When Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were establishing the global mood music of the monetarist, greed-is-good 1980s, Pierre Mauroy sought to make France dance to a different tune. As the first Socialist Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic (1981-84) and first prime minister of the François Mitterrand era, Mauroy pursued a policy of nationalisation, taxation of the rich, increased minimum wages, retirement at 60 and a 39-hour working week.

Bands often talk about breaking the expected boundaries of the rock concert. Usually, this means that a) the lead singer jumps off the stage and walks through the crowd, or b) really expensive pyro. So when a band really does snap you out of that rock-show routine, it’s a grin-inducing luxury.

The heretic thinker rips into liberal and humanist delusions - but his pessimism needs a new focus

Better red than dead – the life of Comrade Hobsbawm

Further to yesterday's obituary of Eric Hobsbawm, in 1952 and 1953 it was my privilege - a word he often used in various contexts – to be supervised by Eric, as an undergraduate, a raw youth straight from a tank crew in the British Army of the Rhine. Unlike a number of distinguished don colleagues, he required one's essay to be delivered to his rooms at least three days before the submission date. The result was that he had time to read it more than cursorily and knew exactly the points he thought it was worth pursuing. No tutor could have been more dismissive of irrelevance or cant, and more direct in getting to the substance of any historical issue.

Eric Hobsbawm, one of the greatest British historians of the 20th century, has died at the age of 95, his family announced today.

The death of Meles Zenawi, the prime minister of Ethiopia, at the relatively young age of 57, is a grave blow not just to the country which he rescued from the brink of recurring famine. It is a blow to the whole African continent and to the wider international community.

Romney may wish to frame the election as a choice about the budget. But the true battle is ideological

“Man, I’m nervous,” admits Green Gartside, the notoriously stage shy Eighties pop star, before a faultless rendition of his perky paean to hip-hop “The Boom Boom Bap”, from 2006’s White Bread Black Beer.

Hope of political reforms dismissed as Benedict XVI meets Raul Castro on tour of the island

Anders Behring Breivik 'wants to explain himself', say police. Neightbours describe him as 'just an ordinary guy '

It's a curiosity that so many memoirs by runners emphasise the pain rather than the pleasure of an activity that is, after all, wholly optional.

Every so often, a book comes along that challenges our beliefs and shakes our world view. So what does it take for literature to make history, asks Boyd Tonkin

The Marxist historian died today. In this review for the Independent on Sunday, first published last February, the Editor examined Hobsbawm's philosophy