MI5 rapped over rendition role
The role that Britain's security services have played in the 'War on Terror' came under the spotlight yesterday as the High Court ruled that MI5 had taken part in the unlawful interrogation of a British resident now held at Guantanamo Bay. Binyam Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan in 2002... [continued]
Let’s be realistic about torture 
60 die in Pakistan bombings
Pakistan, still reeling from the political turmoil occasioned by president Pervez Musharraf's resignation this week, was taken closer to the brink yesterday when a double suicide bombing killed more than 60 people at a military ordinance factory. Two bombers blew themselves up at the gates to the factory in... [continued]
Musharraf’s going leaves West a bleak option
‘Blair’s children’ get their GCSEs
The first generation of children to be entirely educated under a Labour government received their GCSE results yesterday - and more than a fifth got A and A* grades in their subjects. The rise in top grades was the fastest in almost two decades, but at the same time... [continued]
Whitehall data security blunder
The Government has been hit by another computer data security scandal as it was reported yesterday that confidential files containing sensitive intelligence on thousands of the country's most prolific criminals had been lost. The data was taken from the Police National Computer, and had been entrusted by the Home... [continued]
The Mole: Gordon flies out as the ‘L’ word is raised
UK has more pensioners than kids
There was a stark illustration of Britain's ageing population when figures released yesterday showed that there are 11.58 million pensioners in the country - more than there are children. The data from the Office of National Statistics showed that there were 11.52 million under-16s, 60,000 less than the number... [continued]
Hillary’s brother meets McCains
In a further blow to Barack Obama's already flagging campaign, Hillary Clinton's brother has met with Republican aides to Senator John McCain, fuelling speculation that the Clinton camp is briefing against the Illinois senator. Tony Rodham, who held a fundraiser for his sister in Pennsylvania during the Democratic primaries,... [continued]
No urgency on carbon capture
The technology of carbon capture and storage can potentially reduce carbon emissions by 90 per cent, writes Michael McCarthy. Good judges, including some of the most senior figures in Gordon Brown's Cabinet, see it as the only hope for the future of the world (this is not an exaggeration). Yet the urgency with which the idea should be prosecuted is missing, and this is nowhere more evident than in the Government's efforts. It wasn't like this with the Manhattan Project, which built The Bomb. Urgency was its defining characteristic. Whatever you think about nuclear weapons, that was a response to an immense challenge which was swiftly brought to completion. Carbon capture and storage is now the only realistic response to climate change in the future we are about to live through, yet there is more urgency about developing new computer games. Michael McCarthy The Independent
Full article: A simple plan to save the world
The Clinton-Obama display of unity
Barack Obama and the Clintons utterly loathe each other, writes Tim Hames. She (and her husband) continue to believe that she would have been the stronger contender against John McCain (probably true), that she was denied the prize because they were out-hustled in organisational terms, not real votes cast (valid), and that the Illinois Senator is little more than a charming schmoozer (a plausible assertion, although how ex-President Clinton can offer it with apparent outrage is surreal). The Clinton-Obama display of unity at the Democratic convention will make the Nazi-Soviet Pact look like an event rooted in profound principle. She is aching for him to lose so that she can inherit the earth at the second time of asking come 2012. Never mind Mr McCain, she would prefer that Monica Lewinsky rather than Mr Obama was elected to the Oval Office this November. Tim Hames The Independent
Full article: Don't believe a word you hear in Denver next week
Obama loses momentum during awful August
Jacqui Smith picks an easy target
Jacqui Smith might, for instance, care to balance her populist pronouncements about Gary Glitter being "despicable", which some of our dimmer compatriots will no doubt interpret as a licence, with a stern warning about the consequences of playing vigilante, says Matthew Norman. Irrevocably established as one of the age's leading grotesques, his life has been as destroyed as any could be short of death. One appreciates what a boon his release is for newspapers and phone-ins denied their sovereign right to torment Jade Goody by the diagnosis of cervical cancer, but even a New Labour home secretary should have the capacity to understand that released convicts retain the human rights to privacy – sex offenders register notwithstanding – and security. Matthew Norman The Independent
Full article: His life is destroyed. So why hound Gary Glitter?
