Downturn ‘as bad as the 70s’
The economic slowdown is as bad as the Seventies and could "drag on for some considerable time", the Bank of England’s new deputy governor has warned. Charles Bean, who took over as deputy governor earlier this year, said that every time the markets began to rally "another grenade" exploded.... [continued]
Republicans step up campaign on eve of Denver
The Republicans are gearing up for a two-pronged attack on Barack Obama's presidential campaign as the Democratic party begins their convention in Denver today. The camp of Obama's Republican presidential candidate John McCain responded to his selection of running mate, Senator Joe Biden, with two new television "attack" ads.... [continued]
Alexander Cockburn: Obama loses momentum in awful August 
US Election: Hillary holds the key as Dems meet in Denver
Team GB risks losing coaches
Team GB risks losing its top coaches to rival countries amid concerns about continued funding for elite sports such as sailing, rowing and cycling. The Beijing Olympics saw Britain take a record medal haul since 1908, with 47 medals in total including 19 golds. However, yesterday Olympic chiefs... [continued]
In pictures: Beijing 2008 highlights
Olympic handover: Boris ploughs into the throng
Beijing Olympics 2008: the sport and drama in words and pictures
Eight missing in French Alps
Eight climbers are missing after a giant avalanche hit the French Alps early on Sunday morning. Exhausted rescue workers suspended their search last night after finding eight survivors buried in snow. However they were forced to abandon the rescue mission amid fears that a second avalanche could strike during the... [continued]
Thatcher’s dementia revealed
Margaret Thatcher's struggle with dementia has been revealed in a memoir by her daughter. Carol Thatcher tells how the former prime minister has been suffering from dementia for at least seven years. Baroness Thatcher, 82, first began to show signs of dementia in 2000, and could not remember that her... [continued]
People: Carol Thatcher talks about Iron lady's dementia
In Brief
Hillary might have helped
If Mr Obama had chosen Mrs Clinton, the Clintons might have overshadowed his campaign. One can understand that Mr Obama wanted to emphasise that he was his own man. Yet in rejecting Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama may have lost the White House. Many Democrats do believe that. William Rees-Mogg The Times
Full article: Biden is no threat to Obama - but no asset
Spend wisely
Our Olympic success was down to wise investment in the frontline reality of sport: equipment, facilities, training, athletes enabled to give up the day job. Why can’t other national projects - particularly education and healthcare – follow suit? The fact is that money poured on the top of any organisation doesn't necessarily trickle down and fertilise the roots. Libby Purves The Times
Full article: It's not what you spend, it's how you spend it
Why they win
The countries that punched above their economic weight in these games - which include North Korea, Cuba and Uzbekistan - are in many cases nations not renowned for their peace, political stability or respect for human rights; Jamaica is no place to be if you are a homosexual. Many of the losers have a better record. Chris Dillow The Times
Full article: Forget China's 100 medals. The real winner of the Games was...
Our bogus brand
Hosting the Olympics will give us pause to reflect on how much of what makes up our unique brand we have allowed to disappear. Giles Gilbert Scott phone boxes, Routemaster buses, pubs, village post offices, the bobby on the beat. It won’t be long before everything we regard as our own is given visual expression only in sales material for tourists. Jim White Daily Telegraph
Full article: Brand Britain is becoming counterfeit
Divided Scots
Scots have been smiling through gritted teeth for the last fortnight as Scot after Scot, wearing the Team GB vest, has stepped on to the winners’ rostrums in China. So the Prime Minister's determination to see a combined UK football team fielded for the 2012 London Olympics has been greeted like manna from heaven by his separatist opponents. Alan Cochrane Daily Telegraph
Full article: Here’s a football fantasy for Gordon: Raith win the SPL
Charity choice
Whenever I feel a charitable impulse, I'd like to be able to send my £X to a generic fund called Charity, in the same way that, every April, I send money to a generic fund called Taxation. Let the great and the good - Palin? Attenborough? - decide how to apportion it. I don't want to choose. I'd give more if I didn't have to express a preference. Jon Canter The Guardian
Full article: Why I help the loaded
Obama and Biden
