No one would have preferred war if peace could have been secured with honour, but that was never on offer at Munich and there were many who wept with rage and shame when Chamberlain returned to London brandishing his pathetic piece of paper and prati...

Why does the unthinkable have to be thought on welfare? Are not our benefits some of the lowest in the industrialised West? What boom and bust? There has never been a boom up here. What welfare-to-work? There is no work! Why the attitude, "if you wan...

If Scotland uses devolution to pursue the same economic policies as have failed south of the border and around the world we are sunk. If we pursue a radical approach which enables people to participate fully and equitably in the benefits of trade, wh...

MARK JONES National Museums of Scotland

How will Chris Smith's idea for a downmarket Booker work? ("Smith attacks 'elitist' Booker", 20 September.) Instead of trying to find the best, his judges would have the difficult task of rewarding the second-rate - no doubt based on patronising assu...

The incident in Ronse, where disabled children were ordered out of their school bus, was blown out of proportion by the French-speaking media. The issue was about having the correct licence to transport the children. According to the national ministr...

It won't do. We need a class system fit for the new millennium. Peter Mandelson (grammar-school): get to it. We should bring in new labels, such as the "big-house-with-radio- operated-iron-gates-but-it's-all-on-tick" classes, the "public-school- but-...

Try hard enough, and it will be added unto you. Now, by leaving the mother of his 11-month-old child, he has revealed himself to be nothing but a well-heeled member of the underclass. Apart from the presence of money, he has arranged his personal lif...

Now twist the device, just a little, and look again. What do you see now? A pack of rabid right-wingers, intent on bringing down a President who was elected and re-elected by the nation, politicians will inflict any filth on the public to achieve the...

It also meant that, for the rest of the week, no one was much interested in the Lib Dems and what they were up to. Those correspondents who were attending the conference departed for London straightaway or remained transfixed before their television ...