Resolute Brown begins fightback
Gordon Brown is to rally his ministers in Birmingham today, as the Cabinet meets for the first time since the summer break. Brown will come out fighting for his leadership with a declaration that draws on his personal adversities, including the death of his baby daughter and the loss of... [continued]
Why does Charles Clarke keep putting the boot in? 
US mortgage bail-out may ease credit crisis
The US government has announced it will inject up to £110 billion of taxpayers' money in an effort to save America's biggest mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from collapse. It is also hoped that the largest-ever financial bailout will allay the global credit crisis. US Treasury Secretary Henry... [continued]
The Business Pages: US bail-out 'good for UK'
Ike wreaks havoc in Turks & Caicos
Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated in Cuba and the United States after the worst storm in 48 years battered the Caribbean. Around 80 per cent of the homes in the low-lying Turks and Caicos islands were damaged as Hurricane Ike's 135mph winds roared through at dawn. The... [continued]
In pictures: Thousands flee Louisiana as Hurricane Gustav nears
Charles Laurence's Turks and Caicos dream
Eight die in weekend of storms
At least eight people have died after the latest wave of torrential rains swept across the UK at the weekend. Victims of the storms included a 17-year-old girl who died when a 4x4 slid into a swollen stream in Powys, Wales and a motorcyclist from Sheffield who ploughed into a... [continued]
Cancer patients face NHS lottery
A detailed report has revealed that cancer patients face a 'postcode' lottery over their treatment. The study by the King's Fund, an influential health think-tank, found that the NHS spends significantly more on treating cancer and heart disease in some areas than in others. For example, Knowsley PCT in... [continued]
Zardari calls for unity as dozens die
Benazir Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari has been elected Pakistan's president. He immediately called for unity after months of political turmoil. "Let any bitterness that may have been generated by campaigning be left behind us, and let us all now join hands for the common cause and common good of... [continued]
The bland careerists who rule us
We are now ruled by a cadre of dark-suited, mainly male, politicians who rose through the ranks of Conservative Central Office, the Labour party research department, a few London-based thinktanks and PR firms, and innumerable roles as special advisers, writes Jackie Ashley. For most of those who inhabit the Westminster village, politics was an early career choice, and that in itself may have been a bad decision. They grew up thinking The West Wing was populist TV and that a glossy magazine meant the Spectator or New Statesman. They were pimpled politicians at university and moved quickly to London. They went to drink warm white wine at political lectures, seminars and conferences, wrote speeches for older politicians, then dug up facts for them, then dug up policies, found a seat and rose without bubbles or much kicking. Jackie Ashley The Guardian
Full article: Until parties find real voices, the mavericks will flourish
Desperate Brown tries to be humble
If the rumours are right, Gordon Brown plans to deploy the most remarkable wonder-weapon in his speech to the Labour conference. He is going to sound humble. It might seem that he has as much chance of bringing that off as he does of singing counter-tenor at Covent Garden: that he must be absolutely desperate even to contemplate such a bizarre miscasting: that if he did try, his speech would turn into the first pantomime performance of the 2008 Christmas season. But it would be worth watching. Poor old Gordon. As John Major could tell Mr Brown, there is only so much any premier or leader can do. Once his party refuses to be led, that is that. In the Labour Party today, as with the Tories in the mid-90s, the inmates are in firm control of the lunatic asylum. Bruce Anderson The Independent
Full article: No cavalry can save Brown now
How Nixon divided America
The American cultural divide has always existed, but in its present form it dates from the 1960s, when some conservative politicians figured out how to exploit liberalism's support for minorities and other contentious causes, says Michael Tomasky. George Wallace, the segregationist Alabama governor, did it superbly. But no one was better at it than Richard Nixon. As author Rick Perlstein argues in his book Nixonland, Nixon took all this personally. At his college, there was a society that dubbed itself the Franklins - well-heeled, urbane and mostly liberal. He started his own society called the Orthogonians (a Latin portmanteau meaning, basically, "straight shooters"). These were the unfashionable students, whose chief rallying tenet was resentment of the Franklins. When he attained power, Nixon did his best to divide the country into Franklins and Orthogonians. Our 'blue' and 'red' Americas are, in essence, these two groups. Michael Tomasky The Guardian
Full article: America is dissatisfied - and that's good news for Obama
US Election: Sarah Palin 'affair': big media stays quiet as lover named
State funding for Jeremy Kyle?
