Leading Articles
Leading article: The true value of our creative industries
Published: 06 March 2007
Mr Blair - and his likely successor, Gordon Brown - must demonstrate that the arts are not merely some desirable, but essentially optional, aspect of modern Britain. Both must make it clear that the arts constitute the very life-blood of a civilised nation.
Leading article: Deadly negligence
Published: 06 March 2007
Large companies often delegate safety decisions to managers low down the hierarchy, making it very hard to prove a line of accountability. But we cannot allow this to be used as defence for deadly negligence.
Leading article: A switch to biofuels will not save the planet
Published: 05 March 2007
On the face of it, it's most encouraging that biofuels will be at the top of the agenda when George Bush touches down in Sao Paolo on Thursday to meet his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Leading article: Libya - The price of engaging with a dictator
Published: 05 March 2007
The 30th anniversary of the so-called "green" revolution which Libya's eccentric leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, celebrated at the weekend was a useful moment to take stock of how the outside world's relations with this pivotal, oil-rich, state have been transformed.
Leading article: Tail end
Published: 05 March 2007
Poodles will never look the same. Nor will the Queen's corgis, one imagines. Farewell familiar stubby tail, hallmark of a host of breeds for generations. From next month, the Animal Welfare Act will outlaw docking dog tails, with the exception of some "working" dogs in England and Wales.
Leading article: Midwives: end the crisis
Published: 04 March 2007
The capacity of the National Health Service to absorb without noticeable effect the huge increase in public money that has been poured into it in recent years seems to have taken the Government by surprise
Leading article: Parents need choice, not luck
Published: 04 March 2007
The new steps in the education tango, one of the great war dances of the British middle classes, are unlikely to become fashionable
Leading article: Cheer up, Britain!
Published: 04 March 2007
A Young Woman's Escape from Childhood Hell. The True Story of a Child in Desperate Peril. What Has She Done That Is So Terrible? How a Childhood Was Stolen and a Trust Betrayed. The subtitles of just some of the books on the Amazon bestsellers list tell an alarming story of a nation addicted to Schadenfreude.
Leading article: The era of this particular brand of Republicanism is coming to an end
Published: 03 March 2007
Leading article: Broken promises and mixed messages
Published: 03 March 2007
When the Government launched its low-carbon buildings programme, offering grants for those who wish to install solar panels, it grossly underestimated public demand for renewable energy in Britain. Last year, the Department for Trade and Industry was forced to allocate the grants in monthly slices of £500,000 to avoid the entire budget being swallowed up at once.
Leading article: Turtle power
Published: 03 March 2007
More than 100 red-eared terrapins from the ponds of Hampstead Heath are being "deported" to Tuscany. The American freshwater turtles have been devouring ducklings and traumatising young children in the process. Local wildlife officers blame the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze of the 1990s.
Leading article: Reform within, but not enough progress without
Published: 02 March 2007
The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell, ends his first 12 months as he began it, at the party's half yearly conference in Harrogate
Leading article: Spain learns the lessons of Ulster
Published: 02 March 2007
Not for the first time, the course of confrontation between the Spanish government and the Basque separatists of Eta has shown uncanny parallels with that of the IRA and the British government
Leading article: A courageous stand against social segregation
Published: 01 March 2007
In recent months we have witnessed some inspiring examples of progressive action by local authorities
Leading article: A shockwave from the East
Published: 01 March 2007
The roots of this week's stock market fluctuations lie in the East. On Tuesday, the Shanghai stock exchange fell 9 per cent because of rumours that the government was planning to impose a capital gains tax on share dealings
Leading article: Honeyed words and difficult decisions
Published: 28 February 2007
Westminster has been resounding again to the refrain of the importance of " the family". In this context, the Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, was right to warn yesterday of the dangers of the political classes stigmatising single mothers once again
Leading article: A step on the road to justice
Published: 28 February 2007
The unhappy people of Darfur made the first significant steps along the road to justice yesterday when the International Criminal Court in the Hague was asked to issue arrest warrants against two named individuals for crimes against humanity in the war-torn province in the remote west of Sudan
Leading article: Resentment, betrayal and six years of neglect
Published: 27 February 2007
Last year when John Reid, the then Defence Secretary, unveiled a major troop deployment to Afghanistan, he suggested they might return "without firing a shot". His successor Des Browne, announcing yesterday that 1,400 extra troops are to be sent to Helmand province, revealed no such complacency.
Leading article: Power and responsibility
Published: 27 February 2007
But driving small dairy farms to the wall, for the sake of a few pence off the cost of a pint of milk, cannot represent a healthy way forward for a patchwork, intimate countryside.
Leading article: The route back to the negotiating table
Published: 26 February 2007
Iran has great potential to stabilise the region, as well as disrupt it. That was why the Iraq Study Group, headed by the former secretary of state James Baker, concluded that President Bush should co-operate with Iran to improve the situation in Iraq.
Leading article: A safety-first approach
Published: 26 February 2007
The derailment of a London to Glasgow Virgin Pendolino train in Cumbria on Friday night has once again cast the spotlight on to the safety of our railways. We are told the investigation into the accident is focussing on a set of points that the train passed over shortly before crashing.
Leading article: The other side of Africa
Published: 26 February 2007
Voting began in Senegal's presidential elections yesterday. The former French colony is not without its problems. Unemployment is high, something that prompts tens of thousands of young Senegalese men to risk a perilous boat journey to Europe in search of a better life each year. And a low-level conflict with separatists in the southern province of Casamance has been rumbling on for two decades.
Leading article: Blair's moral failure
Published: 25 February 2007
There is a long tradition in this country of scepticism about moralising politicians. It is a tradition to which this newspaper gave voice in the build-up to the invasion of Iraq
Leading article: The victory of Croke Park
Published: 25 February 2007
On this side of the Irish Sea, it is perhaps difficult to see what all the fuss was about. Wasn't this just another Six Nations match?
Leading article: For Queen and country, calm down!
Published: 25 February 2007
Is that the Chariots of Fire theme swelling from the sub-woofer? Are we being summoned to a rendezvous with our national destiny in Los Angeles tonight? Well, we are all for optimism and confidence, England expects and all that. But we also recall the words of another great British hero about trying on the crown before it is quite time for the big show.
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