Leading Articles
Leading article: A shaming history of cowardice and self-interest
Published: 14 December 2005
The leaders of the world's richest nations are all in favour of free trade. But only when it suits them. In sectors such as manufacturing and services, the great trading blocs of Europe, America and Asia are generally happy to allow the unimpeded exchange of goods and skills across national borders. But there is a shameful exception: agriculture.
Leading article: Disorderly conduct
Published: 14 December 2005
The Lord Chancellor had a torrid time yesterday attempting to defend the Government's record on free speech. Like the Prime Minister, Lord Falconer seems to believe that merely saying something makes it so
Leading article: The perils of planting democracy in a hostile land
Published: 13 December 2005
One thousand days. This is how long British troops have been in Iraq, and still we are counting. Such an accumulation of time seemed inconceivable in the days after the invasion, when the military operation looked likely to be completed in weeks. As we now know to our cost, the ease of removing Saddam Hussein offered no preparation for the multifarious resistance that was to come. Ousting a dictator is one thing; sowing and watering the seeds of democracy where none existed is an undertaking of quite a different order.
Leading article: A failure of nerve
Published: 13 December 2005
The warning signs are now flashing. A report commissioned by the Reform think tank has predicted that the National Health Service is facing a deficit of nearly £7bn by the end of the decade unless it takes radical action to get its spending under control.
Leading article: The danger of a double defeat for Tony Blair
Published: 12 December 2005
The opening of world trade negotiations in Hong Kong on Tuesday and the EU summit in Brussels two days later mean a decisive week lies ahead for Tony Blair. Time is running out for him to secure even the semblance of a "legacy" in the terms that he set himself at the outset of his presidencies of both the EU and the G8: revitalisation of the European project and greater justice in international trade as a key to ending global poverty.
Leading article: A good day for international justice
Published: 12 December 2005
The transfer to The Hague at the weekend of the Croatian war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina, against a backdrop of fierce protests in his homeland, marks a milestone in the history of the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. It also vindicates the tough stance of its chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, whose indictments of Balkan presidents and prime ministers have frequently been described as rash and inflammatory.
Leading article: Stripping off isn't always best
Published: 12 December 2005
How obsessed we have become with stripping things down. In the quest to get back to the original, we read virtue into the act of removing layers - whether it's clothes off bodies, paint off floorboards, varnish off paintings, or accretions off legends. Nude is in.
Leading article: A breath of fresh air
Published: 11 December 2005
Yesterday's unexpected agreement at the climate summit in Montreal is the biggest breakthrough yet in combating global warming, and it came because the global community stood up to President George Bush and called his bluff, as this newspaper has consistently urged
Leading article: Mr Cameron, welcome!
Published: 11 December 2005
David Cameron has made a sparkling d�but as Leader of the Opposition. By his actions in his first few days he vindicated the Conservative Party's choice of him, by a margin of two to one, over David Davis
Leading article: England expects (not much)
Published: 11 December 2005
Not the Group of Death, then, but the Group of Pluck. The draw for the World Cup could not have been more ostensibly favourable to England if David Beckham had been allowed to fix the balls himself. It is, therefore, the worst outcome for England in the worst of all possible worlds. Trinidad and Tobago, Paraguay and Sweden. Potential giant killers all. (Although Sweden are in a slightly different category, as a second-tier footballing nation that England have failed to beat in living memory.)
Leading article: A major assault on our freedom
Published: 10 December 2005
It is 15 February 2003. One million people or more are pouring on to the streets of London in a last effort to avert the imminent invasion of Iraq. The Prime Minister is addressing the Labour Party's spring conference in Glasgow. Alluding to the huge protest, Mr Blair said this: "I rejoice that we live in a country where peaceful protest is a natural part of our democratic process."
Leading article: From blue to green
Published: 10 December 2005
David Cameron's passionate espousal of the environmental cause may strike some as opportunistic. But whatever his motivation - and it is an issue which he been promoting for some time - it can only be for the good that the Conservative Party is now developing its own ideas on the subject.
