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Simon Kelner: Blair's voice – a chilling reminder of what went wrong

Tue, 29 May 2012 09:00:38 GMT

Sometimes you see or hear something that harks back to an earlier time, and you can't help but get all sentimental and nostalgic.

Amol Rajan: Thumbing through the pages of human evolution

Tue, 29 May 2012 08:57:12 GMT

Aside from a large brain and ample stomachs, the chief glory of being an ape is largely due to our opposable thumbs.

Robert Fisk: The West is horrified by children's slaughter now. Soon we'll forget

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Bashar al-Assad will get away with it. He got away with Deraa. He got away with Homs. And he'll get away with Houla. So will the armed opposition to the regime, along with al-Qa'ida and any other outfits joining in Syria's tragedy. Yes, this may be the critical moment, the "tipping point" of horror, when Baathist collapse becomes inevitable rather than probable. And dear Mr Hague may be "absolutely" appalled. The UN, too. We all are.

Deborah Ross: Camping holidays with the kids – what's not to love?

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

If you ask me, and along with everyone else, I would like to recommend camping if you are looking for a budget holiday, and even if you are not. Camping is a wonderful thing.

Oliver Wright: Tories may not like Baroness Warsi, but they would miss her

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

As statements of support go, Michael Fallon's defence of Baroness Warsi on Sunday was equivocal.

Shaun Walker: How far can Syria go before Moscow withdraws support?

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Asked yesterday whether the Houla massacre should be the moment when Russia finally drops its support for the Assad regime, a visibly irate Sergei Lavrov snapped back that Moscow had never supported Bashar al-Assad. "We do not support the Syrian government," Mr Lavrov said. "We support the plan of Kofi Annan."

Simon Kelner: The giant confidence trick that twisted politics for ever

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Sometimes you see or hear something that harks back to an earlier time, and you can't help but get all soppily sentimental and nostalgic. Oh, how much better everything was back then.

Lance Price: Pull the other one, Tony. You let Murdoch shape policy

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Days before he left office, Tony Blair attacked the "feral beasts" of the media who, he claimed, like to tear "people and reputations to bits". He didn't name names, other than to launch a bizarre attack on The Independent for being too opinionated. But most people would have listed The Sun and the News of the World among the papers with the sharpest teeth and the greatest appetite for human flesh.

Viv Groskop: The surprise is that there aren't more Georgias

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The story of the teenage girl who is so large that she had to be cut free from her house is appalling. But not because of weight issues; because of the psychological implications. A child, caring for two adults. No support. Cheap and plentiful calorific food, which is far easier to obtain than, say, crack cocaine. When you think about it, the outcome is not remotely surprising.

Leading article: Egypt's elections leave its divisions unresolved

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The results of the first round of Egypt's presidential election are at once hugely positive, and hugely negative.

Terence Blacker: The one thing worth celebrating in this beanfeast of a Jubilee

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The flags have been going up in my local town. Bunting drapes the buildings in the main shopping street. On the Sunday morning before the Jubilee weekend, the place was full of men with yellow coats and ladders. Already, in the shop windows, there are photographs of the Queen, pictured both as she is now and as a young woman in the early years of her reign.

John Rentoul: There was no cosy deal for Murdoch to gain from

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

I don't know what the purveyors of the thesis that Tony Blair was too close to Rupert Murdoch expected yesterday, but they didn't get it. There was no point in alleging that Blair did a deal to allow Murdoch greater dominion over the British media unless you could show that Murdoch benefited from it. Which he did not. Murdoch owned four newspapers with about one third of the British market in 1997, and controlled Sky television. By the end of Blair's time as Prime Minister, or indeed of Gordon Brown's, Murdoch owned four newspapers with about one third of the national market, and controlled Sky television.

Charlotte O'Sullivan: We don't treasure Ken Loach enough

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

God bless sentimental Europeans. On Sunday night, The Angels' Share, Ken Loach's latest movie, won the Jury Prize at Cannes. Think of the Jury Prize as a big thumbs up from the team. You haven't made the best film, you're not the best director, but, hey, we like the cut of your jib. Keep on truckin'. They don't pretend the 75-year-old director's current work compares to his past glories. Which is only right and proper. The Angels' Share's take on class war is desperately larky, an attempt at Ealing comedy that lacks the brains or finesse to deliver any killer blows. But so what? Ken made Kes.

