Northern Ireland on edge
Always heavily protected, Gerry Adams will step up his own security, writes Kevin Toulis. He has never forgotten the fate of Michael Collins - ambushed by his former comrades in the IRA. Mr Adams is the most successful republican leader since Collins. And there have been rewards - peace and an end, albeit temporary, to the Troubles. Some, however, have had greater rewards than others. Mr Adams has a nice house in Donegal and his leadership circle have prospered through their sinecure jobs courtesy of the British taxpayer. Perfidious Albion has been generous. But Ireland is no more united than it was in 1922. And Sinn Féin, sunk into insignificance in the last elections in the South, is unable to articulate how the current Stormont settlement leads to a united Ireland and something more than jobs for Mr Adams's boys. Kevin Toulis The Times
Full article: The master of the long game sits tight 
The terrorist does not have to win to succeed – he simply has to be there, says Maurice Hayes. What they need is (in Mao's words) the water for the fish to swim in, and (in Margaret Thatcher's) the oxygen of publicity. Paradoxically, the notoriety attending the outrages in Antrim and Lurgan may have given them just this. The screening on a local current affairs programme of a video showing armed men training with Armalite assault rifles in a wood was the nearest thing to a recruiting poster they could hope for. The main challenge to the authorities is to respond proportionately, even-handedly and within the rule of law. Calls for internment or a draconian military presence are far off the mark and, in fairness, are far from the mind of Sir Hugh Orde. Maurice Hayes The Independent
Full article: Politics must be seen to win in Ireland
Will anybody be brought to justice for these crimes, asks Tim Collins? The omens aren't good. The cards have become so heavily stacked against the cause of justice that terrorists have reason to think they can escape it altogether. The emasculation of the old Royal Ulster Constabulary, once the world's most effective anti-terrorist force, is largely to blame for this shambles. Yes, it was necessary to open up the RUC to recruits from all sections of Northern Ireland society, Nationalists as well as Unionists. But so desperate was the Blair government to appease Sinn Fein that it didn't have the stomach to stand up to the apologists for terror and therefore inexcusably sacrificed the demands of effective policing. Tim Collins Daily Mail
Full article: The deadly cost of tying police hands in Northern Ireland
We have no money
We are insolvent, writes Daniel Finkelstein. Out of money. Financially embarrassed. Strapped. Cleaned out. Welcome to the era of no money. The central fact of British politics in the next ten years, and perhaps longer, is not hard to spot. British politics isn't going to be dominated by interesting debates on the future of capitalism. It isn't going to be the stage for a revival of interest in democratic socialism. It isn't going to play host to the interplay of competing ambitious projects. No. We're in for a hard slog. Because what British politics is going to be about in the next ten years is living with the consequences of the State being broke, of the Government running out of money. Daniel Finkelstein The Times
Full article: Welcome to the inescapable era of no money
Obama's Russian gambit
Just as JFK agreed to remove US missiles from Turkey if the Soviet Union took theirs away from Cuba, so Obama implicitly made a similar offer to Russia: you get Iran to back down, and I'll remove my interceptor missiles and radar stations from Poland and the Czech Republic, writes Jonathan Freedland. If such an initiative were to work, the knock-on effects would be multiple. Take one: Israel has long hinted that if its friends were to make the Iranian threat go away, it would respond by moving forward on the peace track. For a long while that was assumed to mean military action against Iran. But if Obama's Russia gambit were to succeed, the goal of an Iranian nuclear freeze, with all its ancillary benefits, would be achieved without a shot being fired. Jonathan Freedland The Guardian
Full article: After a flurry of early activity, the Obama doctrine is taking shape
In Brief
The Myerson family
The Myersons are typical of a certain breed of laid-back parents. Strictly brought up themselves, with all the benefits that delivered academic achievement and good jobs, they actively encourage their own kids to walk on the wild side because they think that it's cool and edgy. When the kid, all too predictably, falls off the edge in a skunk-induced stupor they get hysterical and start blaming him for ruining their tolerant life.
Allison Pearson Daily Mail
Full article: It's liberal mothers who are the real dopes
Charity sells records
A lot of the entertainers gracing our screens on Friday night will be engaged in self-promotion – flogging their brands along with their new records, their latest books and their DVDs. They are – along with the much-reviled bankers – some of the highest-paid people in the country. I am not impressed that they bravely take a few days out of their busy schedule to visit Africa and be photographed with grateful orphans. Janet Street-Porter The Independent
Full article: I'll be relieved when this charade ends
Litter bugs
Littering is the easy, careless expression of a lack of concern for others, a blindness to the world around you, and an idle over-dependence on a nannying local authority. Down the decades, dropping litter seems to have lost any kind of stigma – indeed, it has almost become an expression of freedom for many people. It is now so ubiquitous that it would be absurd to blame any particular group. It transcends age or class. Terence Blacker The Independent
Full article: Nagging litter-bugs isn't the answer
News sells
In the old days, people paid for their newspapers. In the future, so far as anyone can see, they will not pay for anything that they do not get direct from advertisers and the function of news is merely to attract people to advertisements. That has always been truer than journalists would like to believe. But in the new wintry world of the internet, this cold truth forms, like the snow, the background to everything we see.
Andrew Brown The Guardian
Full article: Good King Google
A pathetic playboy
Time was when the sort of men who captivated European billionairesses looked like dashing Riviera playboys. The thin-lipped Helg Sgarbi, by contrast, looks like he reads the small print on insurance forms for pleasure The old arrangement was better: cads in blazers at the bars of luxury hotels waiting for their prey; charm and good looks traded honestly for a chap's basic upkeep. Far better to be conned by a man who looks like David Niven in his prime than by one who resembles Lembit Opik. Rowan Pelling Daily Mail
Full article: At least cads in blazers gave you something for your money
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