Leading article: What's big, red and out of date?
Published: 10 December 2005
London pulled out all the stops to say good-bye to the Routemaster - the distinctive red bus that was such a trademark of the capital. The gods laid on an approximation of a foggy morning; shoppers applauded; enthusiasts jogged alongside.
Leading Article: Once more, the judiciary safeguards our values
Published: 09 December 2005
In delivering their judgment, the law lords said that using any evidence derived from torture was incompatible with British traditions and our international obligation to shun torture "and its fruits".
Leading Article: Rising to an unfamiliar challenge
Published: 09 December 2005
Few would deny that the election of David Cameron as Conservative Party leader has changed the political landscape in Britain. And one group now under pressure is the Liberal Democrat party.
Leading Article: Britain's four decades of progress and imperfection
Published: 08 December 2005
This day, 40 years ago, saw the introduction of the Race Relations Act, which made discrimination on the basis of skin colour or ethnicity illegal in Britain for the first time. Four decades on, we have largely stamped out such obvious injustices, but the debate about race in modern Britain is far from over.
Leading Article: Portrait of the artist as activist
Published: 08 December 2005
It is a matter for great regret that Harold Pinter was not well enough to travel to Stockholm to receive his Nobel Prize in person. Above all, it was sad for Pinter himself who, scourge of the establishment that he is, would surely have relished the distinctive and distinguished public forum the week of the Nobel prize ceremony affords.
Leading article: A mandate for change that must not be squandered
Published: 07 December 2005
Britain has been without a serious party of opposition for the best part of a decade now. David Cameron's election as Tory leader gives us hope that we may, finally, get one back. As Mr Cameron demonstrated in his victory speech, he is eloquent and telegenic and appears to belong to the real world. It is now up to the new leader to extend his appeal to a wider electorate, which will require more than smiling at cameras and being personable in television studios. He must forge the Conservatives into a party fit to govern in the 21st century.
Leading article: Cash reunited
Published: 07 December 2005
Envy is not an attractive trait, so I hope you will dismiss any hint of it when I consider the continuing success of Friends Reunited, bought by ITV yesterday for just the initial £120m. No, we leader writers long ago cheerfully forsook any hopes of material gain, preferring to sacrifice such passing trifles in the cause of proffering disinterested advice and sage counsel untainted by baser instinct.
Leading article: The forfeiting of goodwill
Published: 07 December 2005
If the test of an effective compromise is that all the parties hate it, then Tony Blair is off to a good start with his proposed EU budget agreement. Almost everybody from "old" to "new" Europe has come out to say how completely they reject it.
Leading article: A glimpse of the new political battleground
Published: 06 December 2005
The surreptitious way that the Chancellor of the Exchequer slipped out the bad news in his pre-budget report yesterday was almost comic.
Leading article: Please stop hectoring us
Published: 06 December 2005
Since becoming Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice has been a rare star in a Bush administration that has otherwise stumbled from one mess to another.
Leading article: A bright day for equality
Published: 05 December 2005
This is an historic moment. From today, homosexual couples across Britain will be able to inform their local register offices of their intention to enter into a civil partnership. The first registration ceremonies will follow in just over two weeks. Committed gay and lesbian couples will henceforth have access to the same legal rights as married couples with respect to inheritance tax, pensions and a range of other matters. For the first time, gay relationships will be recognised in the eyes of the law.
Leading article: Kingdom come
Published: 05 December 2005
Is this the equivalent of the "October surprise", that astonishing revelation that always seems to get leaked in the closing stages of American presidential elections? Is this the damaging piece of information, held back until the moment of maximum impact, to scupper a candidate's chances? Probably not. This time almost all of the votes are already in.
Leading article: The road to destruction
Published: 04 December 2005
It is as if we were living on two planets. Here, in the real world, the evidence that global warming is already doing immense damage to the earth is mounting with terrifying speed
