DAILY NEWS.

House prices: biggest fall since 1983
Halifax has reported the biggest year-on-year fall in house prices since it began to keep records in 1983. The cost of the average home slumped by £20,000 between July 2007 and July 2008 - a fall of 11 per cent, the first ever double-digit decline. Even in the property slump... [continued]
The Bank of England must cut rates now

China ready for Olympics as four billion watchAs many as 4bn people are expected to watch the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games today. Final preparations are being made for the extravaganza when 35,000 fireworks will be lit over a stadium where 10,000 people will dance and perform. World leaders including George W... [continued]
Beijing 2008: speedy analysis, strong comment, enduring photographs
Has Putin been recruiting former Olympians to politics?

Heavy fighting erupts in Caucasus
The UN Security Council is meeting in an emergency session after heavy fighting erupted between Georgian forces and South Ossetian rebels backed by Russia. At least 15 people have died already. Russian media reported that Georgian troops launched air-strikes on troop positions and a tank attack on the separatist stronghold... [continued]
Georgia: the army that likes to go to Iraq

Musharraf to face impeachment
Pakistan's government has announced plans to impeach Pervez Musharraf, the country's president who seized power in a military coup. The announcement is a breakthrough for the fragile coalition government, which has been able to agree on very little since it was formed earlier this year. To make it stick, Musharraf... [continued]
Nato and Pakistan are as divided as the Taliban

Anti-Obama speech haunts Clinton
Hillary Clinton's bitter battle with Barack Obama for the US Democrat presidential nomination has come back to haunt the party, as many Democrats feared it might. A new campaign ad made for the internet by Republican nominee John McCain's team shows a series of Democrats praising McCain. It concludes with... [continued]
The race for the White House turns nasty

Tories approached by civil service
Whitehall seems to be preparing for a Conservative government, with senior civil servants arranging informal meetings with the shadow cabinet, the Daily Telegraph has claimed. According to the newspaper, Tory front-benchers revealed that they have been "surprised" by the approaches from officials and invitations to discreet dinner parties to discuss... [continued]
The Mole: an odd year for Darling

RBS loses £691m in six months
Royal Bank of Scotland has announced the second-biggest loss in UK banking history. In the first six months of this year, the bank lost £691m before tax. In the same period last year, the bank made a profit of £5bn. The loss was significantly smaller than many alanlysts had... [continued]
America and Europe will rise from the financial ashes

Chinese growth to stabilise
China says its economy will stabilise in the next quarter after its rapid growth slowed in the first half of this year. The global financial crisis has caused China's economy to grow at a slower rate - 10.1 per cent annually in the past three months as opposed to 11.9... [continued]

Game on

China, the nation that invented fireworks, will today write in the smoggy sky above this ancient city an extraordinary statement of belief in its future – and its defiance of an ever-increasing tide of international criticism, says James Lawton. It is as though the nation which for so long resented its exclusion from the councils of the world, and centuries of foreign exploitation, is saying that what we will see is not so much the opening of another Olympics but the marking of a new world – one in which China, like that other superpower, America, will just have to be taken on its own terms, whatever the misgivings of foreigners. James Lawton
The Independent
On the brink of historic change, but will China see the light?
Olympics: latest pictures
Olympics: latest news

Filed under: China,

Olympics
Now the Olympics are here, but the buzz has gone, observes Sun Shuyun. Where's the joy, the sense of celebration? The only tangible reminder of it has been the torch relay inside China, in which the rest of the world was scarcely interested. Even that was highly staged, with a very visible police and security presence. A subdued nervousness permeates Beijing. Now a headline in the Beijing Evening News said it all: "A safe Olympics is the most important gold medal." At any cost, even the jubilation of the whole country. I'm sure it will be a great and memorable - and safe - spectacle. I will be watching it, and so will half the world. But I shall be wishing that my countrymen and women were dancing in the streets. Sun Shuyun
The Guardian
Full article: I chose not to stay in Beijing for the games - it is a city drained of joy

Filed under: Olympics

Property snakes and ladders

For the economy as a whole, there are countervailing benefits in the deflation of the property market, says a Times Leader. One of the costs of the boom in house prices since 1997 has been the encouragement that it has given to imprudent borrowing. This is bad for the economy and also bad personal investment strategy. Investment in houses has come to enjoy a mystique that investing in equities and bonds did not possess even at the height of the dotcom mania. Unlike companies that make things or provide services, houses are not productive. The cult of home ownership has encouraged many investors to ignore the benefits of diversification and overlook the risks of investing in a single asset class. Leading article
The Times
Full article: Property market: an Englishman's home

