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Leading article: An anniversary that should shame us all

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

At a time when the US administration has only warm words for those brave enough to demand respect for their civil rights in the Middle East, it is sobering to be reminded of the US's own flagrant, continued abuse of human rights by detaining people without trial in Guantanamo – years after Barack Obama pledged to close the prison down.

Leading article: Heat on The Sun can only intensify

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

After the exposure of the Milly Dowler affair, it seemed as if matters had become as bad as they could for Rupert Murdoch's media empire. Public fury in Britain about the hacking of the murdered girl's mobile phone was on such an epic scale that Mr Murdoch took what then seemed the drastic action of closing the offending newspaper, the News of the World.

Leading article: Why we need to keep an eye on players' hands

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

What's in a handshake? A lot, when it's a question of players from two football teams with as deadly a rivalry as Liverpool and Manchester United. Apologies from the former have flowed thick and fast after Luis Suarez refused to extend a hand to Patrice Evra at Old Trafford, which seemed doubly churlish given that Evra has been the victim of racist abuse from Suarez.

Leading article: A good idea hobbled by austerity

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

We agree with Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, that the welfare system is "broken, trapping in 'idleness' the very people it was designed to help", although we are not convinced that the Government is dealing with the problem the right way. Even before unemployment started its recent rise, many claimants were discouraged from seeking work and many children grew up in households where worklessness was a way of life. As Mr Duncan Smith says, writing exclusively for The Independent on Sunday today, "there is nothing progressive about destroying aspirations and limiting opportunities for the poorest".

Leading article: A coup of more than local significance

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

Clashes between government and opposition supporters on the Maldives have not spread to the pristine beaches and luxury spas of the Indian Ocean archipelago. So that's all right then. Except that it isn't.

Leading article: Policing does not need a Prescott

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

It can hardly be what Lord Prescott intended.

Leading article: An impression of drift that Mr Cameron must dispel

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

Opposition from medics' professional bodies was one thing; the most influential Conservative grassroots website weighing in against the Government's NHS reforms is quite another.

Leading article: Boardroom equality won't happen on its own

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

There are not enough women in Britain's boardrooms. On this, there is agreement across the political spectrum. The question of how to address the deficit is more contentious. Can companies be relied upon to appoint more women, or do they need to be compelled to do so? Yesterday, David Cameron told a summit in Stockholm that he wants to see more women on the boards of UK companies and that he has not ruled out quotas. But, in an interview, he "urged" companies to appoint more women and made clear he would prefer to avoid any compulsion.

Leading article: The abolition of GCSEs would not suit all

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

It would be relatively easy for Eton College to abandon GCSEs, as its headmaster, Tony Little, would like to do, since the vast majority of its pupils would probably get into a leading university through predicted A-level grades. For pupils at an inner-city comprehensive, as Joan McVittie, head of Woodside High School in Tottenham, north London, suggests, it would be far harder. Her pupils need recognised qualifications to get a job. Mr Little has the kernel of a good idea, now that the leaving age for education is being raised to 17, and eventually 18. And his ideas would have more credibility if we moved to a system where pupils applied to university after receiving their A-level grades – so that admissions staff do not need to look at GCSEs for proof of performance. Even then, though, something more copper-bottomed than an internally assessed leaving certificate will be needed to make the alternative to GCSEs acceptable to employers.

Leading article: Time to end the Big Six's energy fix

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

During Labour's long economic boom, few in government gave much thought to energy policy. So long as the bills came down – which for years they did because of North Sea gas and the privatised suppliers trimming workforces – politicians were content to allow greater consolidation of the industry. They gave little thought to the future. That complacency must end now.

Leading article: From each according to his ability...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

Yesterday's not-guilty verdict in the tax evasion case brought against Harry Redknapp was warmly greeted by the football world, and understandably so. Mr Redknapp is the hugely engaging, talented boss of a resurgent Tottenham Hotspur, and looks well placed to succeed Fabio Capello at the England helm.

