Commentators
Jonathon Porritt: Our nuclear future may already be decided
Published: 21 May 2006
Germaine Greer: Pop bitch
Published: 21 May 2006
Tim Parks: Everyone, even the sainted Collina, knew games were fixed. Yet no one said a word
Published: 21 May 2006
Dave Hill: Embarrassing Dad Syndrome, by Royal Appointment
Published: 21 May 2006
Candida Crewe: The weigh-in could become a weapon in the war against fat
Published: 21 May 2006
At the beginning and end of each term we were ordered into a queue for our turn at the stake: a step up in front of everyone on to the old-fashioned scales in the school hall. They closely resembled the outsized ones in the school kitchen, daily employed to weigh large slabs of meat or dough.
Rupert Cornwell: Out of America
Published: 21 May 2006
Jemima Lewis: All hail the galactic lords of ... Darlington
Published: 20 May 2006
Richard Ingrams' Week: Was Norman Kember really naive?
Published: 20 May 2006
Will Prince Charles gain anything in the way of public esteem by appearing on TV with Ant and Dec tonight? Or would he have done better to keep his trap shut?
Ken Livingstone: The nuclear option would be reckless and wrong
Published: 19 May 2006
The Third Leader: On defeat...
Published: 19 May 2006
Some suggestion, I understand, after Arsenal's defeat by Barcelona in the Champions' League final, that Thierry Henry and his team-mates are bad losers. But is this necessarily a bad thing? Is being unsporting really unsporting? Consider, for instance, these two cherished American quotations: "Good losers get used to losing," and, "We didn't lose, we just ran out of time."
Julia Stephenson: The Green Goddess
Published: 18 May 2006
After a 10-year break, the barbaric live export of Britain's unwanted male dairy calves has started again. Up to 500,000 newborn male calves, the unwanted by-products of milk production, are currently shot every year in the UK, but Europe's ban on British beef and calf imports is to be lifted and these calves will again be transported to veal producers in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Many transporters are still using crates, in which calves are kept in solitary confinement in a space so small that they can't even turn around. It is a system considered so cruel that it has been banned within Britain, as a result of constant campaigning.
John Denham: If you want better justice, listen to the victims
Published: 17 May 2006
The Third Leader: Retro-food
Published: 17 May 2006
Of the world's mysteries, few are as intriguing as the popularity of Spam, which, to the despair of sensitive food lovers, has staged yet another comeback. And, indeed, one sympathises with the sighs of those who try so hard to convert us to fresh food and subtle tastes. Even I take salad cream with it.
Bono: I am a witness. What can I do?
Published: 16 May 2006
May I say without guile, I am as sick of messianic rock stars as the next man, woman and child. I am also tired of average work being given extra weight because it's attached to something with real gravitas, like the Aids emergency. So I truly try to tread carefully as I walk over the dreams of dignity under my feet in our work for the terrible beauty that is the continent of Africa. I'm used to the custard pies. I've even learnt to like the taste of them. But before you are tempted to let fly with your understandable invective, allow me to contextualise. Not for the sake of my vanity, but for the sake of people who are depending on you - the reader - to respond to the precariousness of their lives.
Bob Geldof: Trade, not aid, is the answer
Published: 16 May 2006
Niall Fitzgerald: Not a burden, but a land of opportunity
Published: 16 May 2006
Nelson Mandela: We are grateful for the work of Product (RED)
Published: 16 May 2006
We are grateful for the work being done by Product (RED) to fight what we consider the biggest threat to our existence on this continent. We trust that this initiative, similar to our 46664 campaign, will inspire people around the world to help us fight the HIV/Aids disease. It is not merely a disease, but an assault on human dignity. Our challenge is bigger than the one we faced in our struggle for freedom. We never anticipated that once we achieved our freedom we would face another challenge of this magnitude. We cannot win this fight on our own and we join Bono in calling for your assistance.
Jeremy Laurance: Why RED can boost Global Fund's war on HIV
Published: 16 May 2006
We are at the start of a new era in private charitable support for the world's poor, says Professor Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund. The Independent's decision to donate half of today's cover price to RED in support of the fund is a signal of that changed approach.
Charles Nevin: Circus at Stormont
Published: 16 May 2006
This space tends to dwell on matters of less vital consequence. Today, though, our Editor has asked me to break with tradition and address the matter of the resumed Northern Ireland Assembly.
Live8 and Gleneagles - what did they achieve?
Published: 16 May 2006
Myles Wickstead, COMMISSION FOR AFRICA
Richard Odingo: We can't solve poverty until we stop climate change
Published: 15 May 2006
Charles Nevin: Where there's brass, there's, er, brass ...
Published: 15 May 2006
Observers of current affairs are not unused to the unusual; that is, after all, a large part of the definition of news. Currently, though, affairs have certainly hit a rich vein of form. Perhaps it's the friskiness of spring, or maybe the Test activity at Lords has brought a reminder that the season to be silly will be soon upon us. Then again, it might be just an urgent universal desire to upstage David Blaine.
David Usborne: Our Man In New York
Published: 15 May 2006
Rebecca Tyrrel: Days Like Those
Published: 15 May 2006
Michael Williams: Mean streets
Published: 14 May 2006
