Leading Articles

Recent Leading Articles

Leading article: Higher borrowing is the least bad of all the options

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

But running up bigger debts also stores up liabilities for the future

Leading article: Mr Mbeki's timely exit

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Jumping (just) before you are pushed has become something of an international trend recently, what with the departure of President Musharraf in Pakistan and the resignations of prime ministers in Japan, Thailand and Israel. Yet none of these farewells was perhaps as overdue, but also as fraught with risk, as that of President Thabo Mbeki in South Africa.

Leading article: Unconventional wisdom

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Awards should always be taken with a pinch of salt, as any aficionado of the critics' favourite TV show The Wire will tell you. But even fans of that long-ignored programme must have allowed themselves a little satisfaction at the latest Emmy Awards, where, for once, the right shows won. That included Mad Men as Best Dramatic Series. Set in New York's fledgling 1960s advertising industry, Mad Men will feel totally unfamiliar to anyone used to the conventions of most American primetime TV drama.

Leading article: This is the moment for Mr Brown to regain his grip

Monday, 22 September 2008

Global events create an opportunity for the Prime Minister

Leading article: Pakistan stares into the abyss

Monday, 22 September 2008

Pakistan lies at the centre of American strategic calculations about South and Central Asia. All the United States' plans regarding Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the struggle against al-Qa'ida, involve Pakistan, which is why Saturday's blast in Islamabad is not only a human tragedy but a deeply troubling sign that the crisis in global security is further than ever from a resolution. That terrorists can cause such carnage in the middle of the capital of Pakistan not only makes a mockery of President Asif Zardari's claims to be getting tough on Islamic militants but raises long-term fears for the state's very survival. The fact is that terrorists have been detonating bombs with growing boldness in recent months.

Leading article: Hang on in there, Mr Brown

Sunday, 21 September 2008

We at The Independent on Sunday have never much worried about standing on our own. Indeed, we take some pride in it. And so it is that we return to a theme on the weekend of the Labour Party conference – Gordon Brown: the case for the defence.

Leading article: Desperate measures for desperate times

Saturday, 20 September 2008

It is no exaggeration to say that, in financial terms, the world changed fundamentally this week. The firestorm that has blown through the global economy in the past seven days has destroyed so many famous names that it is hard to know where to lay the first wreath. Lehman Brothers has gone bankrupt. The "thundering herd" of Merrill Lynch has been sent to the abattoir. Investors have been desperately ditching shares even in those icons of global capitalism, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The sickness in the credit markets has snuffed out HBOS, Britain's largest mortgage lender. Others remain on the critical list.

Leading article: Mr Brown and his muddled mutineers

Saturday, 20 September 2008

The Labour Party opens its annual conference in extraordinary circumstances. Not only does it find itself in power during the biggest financial crisis for more than half a century, but it is in the middle of its own crisis over the leadership of Gordon Brown. In the narrow context of the Manchester conference, the challenges are clear. The Prime Minister must convey a clear sense of how he plans to navigate Britain through the immediate financial turmoil. After months of indecisive caution, he intervened more effectively this week, but he must now outline his route map towards calmer terrain – and explain, as a former chancellor, why it is that Britain appears more vulnerable to the turbulence than some other equivalent nations.

Leading article: Hope of a better future for Israel and Palestine

Friday, 19 September 2008

Tzipi Livni offers cleaner politics at home and realism abroad

Leading article: Shoot first, ask questions later

Friday, 19 September 2008

Having apparently played an important role in the rescue of HBOS – for which he should be congratulated – the Prime Minister has now pledged to "clean up" the City. His first move, a ban on the highly contentious and damaging process of short selling of bank shares, is an inevitable consequence of the unprecedented events of recent days. It is welcome, and almost as if Mr Brown were Chancellor again; a glimpse of a premiership that might have been.

Leading article: Star quality

Friday, 19 September 2008

A standing ovation for Michael Grandage, the artistic director of the Donmar theatre in London. It's not just that he has launched his West End programme with a staggeringly successful production of Chekhov's Ivanov with Kenneth Branagh. Or that he directs with such clarity and style. It is that he has done something with his West End series that everyone said could never be done, which is to revive straight and classic plays combining big name stars with well-crafted readings.

Leading article: Amid global meltdown, our ministers bicker and backbite

Thursday, 18 September 2008

Talk of a leadership contest is an irresponsible distraction

Leading article: The Lib Dems stay in the game

Thursday, 18 September 2008

The Liberal Democrats seem ever fated to hold their conference in the midst of diverting crises, whether it be the financial mayhem caused by Britain's exit from the ERM, the leadership crisis in Labour under Blair or, as on this occasion, a combination of the two. And yet for all the competing headlines of bank collapses and Labour leadership revolts, the party has run a surprisingly effective conference. Indeed it may actually have been helped by the general air of a government and a Tory opposition seemingly obsessed with themselves.

Leading article: False friends

Thursday, 18 September 2008

As every pregnant woman knows, joy at the discovery that she is soon to become a mother turns rapidly to anxiety about how to protect her unborn baby. Threats seem to appear at every turn, from the food on her plate, to the pollutants in the air she breathes, and the wine in her glass.