And into this funereal atmosphere comes bounding the Tiggerish Transport Secretary, Andrew Adonis, to propose a £30bn investment in a new high-speed rail line between London and the great cities of the north. Even more astonishingly, the Conservative...

The party's Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, has proposed scrapping Trident, a civil service pay freeze, abolishing regional development agencies and reducing tax credits for wealthier families – cuts considerably more extensive than anything Alistai...

The NHS has spent most of the cash we were promised in offsetting its deficits and in promoting itself rather than giving us a break from caring. Although government says that it is up to the local NHS to decide how to prioritise its budgets, we care...

In other words out goes any chance of the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi – still under house arrest – or any member of the democracy parties now languishing in prison on political charges or any monk, whether they have been involved in past de...

Pink Floyd, are, after all, of that first generation of rock musicians who regarded themselves not as jukebox fillers but producing something "progressive", mature and thematic, classical even in scope. In the Seventies, there was a divide between th...

Portobello Road, London's fifth most-visited tourist attraction, has this year suffered the replacement of one of its basement antiques markets with a colossal branch of All Saints. Property prices and rates are up, pushing out the silver dealers and...

The 11th Century saw far more of the population responsible for their own personal survival than modern Britain. If I wanted my family to eat I would generally need to grow crops but I would also know how to start a fire, what time of year to sow see...

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The timing was breathtaking. Only hours earlier, Mr Biden had sought to banish doubts about President Obama's support for Israel by proclaiming Washington's "absolute, total, unvarnished" commitment to the country's security. The previous day, George...

The 11th century Saxon ruler, Ethelred the Unready, was not, it seems, as unready as we have all been led to believe. It is believed that the king ordered all the Viking soldiers in the south-west of England to be rounded up and executed. And the rev...

Labour MPs representing constituencies in London that will be hit by the project began voicing concerns yesterday. Frank Dobson, the former Health Secretary who represents the north London seat of King's Cross, said the inevitable expansion of Euston...

The device is basically a loud speaker which pregnant women strap to their bellies. It makes funny noises a couple of hours a day, and by "enriching the auditory environment" claims to provide a "prenatal education system" that makes your future infa...

For anyone who had better things to do with their time, such as stuffing a mushroom or watching paint dry, here's a rough idea of what it entailed. Four people about as famous as long-forgotten Eurovision entrants agreed to spend a few days away from...