There is an absence of clear judicial precedent in the relationship between church and priest. The Church insists, that the priest is not an employee. However, it is arguable that a monk is acting under the direction of the abbot, or the priest under...

Does not a strong pound enable us to buy our raw materials more cheaply and so to produce our finished goods more cheaply? Similarly, all the goods we import must be cheaper, making almost everything in our shops cheaper and bringing down the cost of...

Perhaps. The formal negotiating positions of Unionists and nationalists are still far apart on many key issues. But then not everything is quite as it seems. The bomb is almost certainly not the work of the mainstream IRA, but of one of two breakaway...

It is hypocritical of the press to keep on saying that the supermodels make my generation diet and get eating disorders, then go on to say that Kate Winslet is too fat. What kind of example is it going to set to us? We have enough troubles as it is w...

In 1994 the Catholic Church was the first church in England and Wales to issue public guidelines on dealing with accusations of child sexual abuse made against clergy. It specifically forbade evasive actions, and guaranteed co-operation by the Church...

Some of the proudest episodes of our island story have been accompanied by facial fecundity - think of the Elizabethans (smart, pointy) and the Victorians (lush, extensive). But the 20th Century has seen an onslaught of anti-beard technology (the saf...

But when the man who makes Walkmans compares the inaction of the Japanese government to that of the American in the face of the 1929 depression, then we feel the stirrings of unease. Anyone with a moderate interest in current affairs will be dimly aw...

The Labour governments of the Sixties and Seventies turned huge payments deficits into surpluses by encouraging investment in manufacturing. It is open to the present government to do the same. It can be done the hard way by using fiscal policy inste...

We wouldn't be so sure about the last bit. Of course no one should be intimidated or forced to work for excessively long days against their wishes. Transport workers and hospital doctors should be prevented from damaging our health as well as their o...

Now misty mornings in Greenwich, when palaces float on air and the sky and the river become one, have a way of playing tricks with the memory. As I watched Zhu yesterday, mine went back to 1984, when an earlier reforming Communist upon whom great hop...

Since they were elected last May, I have watched New Labour backbenchers - people I know to be lively, intelligent and irreverent in private - turn into enfeebled drones. Tony Blair used to urge his supporters to think the unthinkable. Once in Parlia...

A reader writes: Why don't you just tell us the story and let us make up our own mind about all that? Well, perhaps I will, at that. The story I am about to relate concerns a man called Martin Trapp, who was an expert on showbiz history. You know how...

High interest rates keep inflation down by discouraging borrowing, but the people they discourage most are business people who calculate the cost of credit. For retail customers the costs of credit are often disguised in the price, and people are mor...

I was world-wide leader of Year 2000 services for Deloitte Consulting for 18 months to December 1997. In my experience, 75 per cent of all business IT systems need to be changed to avoid Year 2000 problems. About 50 per cent of departmental systems (...