Democracy works in Pakistan
The resignation of President Musharraf is not only a sign of politicians implementing a core demand of their constituents but also a remarkable departure from the past, writes Mohsin Hamid. Consider how the country's first three dictators left power: Ayub Khan passed the baton to his successor as army chief; Yahya Khan departed after a catastrophic military defeat; Zia-ul-Haq died in a suspicious air crash. The volatility of Pakistan's history makes me cautious of claiming that something fundamental has changed, but I suspect it may have. Last year, images of Pakistani lawyers in suits clashing with staff-wielding police officers made the newspapers for good reason. It is significant that in a country where those in power (soldiers, tribal chiefs, bureaucrats, landlords, the wealthy) have traditionally mistreated the weak with impunity, the demand for the rule of law has gained mass support. Mohsin Hamid The Guardian
Full article: Pakistan is at last finding its voice. The US would be wise not to gag it
Jason Burke: Musharraf's going leaves West a bleak option
Organic peasant agriculture
In response to 19th-century industrialisation the British aristocracy rediscovered medieval chivalry, writes Paul Collier. The romantic fashion was in part comic: jousts, castles and armour. But it had darker consequences; the privileging of honour over intelligence, which became the bedrock vision of the English gentleman, had its apotheosis in the heroic stupidities of the First World War. Now, in response to modern agriculture, the aristocracy, with Prince Charles in the vanguard, has rediscovered organic peasant farming. Again it has its comic side: organic peasant produce is a luxury - you will find Duchy Originals, the prince's crested brand, in the better supermarkets; and the lifestyle is for sale in his attractive model village of Poundbury. But my concern is its darker consequences. Organic peasant agriculture is a solution for the angst of affluence, but not hunger. Its apotheosis is the ban on GM crops. Paul Collier The Guardian
Full article: Charles's fantasy farming won't feed Africa's poor
In Brief
The Bush family
Looking Forward: An Autobiography (1988) by George Bush Sr is now most notable for the fact that two pages are given to a family member detailed in the index as "Bush, C. Fred (dog)", while the son who is now president is mentioned only in lists of family members. Mark Lawson The Guardian
Full article: Leaders who seek readers
Debt is moral failure
Debt, both personal and public, is what the United States and the United Kingdom now share far more than a mere common language. The American government owes a little over £4 trillion. Britain's true national debt is estimated as £1.3 trillion (more than its GDP). Calling debt a "moral failure" sounds old-fashioned. But perhaps it's time to restore the stigma that was once attached to being in hock. Lionel Shriver Daily Telegraph
Full article: Debtors must pay for their 'moral failure'
John Major, national treasure
Listening to Sir John Major on the radio these days is like settling into a nice warm bath. With his polite but pointed criticisms of the Gulf war and his pronouncements on sport, the monarchy, and life in general, the man is in imminent danger of becoming a national treasure. Rory Bremner Daily Telegraph
Full article: Sir John Major is in danger of becoming a national treasure
After the crash
Flying remains by far the safest form of transport. If you travel by air for a lifetime you have a 1 in 2.5 million chance of being killed. Use the train and that drops to a 1 in 50,000 chance. On the road that becomes a 1 in 200 chance. Harvey Elliott The Times
Despite the Madrid crash, flying is still safer than ever
Eclipse of socialism
Forty years on from the Russian tanks, the eclipse of socialism is now as general in the West as it is in the former Soviet lands further east - perhaps even more so. Most people who consider themselves to be on the left - whatever that really means in the post-1989 world - are aware at some level of this reality. Not enough of them, though, admit to it or what it implies for serious public politics. Martin Kettle The Guardian
Full article: 40 years on, the left is yet to grasp the eclipse of socialism
Prague Spring 1968 remembered
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