Italians vote against perpetual bondage to German banks
OH HAPPY day. The Italian election result is a triumph for democracy. “No pope, no government, no police chief,” went a viral tweet on Tuesday, hailing the arrival in Rome of “punk politics”. The outcome is an

West loves sanctions, dictators love them more
North Korea has set off a third nuclear test explosion. It has done so in defiance of the UN, America, Japan and even, reportedly, its sponsor, China. It has said to hell with everyone, in a brutal comment on western economic sanctions.

Drones prolong wars that can’t be won
LONDON: The greatest threat to world peace is not from nuclear weapons and their possible proliferation. It is from drones and their certain proliferation. Nuclear bombs are useless weapons, playthings for the powerful.

UK coalition proves pundits wrong
ANY fool can knock a coalition. So it proved on Tuesday. Broken, lamentable, single-bedded, farcical, split, doomed, were among the responses to the “mid-term report” from the David Cameron-Nick Clegg coalition on Monday. What a shower they apparently were.

It is wrong for UK to lecture other states
LONDON: Communal rioting in two cities. Bricks and bottles thrown and civic buildings wrecked. Flags torn down and 15 police injured. Local politicians forced to go into hiding. It happens all over the world, but this week it happened

Freedom of press must be protected
LONDON: The response to the Leveson inquiry, like the inquiry itself, is plagued by confusion. It was set up in emotional response to crimes, mostly of intrusion and libel, committed by journalists. Blanket coverage, in

Tribal grunts of left and right will not rescue humanity
LONDON: Politics has never been so fascinating. It drips from the ceiling. It oozes up through the floor. It reeks across the internet. Reading politics, being informed about it, participating in it, should be the compulsory national service of the 21st-century state

Monarchy: a bonding ritual
SIT back, relax and enjoy it. The cost is minimal and the show will be good. That is what monarchy is about, a really good show. To will a British republic on the day of the Queen’s diamond jubilee is like

Is this the end of conversation?
I FIRST noticed it in a restaurant. The place was strangely quiet, and at one table a group seemed deep in prayer. Their heads were bowed, their eyes hooded and their hands in their laps. I then realised that every one, young and old, was gazing at a handheld phone. People strolled the street outside likewise

EU’s terrible blunder
I WRITE from America, where those who care about Europe ask one question only. What is going on? What is this ‘euro crisis’ that never seems to end? What has happened to Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Holland and now France? Have we all gone insane?

A tale of panic and blunder
ON Monday, the BBC Panorama programme substantiated an extraordinary allegation that suggested how far the war on terror has descended into legal abyss. The claim was that MI6, the UK Secret