Palin is beyond parody
Sarah Palin is the queen of misinformation, delivered with faux folksiness as authentic as a three-dollar bill, says Martin Samuel. She is not the pitbull in lipstick of popular myth; she is Deputy Dawg with a forked tongue, engaged in a war against intelligence. Those falling for this act are her collateral damage. Barack Obama did not pal around with terrorists. He did not vote to increase the tax burden on families making $42,000 a year, or vote 94 times to increase taxes. Palin's statements on these subjects are not a reality bulletin from Main Street, Wasilla. Palin's statements are lies. Madeline Albright did not speak of a place in Hell reserved for women who do not support other women. Palin misquoted her. Albright said help, not support. And there is no such place as Hell. Martin Samuel The Times
Full article: Shallow, fake... Sarah Palin is beyond parody 
Another Meltdown Monday
Alistair Darling is now not even bothering to disguise his view that it is time for the Bank of England to cut interest rates, writes Larry Elliott, and if it doesn't ease policy by half a point this Thursday there will be demands for the chancellor to run monetary policy himself. Rightly so. The only thing that matters in wartime is winning the war. Britain is not alone in suffering from a lack of policy co-ordination; the fact that Angela Merkel announced Germany's go-it-alone guarantee for savers, just hours after Nicolas Sarkozy's summit ended with a declaration of European unity of purpose, is indicative of a wider malaise. Finance has gone global but governance has not. Larry Elliott The Guardian
Full article: Get ahead of the game
The danger of a banker with a power complex
When the Chancellor of the Exchequer entered politics more than 30 years ago he stood on the far left of British politics, reportedly with allies in the Militant Tendency whose explicit long-term objective was the destruction of the capitalist system, writes Peter Oborne. The young leftist Alistair Darling has succeeded far beyond his wildest dreams. Capitalism really is in the intensive care unit. The most important immediate decision facing Alistair Darling, who to his credit has remained remarkably calm during the crisis, is whether to react by nationalising the banking system. Today he and his advisers are facing up to the unpalatable truth that many, perhaps the majority, of British banks are almost certainly now insolvent. On top of this, some of our biggest High Street names face the prospect of closure within days without government help. Peter Oborne Daily Mail
Full article: One by one our sick banks are being nationalised. But is this cure worse than the disease?
The Business Pages: Fed lowers borrowing costs
Some banks will need a cash hand-out from the government - which should be done only in exchange for the public taking preferred shares in them, says a Guardian leader. This is similar to how Sweden managed its banking crisis in the 1990s, and that was among the lowest-cost and most successful banking rescues ever. The British taxpayer is unlikely to get off lightly, but the principle of giving public money only for part-nationalisation is a more attractive one than anything in the Wall Street bail-out of last week. Going by the Dow's performance last night, the Bush administration's lifeline does not seem to be allaying any fears. Leader The Guardian
Full article: Time for action
Britain's brightest
Self-evidently, in a healthy society the brightest young minds should be heading for those parts of the economy that are truly first order, says Paul Collier. In Germany the brightest and best have been attracted to critical sectors such as the railways, which is why they function so brilliantly. In Britain the brightest and best have been attracted to the banks, which is why they so brilliantly looted our wealth. Meanwhile, with talentless management our real economy has lurched from failure to failure: from major cock-ups such as the opening of Heathrow's Terminal Five, to trivial such as the three hours taken by my train yesterday from Oxford to London. Paul Collier The Guardian
Full article: A chance to crack down on Africa's loot-seeking elites
Death
Dying is more homework than I was counting on, writes PJ O'Rourke. Also, it kind of messes up my vacation planning. Can we talk after class? Maybe if I did something for extra credit? Why can't death - if we must have it - be always glorious, as in The Iliad? Of course death continues to be so, sometimes, with heroes in Fallujah and Kandahar. But nowadays, death more often comes drooling on the toilet seat in the nursing home, or bleeding under the crushed roof of a teen-driven SUV, or breathless in a deluxe hotel suite filled with empty drug bottles and a minor public figure whose celebrity expiration date has passed. I have, of all the inglorious things, a malignant haemorrhoid. What colour bracelet does one wear for that? And what slogan is apropos? PJ O’Rourke The Guardian
Full article: Death’s homework
In Brief
Just you wait
We have yet to experience the real consequences of the credit crunch - the joblessness, the spending cuts, the creation of a pessimistic generation. When those hit us we can expect the more exciting prophets, the soft sellers of millenarian brands, the BNPs, the scapegoating anti-capitalists of the near fringes, to begin to affect the mainstream politics of the country. David Aaronovitch The Times
Full article: I can't see a future for these prophets of doom
The 1997 revival
It's the New Labour comeback tour. Gordon Brown is getting the old stars together to perform one last turn. He has brought Peter Mandelson back into the Cabinet, he is consulting Alastair Campbell and he has rehired Margaret Beckett as a backing vocalist. But it's like the Rolling Stones without Mick Jagger. Rachel Sylvester The Times
Full article: The new Labour family - seething with hatred
The Mole: Rebel ring-leader tells Gordon Brown hostilities are over
Shunted out
Andrew Adonis came from an immigrant single parent family, living on a council estate: he managed to get a rare academic bursary to a private boarding school, which led on to a dazzling career at Oxford. He says he wants the "Educational DNA" of our most successful private schools to be "imprinted" on the Academies programme – to the fury of Labour's educational old guard. They are now rejoicing at Lord Adonis' removal.
Dominic Lawson The Independent
Full article: The schools that simply do not believe in failure
Women love ugly men
Novelist John Mortimer once said he had to talk to a girl for half an hour to get over the disadvantage of his face. I know many who were entranced by his seductive talk. Ugly men are said to be skilled lovers, too, because they are grateful for the opportunity, and take considerable trouble to make a woman feel good. Casanova was ugly - but he had 122 lovers and was said to be irresistible. Esther Rantzen Daily Mail
Full article: As an unlikely twinkletoes wins our hearts on Strictly Come Dancing... Why all women love an ugly man
Business moves to Dublin
Sir Martin Sorrell just moved the tax domicile of his WPP advertising colossus to Dublin to avoid British taxes. He will not be moving there himself, nor will many staff. He prefers London, just as he likes a British knighthood. Polly Toynbee The Guardian
Full article: In the face of apocalypse, heed not horsemen's advice
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