As Jon Culshaw put it on Dead Ringers, there are two factions in "Jeremy Kyle World": "I'm Jeremy Kyle and you're scum."Certainly there is no grey where he patrols, writes Jim White. Everything is manipulated to fit the vital edict: make good telly. Sad tales of modern misery are reduced to a headline laugh: "Your Baby's Too White To Be Mine" or "Is This Britain's Worst Dad?" or "I May Be A Crackhead And Serial Housebreaker But That Doesn't Mean I Slept With Your Mum". Now a government-appointed agency is seeking to link up with Kyle, in a series promoting the Department for Work and Pensions. It is mooted that £400,000 be spent sponsoring "Jeremy Kyle Gets Britain Working". It is the equivalent of chucking government funds at Jeremy Clarkson to endorse a programme about cycling. Jim White Daily Telegraph
Full article: Should the taxpayer pay for Jeremy Kyle?
The £3 billion question
This week the £3bn, 14-year-old Cern nuclear accelerator on the Swiss-French border is being switched on for a split second of fame, writes Simon Jenkins. Cern claims that its accelerator has pioneered advances in everything from magnetic engineering to the invention of the worldwide web. But its most down-to-earth defenders, such as the scientist David Evans, admit that answering questions about the origin of matter is primarily an "intellectual curiosity". Unlike Mr Casaubon in the gloomy vaults of Middlemarch, this curiosity is not a matter of a few books and candles but £3bn of other people's money. Hence a question more immediate than what is the origin of the universe: how badly do I really want to know the answer? It could be one of those questions that I can happily leave to future generations. Simon Jenkins The Guardian
Full article: A big bang and ... big problems are ignored
In Brief
Dealing with failure
America has a tremendous rhetoric of facing defeat and bouncing back; the founder of USA Today, Al Neuharth, breezily observed that "everyone should fail in a big way at least once before reaching 40". Edwardian England had a good rhetoric, too: middle-class children were brought up on E. Nesbit stories in which all the fathers seem either to be in prison or away struggling to restore the family's fortunes. Libby Purves The Times
Full article: Be prepared. Take an evening class in failure
French politician sleeps around
Here in France, being a single mother is no big deal. More than 50 per cent of the children born are conceived out of wedlock. Instead, the big deal is that Rachida Dati is keeping the papa secret. Good for her. Although of North African origin, where traditionally women are kept in their well-harnessed place, Dati is a modern French woman. My sources at the Elysée Palace say she drinks and sleeps around happily - in other words, she behaves like any male politician. Janine di Giovanni The Observer
Full article: A very Gallic view of single motherhood
People: Rachida Dati keeps France guessing
Child spies
One local council has been reported as using officials to check car numbers outside homes to see who is sleeping with whom, for God knows what purpose. Children as young as eight are among 5,000 private citizens across the country recruited as paid 'covert human intelligence sources'. The speed with which our dear, familiar democracy is vanishing under the weight of totalitarian pettiness is appalling. Henry Porter The Observer
Full article: Our obsession with crime is crushing our freedoms
Heavy Muslim metal
In underground car parks in Tehran, in barns in Peshawar, in graveyards in Cairo, Muslim mosh-pits are springing up. In Morocco, only two forces in living memory have brought out crowds of more than 200,000: the Islamist opposition, and heavy metal bands raging against religion. To head-bang to a band called Deicide may be inane fun in London; in Iran or Egypt or Pakistan it is a strikingly brave political act. Johann Hari The Independent
Full article: Here's how to tune in to both Muslims and the Deep South
Flat earth
It is unfair to criticise right-wing creationist Sarah Palin for getting her first passport only two years ago. The poor woman was clearly afraid that if she travelled too far across the world, she might fall off the edge. Letter The Independent
Full article: Sarah Palin gives us reasons to be fearful
US Election: Will Hillary go after Sarah Palin?
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