Leading article: No possible excuse for destroying buzzard nests

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Game shooting – the blasting of large numbers of pheasants and other birds out of the sky for enjoyment – has so far escaped the widespread opprobrium attached to fox hunting, largely because it takes place out of the public gaze. But that may be about to change.

Dominic Lawson: For a nation of non-conformists it feels like we're in North Korea

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Appalled by the massacres carried out by militias loyal to the Assad regime, Nick Clegg declares that "if there is evidence that you have abused human rights you will not be able to come to this country [for the Olympics]"; this was in response to the BBC'S Andrew Marr asking about the invitation already received by a Syrian general who is part of his nation's Olympic delegation.

Letters: Grammar schools

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

At last a serious newspaper has called for a rethink on the opening of grammar schools and selection by academic ability. The UK is about to spend £10bn to put on the Olympics, and yet all those who decry academic selection would never consider not selecting the very best elite athletes to compete in the Olympics.

Rhodri Marsden: Motorised pies and the beauty of the pointless endeavour

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

I'm no mountaineer. I've read a couple of books, but I wouldn't call myself a mountaineer, exactly. I do, however, know the three most famous words in mountaineering, which aren't "It's awfully big" or "Pass my crampons" or "Not another mountain". They are, in fact, "Because it's there": the reason George Mallory gave for wanting to climb Mount Everest.

Leading article: Charges with a whiff of a witch-hunt

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Fiddling expenses is a crime, as not a few MPs and several peers have discovered. Nor is it just the scale of the fraud that determines the existence of a crime, though it plays a role in setting the penalty. It is the principle: the claiming of money – in these cases, public money – to which someone is not entitled. Now Baroness Warsi, co-chairman of the Conservative Party and the country's first woman Muslim cabinet minister, finds herself in the frame.

Martin Hickman: A silken performance from Blair the master escapologist

Mon, 28 May 2012 15:15:09 GMT

Tony Blair earned his Teflon tag today. Assured and articulate, Labour’s longest-serving prime minister put in a silken performance at Court 73 of the Royal Courts of Justice. Even when a protester stormed into the courtroom and shouted “war criminal” within feet of his perma-tanned face, Mr Blair the world statesman, maintained his composure, airily dismissing the intrusion with a flick of his left hand.

Martin Hickman: A gentle start for a man-on-a-mission Tony Blair

Mon, 28 May 2012 14:10:09 GMT

Tony Blair well earned his Teflon epithet. Assured and articulate, Labour’s longest-serving prime minister put in a silken performance at Court 73 of the Royal Courts of Justice this morning.

Simon Kelner: It's vacuous and we lost, but Eurovision is still fun

Mon, 28 May 2012 09:01:41 GMT

In the end, Engelbert didn't take care of business. For his performance representing Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest, he wore a necklace given to him by Elvis Presley, inscribed with the initials "TCB".

Rebecca Armstrong: Can a quick slick of lipstick make business boom?

Mon, 28 May 2012 08:53:21 GMT

It seems as though two of the country's biggest retailers have decided to put their faith in lipstick economics. The theory of the "lipstick index" was originally dreamt up by Leonard Lauder, chairman of Estee Lauder Companies after the attacks of 9/11 saw America's consumer spending falter.

Robert Fisk: Clinton's $33m raid on Pakistan shows that, in the end, hypocrisy will win

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

La Clinton hath spoken. Thirty-three million smackers lopped off Pakistan's aid budget because its spooks banged up poor old Dr Shakeel Afridi for 33 years after a secret trial. And, as the world knows, Dr Afridi's crime was to confirm the presence of that old has-been Osama bin Laden in his grotty Abbottabad villa.

Patrick Cockburn: As the bodies continue to mount in Syria, its people prepare for civil war

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

In Damascus there are small but menacing signs of abnormality. Soldiers prevent all but military and security personnel entering certain streets. Heavy goods vehicles are being stopped on the outskirts of the capital because of fear of suicide bombs.

Mary Ann Sieghart: Quality costs. The price of 'free' journalism might be its death

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

What does it cost me to go on Facebook? As I haven't got round to installing an online ad blocker, the price of connecting with my friends is that I have to endure the daily humiliation of companies trying to sell me weight loss and menopause pills. (Thanks, guys.) I've never searched for either as I'm not overweight and – well – let's not overshare. But, armed with my gender and birth date, the advertisers have made the impertinent supposition that I'm fat and flushing.