Sachsgate rolls on
This maniacally conflated row is merely another twitch from the corpse, so strangely immune to rigor mortis, of that small but loud body of citizens who pine for the Victorian values of harmless showbiz innuendo and Mother's Ruin in the age of cocaine, Satanic Sluts and potty-mouthed mock Regency dandies, writes Matthew Norman. So yet again the advice to Mark Thompson is to get up off his knees, where he and the BBC have cowered since the day Lord Hutton delivered his report. His cringing to the forces of reaction, some motivated by commercial rivalry, others by envy and spite, others still by genuine but anachronistic distaste, has led the BBC halfway to perdition already. Another year or two of perpetual panic and sorry spinelessness, and the number of truly great British institutions will be reduced to 0.00. Matthew Norman The Independent
Full article: Memo to the BBC: stay calm at moments of national crisis 
People: Brand resigns over Sachs calls
BBC Director-General Mark Thompson is a deeply symbolic figure of our times, says Stephen Glover. He is not a bad man. As a devout Roman Catholic, he adheres to moral values that are a million miles from those of Ross and Brand. And yet he has made no attempt to stem the tide of clod-hopping filth that pours out of their, and others', mouths whenever they broadcast. The French philosopher Julien Benda famously coined the phrase 'La Trahison des Clercs' - the betrayal of the intellectuals. He was thinking of French and German 19th-century intellectuals who had become apologists for militarism and nationalism. The modern trahison des clercs is that of liberal intellectuals like Mr Thompson who can recognise goodness and truth but, out of fear of appearing judgmental or proscriptive, will not help others to find them. Stephen Glover Daily Mail
Full article: How could a man of such high morals preside over the BBC's descent into the gutter
Zoe Williams: This saga brings out the loonies in us all
As a comedy critic, I often encounter material on the stand-up circuit that leaves me stunned by its inhuman coldness, its relish for tawdry detail, its sheer nastiness, says Dominic Cavendish. "Rape" has become a comedy word; paedophilia is a regular staple. I'll never forget being told by one household-name comic that he was dying for Madeleine McCann to be found because he had the perfect joke ready for the occasion. Some comedians are now so powerful that words of condemnation - unless delivered en masse - can't hurt them, and if anything, can give them added kudos. At some point along the way "safe" became the dirtiest word in showbiz and "edgy" became the holy grail. Dominic Cavendish Daily Telegraph
Full article: The public is sick of this heartless comedy
Your mobile and the Congo killing
The deadliest war since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe is starting again – and you are almost certainly carrying a blood-soaked chunk of the slaughter in your pocket, says Johann Hari. When we glance at the holocaust in Congo, with 5.4 million dead, the clichés of Africa reporting tumble out: this is a "tribal conflict" in "the Heart of Darkness". It isn't. The United Nations investigation found it was a war led by "armies of business" to seize the metals that make our 21st-century society zing and bling. The war in Congo is a war about you. Congo is the richest country in the world for gold, diamonds, coltan, cassiterite, and more. The rise of mobile phones caused a surge in deaths, because the coltan they contain is found primarily in Congo. Johann Hari The Independent
Full article: How we fuel Africa's bloodiest war
In pictures: Crisis in Congo
Don't begrudge Blair his millions
Once a prime minister has left office and given up his seat, he should be free to do whatever he wants as long as his snout isn't in the People's trough, says Alice Thomson. It's humiliating for prime ministers to become impoverished. The American Andrew Carnegie was so embarrassed by Lloyd George's lack of funds that he endowed him with a life pension of £2,000 in 1919. Mr Blair didn't use Downing Street as a mere stepping stone to wealth. For ten years he worked flat out, enduring constant abuse from his Scottish neighbour. If a publisher is prepared to pay £4.6m for his memoirs, that shouldn't offend the taxpayer. And he still spends one week a month saving the world, unpaid, as the Quartet's Middle East representative. Alice Thomson The Times
Full article: Tony Blair still works unpaid to save the world
People: Tony Blair earns £12m a year
In Brief
Porsche bankrupts Hedge funds
Oh, the irony of financiers' purchases of red 911s providing Porsche with the very income with which to buy enough Volkswagen shares to outmanoeuvre and fleece those same financiers! It is as sharp a satire as A Modest Proposal, in which Swift urges Ireland's poor to escape poverty by selling their children as food to the rich. Leader The Times
Full article: Feeling carsick
Philip Delves Broughton: How Porsche stung the hedge funds
Who do we turn to?
To whom do we turn for guidance in our modern world? Teachers have had their scope limited by the prevailing fashions of education. Artists have become more appreciated for scandal than for important revelations about our lives. Writers are entertainers, provocateurs or - if truly serious - more or less ignored. The Church speaks with a broken voice. Politicians are more guided by polls than by vision. We have disembowelled our oracles. Ben Okri The Times
Full article: Our false oracles have failed. We need a new vision to live by
America’s gallows humour
As I travelled around America in the past few days, talking to old friends and new acquaintances, politicos and financiers, shopkeepers and waiters, my overwhelming impression was of fear and despair, lightened only by the gallows humour of the wildly popular late-night satirical shows. Their huge popularity is in itself an indication of the uncharacteristically self-deprecating public mood. Anatole Kaletsky The Times
Full article: America must act now to escape from limbo
Meet Rachel Maddow, America's new top comic
Being witnessed
Total solitude is considered the preserve of the mad, the extremely devout or the deeply unhappy. We live in a culture that values being witnessed above all other things. Whether that be Jade Goody's cervical cancer diagnosis on a live "reality" show, or Kerry Katona's slurring breakdown on This Morning, the current ethic tells us no event in our personal lives is valid unless we've texted 10 friends about it and proffered it to YouTube for general derision.
Libby Brooks The Guardian
Full article: The rewards of the hermit
Few chances in prison
Wandsworth prison, built in Victorian times for 1,000 prisoners and housing 1,664, is the biggest jail in Europe. Most inmates have the reading and writing skills of small children. Many could no more hope to get one of the 36 prized slots on the bricklaying course than a Harvard scholarship. There are 50 places on a decorating diploma; 140 men can do a gym programme. Even at enlightened Wandsworth, Jack Straw's boasts of reform look thin. Mary Riddell Daily Telegraph
Full article: You're wrong Jack Straw, our prison system is a disgrace
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