Spiv city
Gordon Brown has allowed Britain to become the global capital of crooks and spivs, complains John Kampfner. The financial crisis was manufactured in corporate boardrooms through the reckless pursuit of short-term profits. Ministers have flunked every opportunity to impose the same level of scrutiny of financial services as exists in the rest of society. Could it just be that the Tories, who do not feel the need to prove their credentials with the City, might just grasp the nettle and introduce stronger regulation of the banks, and to the corporate sector as a whole? John Kampfner
Daily Telegraph
Full article: Britain, home of crooks and spivs

Filed under: Gordon Brown, Finance
Danger for PakistanThe move to impeach Mr Musharraf will ensure that Pakistan's government is consumed by infighting, says David Blair. This power vacuum could scarcely be more dangerous. Islamic extremists who already have free rein across large areas of the country will exploit the official paralysis for all it is worth. Mr Musharraf ordered the army to stabilise the tribal areas and the subsequent fighting killed about 1,000 Pakistani soldiers. Mounting these deeply unpopular campaigns required genuine political will. That has now evaporated, leaving no political leader with the power and determination to tackle the terrorist threat. Hence Pakistan's branch of the Taliban has extended its reach well into North West Frontier Province. David Blair
Daily Telegraph
Full article: Pakistan's deadly vendetta
Filed under: David Blair, Pakistan


Dumb dogs
Honestly, has there ever been a greater, more wilful delusion than the one that Man has indulged in over Dog? asks Hugo Rifkind. I know there will be letters and, God help me, photographs, but this must be said. Dogs are stupid, and they want our food. The story about the woman cloning her dead pit bull terrier (Booger) makes me so angry. I am angry, I think, because I am ashamed. If dogs weren't morons, they'd be laughing at us. I think of the wise words of Homer Simpson, campaigning for political office in Springfield. "Animals are crapping in our houses! And we're picking it up! Did we lose a war?" Hugo Rifkind
The Times
Full article: Just exactly how stupid are dogs?

In Brief
No election needed
Why should there be a snap election following a change of Labour leader? If you accept that Labour is entitled to defend and where possible advance its own collective self-interest within the rules of the political system, then it follows that Labour is entitled to change its leader again and then to stay on until a time of its own choosing, not that of its enemies. Martin Kettle The Guardian
Full article: Change the leader? Yes. Go to the country early? No
Philip Blond: The next election

Filed under: Labour, Martin Kettle

Rate mistake
The Bank of England's freezing of rates yesterday was not surprising - but it was mistaken. The Bank's hawks are bewitched by the theory that - with inflation - perception determines reality. Even a fleeting appearance of going soft, they fear, would encourage workers to expect more inflation and so they would demand higher pay, setting in train a potentially uncontrollable whirlwind of rising costs and prices. Leader The Guardian
Full article: Perception and reality

Filed under: Interest rates

The drugs work
NICE's decision that four new drugs for kidney cancer will not be recommended for use in patients is against all sense. As a result of NICE's appalling and uneducated interventions, we spend less on cancer treatments than on drugs for constipation. Jonathan Waxman The Times
Full article: We need cancer drugs. NICE must go

Filed under: NHS

War myths
As the real story behind The Great Escape emerges, we are reminded that war is never as black and white as the black-and-white films made it seem. Armed conflict is usually a grim and grey area. It exposes ordinary people to extraordinary moral pressure. A few respond with bravery and conviction, a few with cowardice and compromise, but most with something in between.



Ben Macintyre The Times
Full article: War films: the great escape from the truth

Filed under: Ben MacIntyre

Nothing to Bragg about
All that is really left of ITV’s public service output is current affairs and arts – or, put another way, Sir Trevor McDonald and Lord Bragg. One cannot with any seriousness argue that ITV's single current affairs programme Tonight with Trevor McDonald makes a great contribution to investigative reporting or contemporary debate. As for Melvyn Bragg, he surely deserves to be rescued from the tired format of The South Bank Show. Terence Blacker The Independent
Full article: It's time someone came to the rescue of Melvyn Bragg

Filed under: Terence Blacker, Television

The Me
I have read lots of reviews of my show and it's amazing how personal they are. Even the good ones are twisted with backhanded compliments that relate directly to my personality: to the Me. It would be great if one day I died and it turned out that all my work was made by a really thick-jawlined, 6ft 2in Geordie guy and I was just a blink, a fragment of someone's imagination and I hardly even ever existed. Tracey Emin The Independent
Full article: I'm really, really in love, passionately in love