Leading Articles

Leading article: Our troops in Afghanistan need the right tools for the job

The Liberal Democrat leader is justified in raising his concerns

Recent Leading Articles

Leading article: The press must not be cowed

Friday, 10 July 2009

Revelations of widespread phone hacking have landed aspects of British journalism in the dock. A gallery of accusers, from Peter Mandelson to Andrew Neil, have rushed to condemn what took place. But is this pillorying totally justified?

Leading article: Art of destruction

Friday, 10 July 2009

One can easily sympathise with the bitterness felt by the widow of Henri Cartier-Bresson at the careless treatment of some of the works the pioneering photographer had entrusted to the French authorities. But the fact is that great works often have traumatic histories. The Parthenon was blown up in the 17th century when the Turks used it as a dynamite store. The handwritten manuscript of Thomas Carlyle's History of the French Revolution was thrown onto the fire by John Stuart Mill's maid. The Bayeux Tapestry was used to cover an ammunition wagon.

Leading article: This was not the historic reform that was needed

Thursday, 9 July 2009

The White Paper on banking regulation is worryingly incomplete

Leading article: Europe's democratic deficit

Thursday, 9 July 2009

Downing Street will be pleased that the Irish government has fixed an early date for its second referendum on the European Union's controversial Lisbon Treaty. Ireland is voting a second time, of course, because the Irish electorate had the temerity to vote No the first time.

Leading article: Royal green

Thursday, 9 July 2009

When it comes to public pronouncements on science, Prince Charles has a far from spotless track record. His views on homeopathy and nanotechnology are, frankly, rather loopy.

Leading article: This must not be another G8 meeting of broken promises

Wednesday, 8 July 2009

Too often, optimistic resolutions have been forgotten or discarded

Leading article: The end of a pernicious myth

Wednesday, 8 July 2009

An independent survey of social housing allocation explodes the myth that new immigrants jump the queue for social housing. The research, commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, found that less than 2 per cent of social housing tenants had arrived in the UK within the past five years, while the proportion of those born abroad living in social housing was almost identical to the proportion of social tenants born in the UK.

Leading article: A fitting memorial

Wednesday, 8 July 2009

The memorial to those who died in the 7/7 London bombings four years ago is exceptionally well-judged. Our public spaces are replete with statues recalling great public figures and monuments to the collective grief at the end of wars. But this is something else. From a distance the group of 52 slender, individually-cast columns communicate a sense of collective loss. But, close up, their separateness honours the individual tragedies that took place. That is what public calamities are: collections of so many personal heartbreaks.

Leading article: The repressive reality behind China's modern mask

Tuesday, 7 July 2009

The massacre in Urumqi demonstrates how little has changed

Leading article: A worthy environmental vision

Tuesday, 7 July 2009

The raison d'etre of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee is to challenge government expenditure. So the committee is perfectly entitled to cast a beady eye over the growing numbers of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The scheme, it argues, needs a review to identify those sites which no longer need protection.

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