The Left is preparing its excuse in advance for Barack Obama losing the presidential election, says Janet Daley. All together now, let's hear it: It's All About Race. Actually this election is more about what it means to be identifiably American. What makes someone fully American is having had an American childhood with its self-consciously patriotic schooling, which is purpose-made for a revolutionary republic that assimilates wave after wave of newcomers. Obama's problem is not so much that he is an African-American in the modern political sense of being a black American. It is that he is an African-American in the literal sense of being half African and only half American, who spent much of his boyhood abroad and who borrowed a consciously constructed black American identity from the south side of Chicago. Janet Daley Daily Telegraph
Full article: Obama won’t lose for being black but for not being American enough
Alexander Cockburn: Obama's bad month
The culture wars could be bad news for Barack Obama and, so far, he has shown a propensity to blunder into cultural traps, writes Bruce Anderson. That is why Joe Biden is important. No one could accuse him of anti-Americanism. Mr Biden is a tribal New Deal Democrat because he wants a walk-tall America and a better deal for the little guy. But Joe Biden has drawbacks. He cannot stop talking and he often talks himself into trouble – so it is appropriate that he ran into difficulty for plagiarising Neil Kinnock. The presidential game remains tantalisingly open, though we can draw one conclusion. The more the electorate concentrates on issues rather than candidates, the better for the Democrats. But in presidential elections, personalities usually predominate, and when that happens, Mr McCain gains. Bruce Anderson The Independent
Full article: Obama's problem remains that he's not American enough
Our turn next
Hosting the Games, we are told, is a chance to represent ourselves to the world, just as China has demonstrated that it has the money to commission foreign architects to build fanciful structures, and has the degree of control over its citizens to allow it to marshal immense displays of synchronised choreography. What can we do to show ourselves to the world? Well, some of us, watching vast crowds moving in heavily drilled unison, do have a tendency to think the words "Leni Riefensthal". One of the unfortunate features of Britishness is that its best features don't quite lend themselves to representation in stadium form. Do your best with parliamentary democracy, the discovery of evolutionary biology and the invention of the internet, Lord Coe. Philip Hensher The Independent
Full article: We're attempting to define the indefinable for 2012
William Langley: Boris takes centre stage
Down with Dave
The Tories have been focusing on playing therapist to the nation, says Madeleine Bunting: "Of course you're worried, I understand how you feel. We feel it too. I know it's not fair. It shouldn't be like this." But there are no concrete proposals about how to do things better. Only some warm words about localism, voluntary organisations and the responsibility of individuals. The Tory priority right now is to be liked, to establish emotional connection: voters want to be understood, so Gove talks about intimacy, and Osborne coins the phrase "emotional relevance". Call me old fashioned but I'd prefer to have a political debate about what you do about the issues they raise - inequality and social breakdown are much too important to use as emotional cannon fodder. Madeleine Bunting The Guardian
Full article: Tories are masters of zombie politics: full of concern and bereft of policies
Cameron's privileged start has given him a warped view of Britain, says Johann Hari. He will deepen the gap between rich and poor by dismantling the too-small, too-late Labour programs that are trying to start up mobility again. He would stop the £40-a-week given to poor students to stay on to sixth form. The only "solution" Cameron has presented to growing inequality is to punish the "undeserving" poor. He will whittle down services largely for the children of single parents – SureStart, Family Credit – to pay for tax breaks for wealthier married couples. But this man is beatable. His current lead in the polls is built solely on Brown's haplessness and a sweet, fluffy mask that can be tugged off. Johann Hari The Independent
Full article: Cameron is wily but he's beatable
It was Nato's fault
America and Britain were wrong to vilify Russia over the conflict in Georgia, says Jonathan Steele. The sensible thing would be to announce Nato expansion has reached its limit and that no invitation to Georgia - or Ukraine - will ever be issued. The mantra is that Russia cannot have a veto on Nato membership. True, but by the same token no country has a right to join Nato, or the EU. Nato is not a global institution. It has no business looking for new members in the Caucasus or central Asia. Earlier this year, France and Germany had the courage to defy Washington and say it was too early to invite Georgia. They were right then, and are even more so now. Jonathan Steele The Guardian
Full article: Crisis of lies and hysteria
Robert Fox: Nato outdated
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