COMMENT

James Ashton: Is anyone thinking about the economy in the long term?

If Wednesday’s Budget still fails on measures to kickstart growth, bosses will be giving Labour a long hard look.

Melanie McDonagh: Let’s give this quiet new Pope a fair hearing

Pope Francis I

It would be good if, for once, we didn’t see the Pope just through the very narrow prism of our own preoccupations with gay marriage, condoms and abortion.

Edward Daniels: the chronic shortage of girls in science is a threat to economic growth

The problem starts early, as girls’ interest in science sharply declines around the age of 10. By the age of 14, roughly 90 per cent of girls effectively disqualify themselves from a career in engineering by choosing not to study triple science at GCSE.

Peyvand Khorsandi: Iran’s fundamentalists can’t have the law on Argo

It’s upset the British, it’s upset the Canadians and now the Oscar-winning film Argo has upset the Iranians too.

Ed Balls: It’s still not too late, Chancellor, to go for growth

The economy can take off only with a Budget that creates jobs, helps business and invests in infrastructure.

Paul Goodman: Three crucial tests that will determine Cameron's future

The PM must silence party critics with next week’s Budget, May’s local elections and a harmonious spending review.

Grant Shapps

Richard Godwin: If mansion tax is unfair, council tax is far worse

If you own a massive house that earns you money simply for reclining on your chaise longue, then that money is fair game for taxation.

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Evening Standard comment: George Osborne's polls slip as the Budget nears
Evening Standard Comment

The Chancellor, George Osborne, was never a natural populist but what he did have was a reputation for competence.

Simon Jenkins: For London’s visual heart let’s clear the site and start again

Under Jude Kelly’s leadership the South Bank is buzzing. Now is the time for a design that reflects that.

Anne McElvoy: Don’t bet on a women’s army taking the high ground

Bosses divide between those who see part of their legacy as mentoring others  — and others who frankly don’t care if you end up in the post-room once they’re no longer in charge.

Andrew Martin: Why ‘mind the gap’ is central to London’s charm
Margaret McCollum

Gaps occur where the curvature of the platform — usually necessitated by the need to skirt around important foundations — is greater than the curvature of a train. A friend of mine can list them all as a party piece.

Peyvand Khorsandi: Iran’s fundamentalists can’t have the law on Argo

It’s upset the British, it’s upset the Canadians and now the Oscar-winning film Argo has upset the Iranians too.

James Ashton: Is anyone thinking about the economy in the long term?

If Wednesday’s Budget still fails on measures to kickstart growth, bosses will be giving Labour a long hard look

Evening Standard Comment

Evening Standard comment: The risks of Western intervention in Syria

Britain's Foreign and Defence Secretaries are meeting their Russian counterparts today but it seems over-optimistic to hope for progress on Syria.

Ed Balls: It’s still not too late, Chancellor, to go for growth

The economy can take off only with a Budget that creates jobs, helps business and invests in infrastructure

Anne McElvoy: Don’t bet on a women’s army taking the high ground

Bosses divide between those who see part of their legacy as mentoring others  — and others who frankly don’t care if you end up in the post-room once they’re no longer in charge

Grant Shapps

Richard Godwin: If mansion tax is unfair, council tax is far worse

If you own a massive house that earns you money simply for reclining on your chaise longue, then that money is fair game for taxation

Margaret McCollum

Andrew Martin: Why ‘mind the gap’ is central to London’s charm

Until last year, the iconic “mind the gap� announcement on the northbound Northern line platform at Embankment was one of the original, rather schoolmasterly ones. Yet Dr Margaret McCollum would make pilgrimages to hear it — because it was spoken by her actor husband, Oswald Laurence, in the late 1960s; he had died in 2007.

Sarah Sands: Can Tories live with a turbulent Archbishop?

It has come to something when Old Etonians can’t rely on each other. When Justin Welby was named as the new Archbishop of Canterbury he was seen as Cameron in a cassock, a public-school former banker who could put relations with the Government back on track after the wilderness years of Rowan Williams.

Evening Standard Comment

Justice was done in the Huhne-Pryce case

Few people can derive any real satisfaction from the final outcome of the Huhne-Pryce case. It is, on the face of it, absurd that a traffic offence almost 10 years ago should lead to the downfall of a Cabinet minister, his and his brilliant wife’s imprisonment, and the tearing apart of their family. Yet it is right that Mr Huhne and Ms Pryce should go to jail — and they themselves bear sole responsibility for this unravelling of their lives.

Simon Jenkins: For London’s visual heart let’s clear the site and start again

Under Jude Kelly’s leadership the South Bank is buzzing. Now is the time for a design that reflects that

Rebecca Meredith

Sam Leith: Lads’ banter is violence by other means

Cambridge undergraduate Rebecca Meredith and her debating partner Marlena Valles, speaking at the Glasgow University Union, were subjected to misogynistic heckling from male undergraduates. One audience member who tried to intervene was called a “frigid bitch�. Quite properly, the Cambridge Union is boycotting GUU until it gets its house in order.

Amol Rajan: What happens after the robots have taken our jobs?

In nine days’ time George Osborne will deliver a Budget dripping with bad news. Borrowing is up, debt is rising extremely fast, our triple-A rating is gone, and the growth that could remedy these ills remains elusive.

Evening Standard Comment

Evening Standard Comment: Stop the ‘Mr Bigs’ from milking legal aid

This paper’s campaign to end the bizarre anomaly whereby wealthy criminals with millions of pounds in property can milk the legal aid system has resulted in a victory for the taxpayer. The Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, is to change the way that the courts freeze the assets of wealthy defenders in criminal proceedings so as to allow those assets to be used towards their legal costs.

Paul Goodman: Three crucial tests that will determine Cameron's future

The PM must silence party critics with next week’s Budget, May’s local elections and a harmonious spending review

Evening Standard Comment

Evening Standard comment: Why we still fight for women’s rights

Today is International Women’s Day: it comes as this paper campaigns against the horror of female genital mutilation. For despite the huge advances in women’s position since German socialist Clara Zetkin first founded International Women’s Day in 1910, women remain discriminated against around the world.

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