The Independent

Leading article: Farewell to an advocate of greener government

04 February 2012 12:00 AM

Chris Huhne was widely seen as a highly effective and committed member of the Cabinet

Leading article: Not such innocent presumptions

04 February 2012 12:00 AM

It's been quite a week for pre-judgment. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Condemned in the court of public opinion, but not in any court of law, the chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Stephen Hester, was pressured into giving up a bonus he was entitled to. The former head of the same bank, Fred Goodwin, was stripped of the knighthood he had received when financial recklessness was seen as audacity – a virtue more than a vice – even though there was not a whiff of personal dishonesty.

Leading article: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst

04 February 2012 12:00 AM

There are many reasons to be sceptical about the assertion by the US Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, that Israel is likely to attack Iran in the next few months.

Leading article: Nursery schools cannot be judged only by cost

03 February 2012 12:00 AM

The key question is not age, but how the early years of learning are structured

Leading article: Tax clampdown must start at home

03 February 2012 12:00 AM

Every so often, observers of our body politic have to pinch themselves. Did they really hear that? Did the minister say that? So it proved yesterday, when the Chief Secretary to the Treasury was dragged to the Commons Chamber to answer an urgent question from Labour on the revelation that the head of the Student Loans Company had his salary paid gross to a private company, enabling him to reduce his tax and national insurance payments.

Leading article: The rise in cycling demands a new approach to safety

03 February 2012 12:00 AM

The upsurge in the number of people cycling is a hugely welcome feature of modern Britain. The figures are most noticeable in London, where the increase over the past decade is put at about 50 per cent. But alongside this trend a more worrying one has emerged – death and serious injury as a result of cyclists colliding with lorries and other large vehicles.

Leading article: More reason to reform the House of Lords

02 February 2012 12:00 AM

The Goodwin fiasco must concentrate minds both inside and outside Parliament

Leading article: The next test bed for health reform

02 February 2012 12:00 AM

An "unholy mess" is how a joint editorial in the British Medical Journal, the Health Service Journal and the Nursing Times describes the effects of the Government's reforms of the NHS this week. It is just the latest salvo from the medical establishment in a campaign that has reached fever pitch. So fiercely are different vested interests resisting the changes, however – which are predicated on patient-centred GP commissioning of services – that campaigners may have allowed their attention to be diverted from a development that could alter health provision at least as radically as anything envisaged in the contentious Health and Social Care Bill.

Leading article: A new smile that keeps an old secret

02 February 2012 12:00 AM

The discovery of a picture, believed to be the earliest copy of the Mona Lisa, has prompted a discussion about whether the existence of a contemporary copy might in some way devalue the original. Is one Mona Lisa worth more or less if there are two, and what if there were more?

Leading article: We shouldn't be comparing apples with oranges

01 February 2012 12:00 AM

An unlovely snobbery can emerge in the discussion of vocational courses in schools, and there was plenty of sneering yesterday about qualifications in, say, fish husbandry or nail technology being run as GCSE equivalents. Such talk is not only unhelpful, it is mistaken. It should scarcely need saying that these courses – and the jobs that result – are of no less value to the individual and the economy as a whole than more academic alternatives.

Leading article: Why should we stop with Fred Goodwin?

01 February 2012 12:00 AM

What about politicians who presided over the irrationally exuberant carnival?

Leading article: Russia's double game in Syria

01 February 2012 12:00 AM

As William Hague, Hillary Clinton and Alain Juppé headed to New York yesterday to press for a UN Security Council resolution on Syria, President Bashar al-Assad's tanks were in the suburbs of Damascus and the overall situation looked grim. More than 5,400 people have been killed since the uprising began last March, and the violence shows no sign of diminishing.

Leading article: Tilting at the wrong target over bankers' pay

31 January 2012 12:00 AM

According to both the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Foreign Secretary, the Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive's decision to forgo his near-£1m share bonus was "sensible and welcome". According to the Leader of the Opposition, Stephen Hester has "done the right thing". Wrong, wrong and wrong again.

Leading article: Confused signals from higher fees

31 January 2012 12:00 AM

When the Government allowed universities to raise their tuition fees to £9,000 a year, it appeared that ministers expected a market to break out that would rate establishments and courses differently. That may be the eventual result. But the immediate consequence was that almost every university in the land raised its tuition fees to the maximum, or almost. The knock-on effects are now becoming apparent, and it is hard to believe that the architects of the policy intended all, or even any, of them.

Leading article: Just another round of 'He said, she said'

31 January 2012 12:00 AM

A survey by NCP, the car park group, rated women (a little) more highly than men in the parking stakes, finding – among other things – that they were more likely to approach at a measured speed and more likely to place the car at the centre of the space.