Most human rights organisations agree that such political appeasement - whether the retention of Most Favoured Nation trading status or the uncoupling of trade from human rights - has a direct and immediate influence on the political climate in China...

No, the news on ITV will profit to this extent alone: at 11pm it will no longer have to worry about catering for such a large and diverse audience as the one it struggled to inform at 10; because they won't be there, as sure as eggs is eggs. The true...

DAVID GIBBS London SW4

DAVID HOWARTH Clare College, Cambridge

Dire warnings of chaos on ferries and aeroplanes represent one of the most narrow arguments yet put forward by those trying to get the decision reversed. They should be answering the question of why air and ferry passengers, particularly regular ones...

First, that IT (in the form of e-mail) provides by far the most cost- effective way of keeping in touch. Almost none of the female friends to whom I've described the benefits of the Internet realised initially that messages were sent in fractions of ...

But, while a believer in openness, I don't want to regurgitate past arguments. It would be messy, insanitary and undignified. Much more important, there was a happy ending, which is rare in journalism. So I have decided to regard my head-first plunge...

So why is Turkey different from Estonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania? The first, and very important, answer is human rights. Despite its aspirations, and despite the very recent democratic credentials of the convoy of countries which has jumped th...

I deeply resent paying the company's usurious levy for the privilege of squeezing myself onto its squalid, filthy, overcrowded trains; for patiently tolerating the "18 minutes to next train" indicator, with no announcement to explain or justify it, f...

The first is that John Prescott, in his capacities as Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions has other, much more important fish to fry. Not every newspaper allegation is worth reading, especially if i...

HERE IS AN IDEA whose time has definitely arrived: charging PR firms for the press releases they bung through our fax machines. The Los Angeles Times-Washington Post news service has announced that it now bins any and all unsolicited PR fax messages....

The coup de grace was administered by those intellectuals who saw that jazz was becoming unpopular and might therefore be Art. This led to 15- minute bass solos, sheets of sound, free jazz and other phenomena that only a musician's mother could love....

I am sick to death of hearing the mantra "70 per cent of people support the ban". That means that 30 per cent do not. This a very large minority to have their views ridden over roughshod by Parliament on a matter which should be for individual consci...

I wonder if I will ever again enjoy the bliss of sitting on a train for such a length of time and not being subjected to people shouting into their mobile phones. ANDREW J CHISHOLM Northampton

This also creates unfair competition with terrestrial channels, who do invest in home-made programmes. These terrestrial channels are coming under increased pressure to cut budgets for kids' programmes, in order to compete. Our kids are told that Eur...

Dr Wordsmith writes: There are several reasons why people use foreign expressions. These include arrogance, snobbery, exhibitionism, pedantry, playfulness, superiority and a desire to show that one has had the money to spend time abroad. Nothing wron...