cause in which he has shown admirable consistency and commitment. And it is a thoroughly praiseworthy topic to broach before a City audience.
Leading article: Enter: Ms Merkel's 'Grand Coalition'
Published: 14 November 2005
After more than a month of doom-laden predictions, brinkmanship and tantrums, Germany almost has a government. Angela Merkel's centre-right alliance and the Social Democrats have finalised the terms of their "grand coalition" and are expected to endorse the agreement today.
