Commentators
Maurice Frankel: It's Britain, so some doors are locked
Published: 31 December 2005
The Freedom of Information Act has begun to open doors - but is yet to be fully tested against those the Government is determined to keep locked.
Sa'id Ghazali: The Palestinian Authority is a donkey with a load too heavy to bear
Published: 31 December 2005
This new fashion of kidnapping in Gaza is just a symptom of the combination of economic failure, rotten politics, and international hypocrisy.
Rupert Cornwell: The American Century that never was
Published: 31 December 2005
John Lidstone: The New Year Honours List is a corrupt farce
Published: 29 December 2005
Jenny Watson: For too many, children put paid to equality
Published: 29 December 2005
Today marks thirty years since the Sex Discrimination Act came into force. The Act, which created the Equal Opportunities Commission, outlawed discrimination on the grounds of sex, ushering in a degree of "formal" equality. Yet three decades later, women still face a poverty penalty. The pay gap between men and women remains at 17 per cent for full-time workers and more than 38 per cent hour-for-hour for those working part time. The latter has barely changed since 1975.
Richard Askwith: Bring back National Service - but not for the young
Published: 29 December 2005
Joanna Briscoe: The Sharp End
Published: 29 December 2005
Oliver Gillie: World is waking up to medicinal power of the outdoors
Published: 28 December 2005
The discovery that vitamin D is vital for the health of 30 or more different tissues and organs of the body has been one of the most significant medical discoveries of the last 10 years but, until very recently, only a few dozen scientists scattered round the world were interested. Most scientists and doctors thought that vitamin D was important only for the healthy bones.
DJ Taylor: Why we find Sienna and Kerry so inspirational
Published: 28 December 2005
Michael Perry: 'I felt compelled to write her name in the sand'
Published: 27 December 2005
"My daughter, Hannah Tugwell, was killed by the tsunami last year while staying staying at a beachfront bungalow in Khao Lak. She was with her husband, Matthew, who survived. She was a special needs teacher, and we were very proud of her.
Richard Dowden: Fairer trade, more aid and debt relief are not really the answer to Africa's problems
Published: 27 December 2005
Danielle Demetriou: How the tsunami changed our lives
Published: 27 December 2005
The Third Leader: Holiday hardship
Published: 27 December 2005
One of the principal purposes of this space, dogged readers may have noticed, is to promote optimism, offer consolation and market harmony. That is why today, at the start of this uncertain period between the gloomy certainties of the old year and the nervous promise of the new, I want to appeal for unity in a divided nation. Yes, I know during the coming week many of you will be on holiday; and I know, too, many of you will be back at work: and I recognise this can cause tensions, feelings of injustice, and, in extreme cases, muttering. And that's just over the washing up.
Charles Nevin: News from Elsewhere
Published: 26 December 2005
Kathy Marks: The end of innocence at Bondi beach
Published: 26 December 2005
Jan Egeland: Will we be ready when a tsunami strikes again?
Published: 26 December 2005
The Third Leader: How was it for you?
Published: 26 December 2005
So, here we are, made it. A little sensitive this morning, perhaps, but, with luck, you eschewed toast, which can be loud, and adjusted the altitude from which to pour milk on to the cereal down to its lowest possible level. Excellent. A quiet moment, then, with your newspaper, as ever an aid to sober reflection.
Richard Ingrams' Week: Where is Dickens when you need him?
Published: 24 December 2005
Christmas inevitably reminds people of Charles Dickens who is seen, rightly or wrongly, as the inventor of Yuletide cheer and jollity and its reverse side represented by the mean old miser Ebenezer Scrooge.
Rupert Cornwell: Could George Bush end up impeached?
Published: 24 December 2005
Jemima Lewis: The British defence... expect the worst
Published: 24 December 2005
The Third Leader: Fishy dilemma
Published: 23 December 2005
Havens from the complicated business of existence are much cherished. You might seek the garden, the cloister or the mountain top; I have always been fond of seeking solace in the queue at the fish and chip shop.
Matthew Norman: Britain, the spy-camera capital of the world
Published: 23 December 2005
The only saving grace about the torrent of terrifying news stories that flows at this time of year is that in conjunction they do tend to weaken the impact of one another. Ordinarily, for example, reports that global warming is far more advanced than previously thought would have one asking for a hemlock chaser with the mulled wine. However, when this glad tiding is swiftly followed, as on Wednesday's Newsnight, by the revelation that avian flu has already mutated to resist Tamiflu, you feel more relaxed about climate change. If we're all going to be piled in mass graves by this time next year anyway, what is the point in fretting?
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: We'd learn more history if we didn't teach it in school
Published: 23 December 2005
Trust a quango to make a drama out of drivel. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is "increasingly concerned" because British schoolteachers devote most of the history timetable to the Tudors and the Nazis. This is a reflection of British proclivities. The public in this country likes sex and horror. So it likes Henry VIII and Hitler. Nothing wrong with that - except the common-or-garden British vices of bad taste and smallness of soul.
The Third Leader: Dancing to a male beat
Published: 22 December 2005
Some people are sceptical about the worth of much current research, finding its findings, to be polite, often a touch obvious. Not I. Daily comes illumination. And never more so than with this work in Jamaica purporting to show that women choose a mate on the strength of his dancing. Suddenly, many incidents from my early life become much clearer.
Joanna Briscoe: At the Sharp End
Published: 22 December 2005
