Then the story hit newspapers and all hell broke loose. Two complaints to the BBC swelled to 10,000; the BBC apologised and announced an inquiry; Ofcom said it was launching an investigation; the BBC Trust requested a report. The Prime Minister conde...

The real mistake was to allow urban expansion after the war without attaching covenants (as is sometimes done around US airports), making it clear that by choosing to live in proximity to a major airport the house-owner was thereby disqualified from ...

Although his team has been brilliantly organised in terms of mastering the internet, fundraising and motivating younger voters, Obama has fought an almost passive campaign. Some of what he has done this year has actually been dull or mediocre, from h...

We've been ticked off by the EU for breaking the Maastricht guidelines on borrowing, as we no doubt will be again. Government spending is running way ahead of the targets set in the March Budget, as is borrowing. The split of regulatory functions bet...

As the residents of Ziarat and other villages bury their dead, the country's nervous government is desperately casting about for the billions it needs within the next six days to stave off financial ruin. After being rebuffed by what it considered to...

Now the International Monetary Fund has stepped in. The rescue package will formally come from the IMF, but a big contribution will be paid for by the European Union. This is as it should be. If the EU is not at the forefront of bailing out its membe...

Most of the time, this kind of stunt would land someone in the slammer (imagine if a group of red-necks hanged a Barack Obama dummy from a tree). But right now, it's Hallowe'en week in Los Angeles – so, apparently, anything goes. As I write this colu...