Commentators

The Third Leader: Under pressure

Published: 20 April 2007

Much news, we note, about stress and pressure, with hypertension said to affect one-quarter of the world's adults. Difficult, too, to offer much relief when even sunshine comes tinged with warning and guilt. In any event, should you wish to breathe deeply some sea air, we also report that litter on Britain's beaches has increased by 90 per cent since 1994, and, as I advised earlier, there will be no deckchairs in Bournemouth's parks until next month.

John Lichfield: A strange election in a strange country

Published: 19 April 2007

Having cried out for new faces, France finds itself with three callow, untried fifty-somethings

Sarah Churchwell: The depressing truth behind prizes for women

Published: 19 April 2007

When men encounter simple equality they feel overwhelmed by the femaleness of it all

Catherine Townsend: Sleeping Around

Published: 19 April 2007

"Can't you be a little less obvious?" I snapped at Paul as he turned around to stare at a supermodel lookalike in a micro-mini. For one thing, he'd taken me for coffee at Starbucks to discuss our on-off relationship. For another, he didn't just give her a passing glance - his entire head seemed to rotate in the style of Linda Blair in The Exorcist.

Cooper Brown: He's Out There

Published: 19 April 2007

'This song seems to go on forever. It's like the worst acid trip you've ever had - without any of the groovy colours'

The Third Leader: Rites of spring

Published: 19 April 2007

Seasonal confusion abounds, marked by the early arrival of hawthorn blooms on the ground and swifts in the air. Is spring the new summer? Is summer the old spring? Thus, does climate change alter our clichés as we bask in the sunshine, search for shade from leaves not quite there yet, and wait for the first chimes of the olde ice-cream van?

Rupert Cornwell: A brutal truth: Massacre is just part of everyday life in America

Published: 18 April 2007

You hear no new arguments because, deep down, there is nothing new to be said

Richard Wolffe: Gun control alone would not stop the killing

Published: 18 April 2007

The massacre at Virginia Tech is one of those archetypal stories from the US: a lone gunman, the lives he cruelly curtailed, the shattered calm of a student campus. But archetypes are often as misleading as they are enduring.

Claudia Winkleman: Take It From Me

Published: 18 April 2007

'Sure, I want us to be comfortable and not keep secrets. But finishing a beer and then belching isn't my idea of fun'

Mike Berry: Killers who claim their victims in one explosive outburst

Published: 18 April 2007

Most readers have heard of serial killers and will know they are classified as such if they follow a clear pattern of killing strangers on at least three separate occasions, usually with a decreasing cooling-off period between each attack.

The Third Leader: Serious relaxation

Published: 18 April 2007

Thoughts, given everything else going on, turn to holidays. Indeed, it is alleged, not only thoughts, but actions: as the positive weather conditions continue, employers report a sharp rise in mystery bugs among employees, much bad news about their close relations and, in one case, emergency surgical procedure for a cat twice within a week.

Rupert Cornwell: Will this even dent America's love affair with guns?

Published: 17 April 2007

"A tragedy of monumental proportions" was how Charles Steger, the president of Virginia Tech, described the slaughter at his university yesterday, the worst campus mass shooting in US history. But whether it is of sufficient proportion to dent America's love affair with guns is quite another matter. Similar disbelief followed other mass shootings in recent years - from the 24 people gunned down in a fast-food restaurant in the Texas town of Killeen in October 1991, to the Columbine school massacre in Colorado in 1999, to the five little girls shot dead at an Amish school in Pennsylvania in October last year. But the practical effect has been very little.

Dylan Jones: Enjoying the Vegas experience

Published: 17 April 2007

Cities are where we all go to reinvent ourselves, where we look to throw off our past and embrace a different kind of future.

The Third Leader: Ode to joy

Published: 17 April 2007

Is it me, or are happiness surveys coming round depressingly often? Bad news again, naturally: the Danes are still forging jollily on, the happiest nation around, as they have been, according to all these surveys, since at least 1973, while the Brits, as usual, are slouching along down table, complaining as usual, not surprisingly, given the state of the place, just look at it, even the Scots want out, but then it's been making them miserable since at least 1603.

Robert Hanks: First rule of history - verify your references

Published: 16 April 2007

Truth matters; and if we think it doesn't, the door is ajar for anybody with an agenda and no scruples.

Dylan Jones: Few things are real in Vegas

Published: 16 April 2007

Cities are where we all go to reinvent ourselves, where we look to throw off our past and embrace a different kind of future. But no one would try to reinvent themselves in Las Vegas - not only would no one notice, but the town's principal ambition in life (if we assume that its very reason for existence is to divest you of all your hard-earned cash) is reinventing itself.