Commentators
Alan Johnson: Children must think differently
Published: 02 February 2007
In 1815, Mt Tambora in Indonesia ejected 160 billion tons of ash into the atmosphere - an explosion so cataclysmic that inhabitants of the eastern US and western Europe didn't see the sun again for almost a year.
This family's treatment makes me ashamed to be Labour MP
Published: 01 February 2007
Terry Leahy: Don't blame us: we can't get rid of all packaging
Published: 01 February 2007
Paul Wilkinson: This doesn't mean they have given up on bombing
Published: 01 February 2007
Although jihadi extremist groups have kidnapped British Muslims in Iraq, we have no experience of them kidnapping any member of the armed forces on United Kingdom territory.
Catherine Townsend: Sleeping Around
Published: 01 February 2007
Cooper Brown: He's Out There
Published: 01 February 2007
Claudia Winkleman: Take It From Me
Published: 31 January 2007
Lucy Caldwell: The story so far...
Published: 30 January 2007
A dull, uninspired morning: I should be able to lounge about in bed with buck's fizz and defrosted chocolate croissants (the penniless writer's take on champagne breakfast at the Georges V in Paris) but somehow I always find myself sitting glumly at my desk by 8am. The ingrained Protestant work ethic, perhaps.
Nick Clegg: Do you want to create crime, or cut it?
Published: 30 January 2007
Alice Mahon: Labour is in power, so why do I have to go private?
Published: 30 January 2007
Just imagine somebody who has spent their whole life in the Labour movement having to go to court, under a Labour government, to try to get the NHS to pay for treatment. Imagine being forced to choose between going private, or going blind.
Dylan Jones: The sharpest O'Toole in the acting box
Published: 29 January 2007
The first thing I noticed about Peter O'Toole at the premiere of Roger Michell and Hanif Kureishi's rather extraordinary Venus last week was the shameless way in which he took an absolute age to walk to the stage when asked to show himself to the audience. Admittedly he had to top Leslie Phillips, who, having been introduced, to great delight, as "The man who put the ding into dong", had grabbed the microphone and reduced the audience in the Chelsea Cinema to a cackling herd after a simple "Hellooo..." But O'Toole's walk was the walk of a man who knows how to grandstand seriously, even at the age of 74, and even after breaking his hip on Boxing Day. In fact, he may even have got away with it had he not positively sprinted back to his seat after we had finished clapping - all 6ft 3in of him.
David Usborne: Our Man In New York
Published: 29 January 2007
Charles Nevin: What Basil's statue says about Britain
Published: 29 January 2007
These are, you will have been told, uncertain times. Everywhere, the old givens are in disarray. We even seem to have managed to produce a half-decent tennis player. The world is uncertain, the country is so uncertain that, according to the annual British Social Attitudes survey, we're not even certain we're British, or English, Scots, Welsh or Irish, or which class we're supposed to be in.
Steve Connor: Global warming is not some conspiratorial hoax
Published: 29 January 2007
The three reports that make up the fourth assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be published in full this year and the process begins this Friday in Paris with the publication of the first, which concentrates on the science of climate change. The importance of this and the remaining two reports should not be underestimated.
Rebecca Tyrrel: Days Like Those
Published: 29 January 2007
Max Clifford: You said sorry to the princes, Mr Coulson. Now apologise to me
Published: 28 January 2007
Beatrix Campbell: The rape of human justice
Published: 28 January 2007
Sarah Sands: The first rule of emailing: send it and be damned
Published: 28 January 2007
Oliver James: The sickest show on TV?
Published: 28 January 2007
Joanna Briscoe: Ladies, don't waste your life on lettuce
Published: 28 January 2007
Rupert Cornwell: Out of America
Published: 28 January 2007
Rupert Cornwell: This time, Bush could not suspend disbelief
Published: 27 January 2007
Jemima Lewis: The heroic reactions of ordinary mortals
Published: 27 January 2007
Richard Ingrams' Week: Reasons not to trust technology
Published: 27 January 2007
For the first time in my life I was forced this week to use a computer. I was attending what they call a Speed Awareness Course, which, if you are lucky enough to live in the right area, is a way of avoiding three points on your driving licence. (You still have to pay £74). For more than an hour I sat answering the questions on the screen, for example, about my sleeping habits or whether I resented being overtaken (answer: yes).