Leading Articles
Leading article: A moment of clarity amid the bloodshed and carnage
Published: 23 October 2006
The once great metropolis of Baghdad is now effectively a dozen small cities, each patrolled by its own sectarian militia. Only the Kurdish regions in the north of the country are unscathed. And even the future of that enclave of relative stability is in doubt as Iraq hurtles, apparently inexorably, towards final break-up.
Leading article: An underlying sickness
Published: 23 October 2006
At a time when our health service is wrestling with a major debt crisis, it is dispiriting to learn that it is also wasting a huge amount of money on a daily basis. The Department of Health claims today that the NHS could save £2.2bn a year if local trusts improved the way they handled certain services.
Leading article: Time out
Published: 23 October 2006
So: "At the third stroke the time sponsored by Accurist will be ... time for a change." Brian Cobby, the voice of the speaking clock for the past two decades, is to retire. Next month there will be a public competition run by Children in Need to choose a new voice to inform the nation of the time over the telephone.
Leading article: Mistake, retreat and shame
Published: 22 October 2006
It has been a long time since even Tony Blair expressed optimism about the state of Iraq. We have to go back as far as January 2004 to find an unqualified assertion that the invasion was "the only way to establish long-term peace and stability"
Leading article: Hot air will not save the Antarctic
Published: 22 October 2006
Another week. Yet more compelling evidence of how global warming is forever changing the face of the planet and blighting people's lives
Leading article: Invisibility: the way we see it
Published: 22 October 2006
Scientists in North Carolina claimed last week to have demonstrated the technology that would make an invisibility cloak possible. This is a subject on which this newspaper has a firm view, as follows:
Leading article: Three countries, two discredited leaders and one disastrous mistake
Published: 21 October 2006
Leading article: British apples deserve our loyalty
Published: 21 October 2006
We have a wonderful heritage of apple growing on these islands. Britain is home to more than 2,000 varieties of the fruit, including some rare and antique breeds such as Laxton's Superb and Adam's Pearmain.
Leading article: Seasonal mix-up
Published: 21 October 2006
Christmas decorations were on sale in Harrods in August. Wetherspoons have been advertising their Christmas office parties for a month. And now we learn that that holly has been fruiting early. Yes, as has often been noted, the festive season seems to come earlier every year.
Leading article: A relationship that should be mutually beneficial
Published: 20 October 2006
When Finland took over the presidency of the European Union in July, one of its priorities was to improve the EU's fractious relationship with Russia
Leading article: The real cost of flying
Published: 20 October 2006
As the debate over Conservative tax policy heats up, we are getting more and more hints that some form of aviation tax will be included in the party's final proposals
Leading article: The looming battle to prove fiscal credibility
Published: 19 October 2006
It is hard as yet to pin down, but something is definitely wafting around in the political air - something in the general area of taxation, the feel-good factor and the business climate in Britain
Leading article: Faith and reason
Published: 19 October 2006
As a secular and liberal newspaper, The Independent naturally believes in the separation of the church and state
Leading article: A change of tack on both sides of the Atlantic
Published: 18 October 2006
Suddenly, all those tough words about staying the course in Iraq are mutating into an incipient debate about an exit strategy
Leading article: An undesirable legacy
Published: 18 October 2006
The term "poverty" has long been a problem. Ever since the social reformer Seebohm Rowntree decided to create a standard measure more than a century ago, society's definition of deprivation has been in flux
Leading article: We should not be distracted by celebrity
Published: 17 October 2006
Madonna is, of course, no stranger to controversy. In her long and successful artistic career she has often courted it. But it seems unlikely that the singer will have welcomed the outcry provoked by her latest project
Leading article: A prize slipping away
Published: 17 October 2006
Turkey's bid to enter the European Union received a double blow last week
Leading article: Halfway to failure on hunger pledge
Published: 16 October 2006
World "days" easily become occasions for platitudes. For a few hours, events graced by celebrities and culminating with impressively worded declarations inspire participants with the warm feeling that they are doing something useful. Then it is forgotten for another year.
Leading article: Dress sense
Published: 16 October 2006
How long ago it seems that the British were observing the disputes in France over the wearing of veils in schools with a certain detachment, and even smugness.
Leading article: Let sleeping parrots lie
Published: 16 October 2006
Hands up who really finds the word "ni" or jokes about the Spanish Inquisition funny? No? You see, you are not alone. It's not the fault of Michael Palin or Eric Idle that the humour of the Monty Python team has become somewhat groan-inducing.
Leading article: An honourable withdrawal
Published: 15 October 2006
British troops should not have been in Iraq in the first place. Their presence is now making the situation worse. Meanwhile, the British Army has a mission in Afghanistan that is morally justified, winnable and under-resourced. The time has come to stop pretending and announce that the vast majority of the 7,000 British soldiers in Iraq will leave within a year.
Leading article: The general is right... we need to consider our exit strategy from Iraq
Published: 14 October 2006
Leading article: A gap between rhetoric and reality
Published: 14 October 2006
It always pays to read the small print where this government is concerned. It turns out that a £10m fund announced at last month's Labour conference by the Environment Secretary, David Miliband, to encourage private industry to build wind farms will, in fact, be lifted from an existing official scheme to promote double-glazing and insulation.
Leading article: Board games
Published: 14 October 2006
The Olympics could be about to roll out the changes. Skateboarding apparently has a reasonable chance of becoming a competitor sport at the 2012 Games. Getting boarding on to a tight schedule will be something of a stretch, admittedly. It might need to be adopted by the cycling federation as another "wheel-based sport". But the International Olympic Committee, eager to attract a young audience to the Games, is keen.
Leading article: A cause for outrage, but not a cause for surprise
Published: 13 October 2006
The latest edition of Novaya Gazeta will have a far greater impact than this liberal Russian newspaper is accustomed to making. The reason is that it prints fragments of the last article by the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, whose assassination last Saturday shocked the world
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