Leading Articles
Leading article: The ultimate responsibility
Published: 07 May 2006
Last week, this newspaper urged the resignation of Charles Clarke as Home Secretary and the retention of Patricia Hewitt as Secretary of State for Health, and expressed its indifference to the details of the private life of the Deputy PM
Leading article: Power to heal, power to harm
Published: 07 May 2006
We are irredeemably in debt to electricity. It powers our economies and liberates us from drudgery. Such once-laborious tasks as cooking, washing clothes or cleaning the floor are largely accomplished by the flick of a switch
Leading article: Animal magic
Published: 07 May 2006
Step up, please, and marvel at the ingenuity of humanity in signing up other members of the animal kingdom to do the jobs that our frail forms are ill-suited to do.
Leading article: The desperate actions of a wounded Prime Minister
Published: 06 May 2006
This was hardly the first time that Tony Blair had responded to bad news by changing the agenda. But yesterday offered one of the more brazen examples of this well-worn tactic.
Leading article: Weather vane
Published: 06 May 2006
We trust everyone was enjoying the fine weather this week. But to anyone in the south of England looking forward to more of the same this summer: be careful of what you wish for. The South is facing its worst drought in a century. A ban on the use of water for all "non-essential" purposes in Surrey, Sussex and Kent is expected soon. Some 13 million people in the region are already banned from using hoses.
Leading article: Wanted: a leader to pull France out of endless crisis
Published: 05 May 2006
The first head to roll as a result of the "French Watergate" could well come from the very top. Even before this scandal exploded, Dominique de Villepin's popularity ratings were as low as any French PM in the past four decades
Leading article: The seeds of a political solution
Published: 05 May 2006
Bobby Sands was 27 when he died in the Maze prison near Belfast. Today, his death 25 years ago - the result of a lethal 66-day hunger strike - will be reverentially commemorated by republicans all over Ireland
Leading article: A quick fix that fans the flames of intolerance
Published: 04 May 2006
The Home Secretary saved his ministerial skin yesterday by offering the same repressive response to crisis that has become the default position of this government: more tough talk, more intolerance, above all, the promise of more illiberal legislation of the sort that has no place in a democratic and civilised society
Leading article: We are not short of masterpieces
Published: 04 May 2006
How much longer can British museums, national and local, go on desperately launching last-minute appeals to save works which would otherwise go abroad
Leading article: A small move that could presage a vital reform
Published: 03 May 2006
With his iPod and Prada loafers, Pope Benedict XVI is turning out to be a very different sort of Pontiff from the one many had expected
Leading article: Don't dismiss them as demagogues
Published: 03 May 2006
While Hispanics cross the Mexican border in droves into the US, further south the newly elected left-wing presidents of Latin America seem determined to do everything in their power to cock a snook at the US and its free-market philosophy
Leading article: Meeting demand for homes the green way
Published: 02 May 2006
The nightjars, woodlarks, and Dartford warblers, which English Nature has moved to protect, are the ecological jewel in the area's crown. These heathlands are part of Britain's natural heritage, and English Nature is right to put a priority on their survival.
Leading article: Let Mr Prodi prepare for government
Published: 02 May 2006
'About time, too" is the only appropriate response to the news that Silvio Berlusconi will finally resign today as Italy's Prime Minister. The election three weeks ago was a cliff-hanger. But it was not so close that there was no winner.
Leading article: The political storm clouds are gathering over Mr Blair
Published: 01 May 2006
The Deputy Prime Minister admitted yesterday that he had "behaved stupidly" in conducting an affair with his political diary secretary. Were there not other strong candidates for the accolade, John Prescott's admission might have stood a good chance of being recognised as the understatement of the year.
Leading article: An overload of targets, tests and tables
Published: 01 May 2006
The country's largest headteachers' organisation, the National Association of Head Teachers, claimed this weekend that the Government was obsessed by the three Ts - Targets, Tests and Tables. And we have some sympathy with their view. But the answer is not the outright abolition of testing and all the paraphernalia that accompanies it.
Leading article: The foot factor
Published: 01 May 2006
When did "metatarsal" become synonymous with a common or garden foot? We suspect that this refinement of the English language can be dated, with absolute accuracy, to 9 April 2002, when the England captain, David Beckham, broke the second metatarsal bone in his left foot, 54 days before England's opening World Cup match.
Leading article: Clarke must go
Published: 30 April 2006
We come to the conclusion that the Home Secretary should resign not because we think that he is a bad or ill-intentioned minister. On the contrary, he is one of the genuine political heavyweights of this Government
Leading article: Hewitt must stay
Published: 30 April 2006
In the case of Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health, the opposite conclusion should be reached
Leading article: Prescott... must we?
Published: 30 April 2006
High of mind and socially liberal of politics, this newspaper tries to stay out of politicians' bedrooms. One place we would certainly never think to go voluntarily would be the Deputy Prime Minister's boudoir. We hold back on the threshold, therefore, to observe two things. One is that Cecil Parkinson's resignation 23 years ago seems to belong to a different sexual and political era. David Mellor resigned in 1992 not because of his extra-marital affair, but because he failed to declare a free holiday, while David Blunkett's error two years ago was get his office to chase up his son's nanny's visa. Unless John Prescott has demonstrably abused his public office in pursuit of private interests, the lucrative confessions of Tracey Temple should have no bearing on his suitability for his job.
Leading article: A flawed attempt to keep the wolves at bay and salvage some dignity
Published: 29 April 2006
Leading article: The cost of our culture of convenience
Published: 29 April 2006
The fact that it takes more than 50 litres of water to manufacture a single pack of supermarket lettuce sums up our society's wastefulness when it comes to the earth's resources.
Leading article: Rock against racism
Published: 29 April 2006
For an insignificant political force, the British National Party has had an extraordinary amount of free publicity of late. Margaret Hodge, the MP for Barking, kicked things off by warning that the racist party was making alarming progress in her backyard.
Leading article: What Blair's triplicate troubles say about Labour
Published: 28 April 2006
It is often written that Tony Blair has suffered his worst week in power. The observation has been repeated to the point of absurdity
Leading article: Send in the United Nations
Published: 28 April 2006
The already terrible situation in Darfur is deteriorating. The Janjaweed militia has resumed its attacks on civilians. Darfuri rebels have responded by targeting Sudanese government troops
Leading article: A case of incompetence and distorted priorities
Published: 27 April 2006
In the same week that the Home Secretary decides to launch an attack on the liberal media for daring to criticise the Government's record of knee-jerk authoritarianism, it is revealed that the same minister has been failing to perform one of his most basic duties
