To be sovereign, a nation must also be solvent. But for trade and financial markets, frontiers have lost their meaning and separate currencies are merely irritants. Meanwhile, telecommunications, transport and energy in Europe are taking centre stage...

To me, the archetypal federal constitution is that of the United States. Those of Canada and Australia also come to mind. They are characterised by having, as well as a federal legislature, a central federal executive, having substantial powers - exc...

The political claims and pretensions of the Papacy were anathema to him as to most sensible monarchs, but when his courtiers interpreted the masque dancing of the Anglican king and his Catholic queen as a symbol of rapprochement, they were not entire...

Justice needs to be applied to our policies on arms sales, to our policies on trade ensuring that we pay a fair price for the goods that we enjoy, such as tea and coffee; and justice for the poor needs to become the basis for the policies of the IMF ...

A low point was reached last November, when one of the worst rows between the United States and its European allies broke out over how to react to the Serbian assault on the Bosnian enclave of Bihac. The new ideas now taking shape in the Nato countri...

Yet something important has changed with the apparent conversion of the left to European integration, and the evolution of the Thatcherite right into outspoken and rebellious scepticism. The change is not just striking but also mystifying, since the ...

Talk, like Wonderbras or the Troggs, is a big new cultural rediscovery. Broadcasters have seized on Talk as a way of being both entertaining and serious. On the one hand, it pulls in the punters; on the other, it involves the people, thus allowing th...

Birt: Well... Me: Excuse me, but I haven't asked you a question yet. Birt: I'm sorry. Me: Surely you must realise that the only reason that someone like Jeremy Paxman adopts the tone of a well-born Spanish inquisitor is that he knows that the subject...

People of Britain and Ireland need both peace and progress, and they need Labour to put them both forward. These are not alternatives. Yours, John Nicholson Manchester 6 February

Gene Roddenberry, the series' creator, may have been an alcoholic lecher, and several of the actors pompous prima donnas in their earthbound lives. But they offered, and still offer, us the dream of an ordered universe in which humankind could, by co...

Yours sincerely, Nicholas Jory London, N1

Cinema at its best broadens and deepens our awareness of seemingly banal landscapes. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are both impressive films. Yet Tarantino restricts the landscape of cinema to the world of the exploitative video. I can't help feeli...

The economic foundations for this had been established in pre-1914 Habsburg-ruled Bohemia and Moravia, where Czechs and Germans alike had created a thriving industrial economy. Czechoslovakia, and now the Czech Republic, may be recognised as the exce...

The figures show that there must be change. We suffer more fire deaths than comparable countries, the number of fires is growing and so are the number of injuries caused by fire. What is more, the difficulties faced by the service are likely to grow....

I am not in the business of preaching the politics of envy. The TUC backs proper reward for excellence, and people being paid well for their efforts. We are not opposed to share option schemes per se, nor do we want a legal ceiling on top pay. What w...

"Late Show on the line for you, Salman," said the policeman, putting his hand over the receiver. "Tell them to get stuffed," said Salman without looking up from his word processor. "Be fair, Salman," said the policeman. "They haven't pestered you for...

The style may be dense, the appeal oblique, but the report's suggestions are as radical as anything in any of the previous reports: the Brandt report on world poverty, the Palme Commission on disarmament, and Brundtland's report on the environment. T...