"Handouts are what toffs give to bums on skid row. Handouts are the middle-class's munificence to the poor." - Lord Hattersley, Labour peer, chiding the Secretary of State for Social Security, Harriet Harman, for describing social security payments a...

There is an element of window-dressing and deception that goes into a CV, which we all use to our advantage. How many of us have omitted from our CVs a failed GCSE, or a year spent retaking a failed exam, or worse? A database would record your every ...

Together they summed up The Independent at its best: irreverent; pointed; challenging; sending-up self-importance and highlighting those issues that really matter, such as freedom of expression and access to education. In the case of the alternative ...

Each man kills the thing he loves - someone quite cool said that I believe - and so it is the way of the world that even intelligent politicians inevitably strangle at birth any idea that doesn't fit neatly into pre- conceived political categories. T...

Premier Zhu has been praised by our own Prime Minister for his membership of the "modernisers' club" and unquestionably we owe China a debt of gratitude for not devaluing her currency in the still continuing Asian economic crisis. The internal cost t...

PATRICK DERHAM Solihull, West Midlands

We worry about the response of the Provisional IRA. It may well be that they ultimately find the deal unacceptable. The new arrangements will, after all, be unlikely to deliver a 32-county united Ireland even on a distant horizon. Hardline republican...

Titanic was not built by Irishmen, nor is it part of an Irish story. The Titanic was built by Ulstermen, which is what nearly all of them would most vocally have proclaimed. This goes to the heart of what the current, and past, troubles and partition...

Many people I meet express surprise and puzzlement: what do I do with all that time? how do I keep in touch with current affairs? (By reading The Independent, obviously). In my two years of not watching the Devil's Picture Box I have visited places a...

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...