Leading Articles
Leading article: Mr Cameron's high-wire walk to an unknown goal
Published: 06 December 2006
David Cameron's first anniversary as Conservative leader has generated a noisy interest already
Leading article: Badges of dishonour
Published: 06 December 2006
The massacre at Srebrenica 11 years ago is regarded not just as the most shameful episode in the civil war that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia
Independent Appeal: Our duty to help the real victims of conflict
Published: 05 December 2006
In our 2006 Christmas appeal, which we launch today, we have tried to steer away from "in" high-profile charities to focus on three who are working on issues that are rarely in that international spotlight.
Leading article: A foolish decision, made in haste
Published: 05 December 2006
Britain is set to modernise its nuclear capacity using money that could better be spent on other things, at a time when nuclear weapons may not be the best way of meeting the new threats to our national security.
Leading article: Our planet must discover a new way forward
Published: 04 December 2006
Today sees some rare good news for the environment. The state of Para, in northern Brazil, will announce a plan to protect 16.4 million hectares of rainforest. This will outlaw any human activity not connected to conservation or research in the last great tract of untouched forest in Brazil.
Leading article: Drawing the wrong conclusions
Published: 04 December 2006
A report today is expected to show that, on average, one person a week dies at the hands of a mentally ill patient. We should always bear in mind that only a tiny minority of the mentally ill are violent, let alone killers. But this is still a shocking statistic.
Leading article: Ho ho ho!
Published: 04 December 2006
Poor old Santa Claus. He just can't seem to do anything right these days. In Berlin, he stands accused of National Socialist sympathies, after shoppers detected a stiff-armed salute in some miniature wooden statues on sale. Meanwhile he is lambasted by health campaigners for his long-standing advertising contract with Coca-Cola.
Leading article: Sometimes nanny is right
Published: 03 December 2006
The lazy response to the Government's plan to offer keep-fit classes on the National Health Service is to dismiss it - from the comfort of the sofa - as nanny-state nonsense. But it is far from being that. On the contrary, it is a rather small and tentative step in the right direction.
Leading article: The polluter must pay
Published: 03 December 2006
The Eddington review of transport policy, published last week, only inches us forward in a slow-moving traffic jam, and leaves us thinking that we might have made a bit more progress in a different lane. In simple political terms, the report makes one important point, which is that road pricing is essential. It is, indeed, the optimum means for controlling both carbon emissions and congestion in land transport. A national pricing regime could take into account the emissions of individual vehicles as well as the demand for road space by location and time of day.
Leading article: The fur flies
Published: 03 December 2006
It once seemed that the fashion for wearing fur was fading, as public attitudes shifted in a broadly progressive direction. But no. Cruelty is back, partly as a result of some clever marketing by the fur industry. It is time now to try to finish the job started by the shock tacticians of the early anti-fur campaigns. This time round, new tactics and a more considered response are required. The Independent on Sunday is not against fur; we are opposed to cruelty to animals.
Leading article: Sir Rod's case for environmental radicalism
Published: 02 December 2006
Leading article: A test of responsible leadership
Published: 02 December 2006
Love him or loathe him, the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has unarguably improved the lot of his country's poor, with subsidised food, improved schools and more available free health care.
Leading article: Slow and steady
Published: 02 December 2006
Two decades after the concept was invented by an Italian outraged by the appearance of a McDonald's at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome, the "slow food" revolution has - at last - arrived in Britain.
Leading article: We have a moral imperative to act
Published: 01 December 2006
There is bad news and good news about the Aids epidemic whose deadly grip is continuing to spread across the globe. The headline fact is that it continues to grow. Some 40 million people are now living with HIV
Leading article: New Labour's reactionary agenda has failed
Published: 30 November 2006
When New Labour was in opposition, it adopted a progressive stance on questions of crime and punishment
Leading article: Volatility threatens us all
Published: 30 November 2006
To understand why we should be concerned about the plunging value of the US dollar on the international currency markets, it is first necessary to appreciate why it is happening
Leading article: A zero-sum game that leaves ITV the victor
Published: 29 November 2006
Though there has been a good deal of comment on the timing of Michael Grade's surprise defection to ITV, after two-and-a-half years as chairman of the BBC, this is by no means the most important aspect of the move
Leading article: The battleground broadens
Published: 29 November 2006
One of the most important environmental cases in years will today come before the United States Supreme Court
Leading article: At risk from the flames that are engulfing Iraq
Published: 28 November 2006
President Bush is flying to Jordan to meet the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. The hope is that the scene could be set for some grand diplomacy at a time when grand diplomacy is sorely needed.
Leading article: A dangerous lack of consistency
Published: 28 November 2006
The 30th anniversary of the Commission for Racial Equality has been overshadowed by anger over its imminent absorption into a new equalities super-watchdog and by Ken Livingstone's decision to boycott its convention.
Leading article: A papal visit laden with symbolism and danger
Published: 27 November 2006
No one can deny that Benedict XVI is a brave man for even visiting Turkey at a time of such heightened unease between Muslim world and the West, and when many Turks are seething - to put it mildly - with the Pope personally and Europe in general.
Leading article: The die is cast
Published: 27 November 2006
The news that Hans Blix is lecturing today in Britain on nuclear weapons must surely raise at least a few hackles on the back of the Prime Minister's neck, for this is Round Two of the Blair versus Blix contest.
Leading article: The right time to apologise
Published: 27 November 2006
The Prime Minister's planned apology for the evils of slavery will inevitably disappoint and even anger as many people as it satisfies. On the one hand, that small band of historians who are bent on rehabilitating the Empire's memory in all its tawdry glory will complain about a politically correct "gesture", as well as about the left's relative silence on the subject of the African chiefs who collaborated in the trade when not slavers themselves.
Leading article: A timely reversal in Iraq
Published: 26 November 2006
The terms of trade in the debate over Iraq have shifted decisively. Only a few months ago, anyone who called for British troops to be pulled out was dismissed by the PM as, in effect, an appeaser who was assisting al-Qa'ida
Leading article: Hitting people is wrong
Published: 26 November 2006
It is a matter only of when smacking children will be banned in Britain, not whether
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