Leading Articles

Leading article: An arrest that enables Serbia and Europe to turn a page

Ratko Mladic's capture marks a symbolic end to the chaos that followed Yugoslavia's break-up

Recent Leading Articles

Leading article: When health reform becomes a distraction

Friday, 27 May 2011

Nick Clegg's speech yesterday on the NHS was pregnant with political significance. This was effectively an instruction from the Deputy Prime Minister for David Cameron to pull the Health Bill back to the Commons or risk losing Liberal Democrat support for the legislation. David Cameron once told us that "muscular liberalism" is a virtue. Well, this was a flexing of Liberal Democrat muscle within the Coalition. The ultimatum from the Coalition's junior partner will not please the Conservative right, which regards the NHS reforms as, if anything, not radical enough.

Leading article: Earth-shattering

Friday, 27 May 2011

Classical mythology presented the Moon as the sibling of the Sun. But scientists, having performed an analysis of lunar rocks, are increasingly of the view that our closest neighbour in space is a cousin of the Earth. They believe that a massive chunk of our planet became separated about 4.5 billion years ago and ended up orbiting us – although how this happened scientists are still unsure.

Leading article: Small differences lay bare a big disparity in power

Thursday, 26 May 2011

Mr Obama was consistently less keen than Mr Cameron on the need to remove the Libyan leader

Leading article: A lethal lack of dignity for the elderly

Thursday, 26 May 2011

It was one of the most distressing details to emerge from the 2005-08 Stafford Hospital scandal: infirm patients were reduced to drinking water from vases of flowers. The NHS promised that the lessons of that disaster, in particular regarding the neglect of patients, would be learned. But today's reports published by the Care Quality Commission suggest they have still not been fully absorbed. The CQC conducted a series of unannounced inspections into the "dignity and nutrition" provided to older people at 100 hospitals. In the first reports released, three hospitals – in Ipswich, Hampstead and Redditch, Worcestershire – are found to be failing.

Leading article: James Bond - Bourne natural

Thursday, 26 May 2011

Bond or Bourne? It used to be such a stark choice. James Bond was wry, charming, relaxed. Jason Bourne was intense, efficient and didn't know who he was. Where Bond curled his lip, Bourne would break your hip. They were both lethal spies, but the difference between them was as obvious as the difference between a sip of vodka martini and a slug of methylated spirits.

Leading Article: A vital step towards justice and accountability

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

It is a welcome decision in the context of a police force that sometimes seems to be above the law

Leading article: Mission creep and perilous tactics in Libya

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Few could have imagined when air strikes began in Libya in March that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi would still be in power two months later. But a stalemate has emerged. Nato air power has prevented rebel forces from being defeated but it has not secured victory for them. So the war is being escalated. Tripoli has suffered the biggest air attack so far. The French have announced that they will now send in attack helicopters. Britain is considering doing the same.

Leading article: Stopped in its tracks

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

In ancient Rome during a victory parade, the triumphant general would have placed in his chariot a slave whose job was to keep whispering memento mori – "remember you are only mortal". In Ireland, they have a cheaper alternative – the speed bump.

Leading article: The case for regulating takeovers grows stronger

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Chocolate nationalism has died down. More than year after Kraft's takeover of Cadbury in a £11.5bn deal, no one notices anything different about their Dairy Milk bars. British chocolate seems to be safe from Americanisation.

Leading article: A cry of rage that cannot be ignored

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

None of them is starving. All of them have the vote. Until three years ago, many of them were beneficiaries, thanks to the Socialist Party, of some of the most bounteous welfare programmes in southern Europe. But the unforeseen eruption of a huge movement of protest among the youth of Spain, completely overshadowing this week's general election, should set alarm bells ringing across Europe.