Leading article: Hacking avoids its day in court

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

It is not hard to understand why many of the celebrities and politicians who had their phones hacked by journalists from News International have accepted out-of-court damages payments from Rupert Murdoch. It has saved them the time, money and stress that would have been involved in court hearings, from which details – lurid or otherwise – would have been laid bare for all to read.

Leading article: Argentinian signals that must not be misread

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

Landmark anniversaries of the Falklands War inevitably increase tensions between Britain and Argentina, and it would have been unrealistic to expect the 30th to be an exception. But it would also be unwise to interpret recent Argentinian statements as tantamount to aggressive acts. The significance of this week's announcement by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, that Argentina is to complain to the United Nations about British "militarisation" around the disputed islands, should not be exaggerated.

Leading article: Tackling fraud needs more than a nudge

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

There is something immediately appealing about the idea that behavioural psychology can make people do things they otherwise would not. It is called "The Nudge". If, for example, a council labels its bins Recycling and Landfill, there will be less rubbish in the latter than if it was labelled General Refuse.

Leading article: No time for MI5 to stand in the way

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

Deporting Abu Qatada to Jordan was the easy option. After all, the man said to be Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Britain had already been convicted in Amman, in absentia, for his involvement in a plot to target American and Israeli tourists. With deportation facing legal obstacles in the form of a European Court of Human Rights ruling, the most pertinent questions focus on why a trial cannot go ahead in the UK.

Leading article: Don't let vested interests skew the NHS debate

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

As the Government's contentious NHS reforms return to the House of Lords today, the row over the proposals to cut bureaucracy, boost the role of GPs and increase private sector competition shows scant sign of resolution. Rather, the complexities of both the NHS as is, and the planned changes to it, are increasingly reduced to a single divide: for or against the Health and Social Care Bill. It is the wrong question. And its dominance underlines how badly the Government has bungled the attempt at reform.

Leading article: Capello is doing little for team unity

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

Not for the first time, England's preparations for a major football tournament are subject to damaging internal conflict. With just four months to go until the start of Euro 2012, the manager, Fabio Capello, and his employers at the Football Association are at loggerheads over the stripping of the captaincy from John Terry.

Leading article: A proposal with some merit

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

The editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, was given an uncomfortable ride at the Leveson Inquiry into press standards yesterday. To the delight of that newspaper's detractors, Mr Dacre was pinned down by the inquiry's lawyer over celebrity intrusion, homophobia, irresponsible smears, scare stories, the use of private detectives and much else. The unhappy editor was left to promise to get back to the inquiry on detailed points.

Leading article: The world must not abandon Syrians now

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

It is no use warning of impending civil war in Syria; that has already begun. The bombardment of Homs is just the latest escalation in a conflict that has claimed more than 5,400 lives since the first stirrings of revolt against President Bashar al-Assad last March. As the Foreign Secretary said as he announced the recall of the British ambassador from Damascus yesterday, the situation is utterly unacceptable and demands an international response.

Leading article: Moscow learns how to keep out of the news

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

In Moscow on Saturday tens of thousands of people came out, despite freezing temperatures, to demonstrate in favour of free, fair, but above all honest, elections. They were protesting in part against the widespread rigging of elections in December, which still cost the United Russia party its overall majority in the Duma. In part, too, they were warning the authorities against trying the same trick at the presidential elections next month, when Vladimir Putin hopes to be returned to the presidency from his current position as Prime Minister. Pro-Putin demonstrators were also out on Saturday.

Leading article: Snow does not justify a third runway

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

The arrival of the winter's first serious snow across much of the country had the usual consequences. Gridlock on major arteries; closed, or seriously disrupted, airports, and a public outcry about the lack of preparation. As always, any difficulties tend to be seen through a metropolitan lens. London buses taken off the roads are treated as disaster, while cancellations at Heathrow are cited as symptoms of a peculiarly British malaise. As they were again yesterday.

Leading article: What Whitehall could learn from Washington

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

Government departments, as we report today, are experiencing an unusually high turnover of staff.

Leading article: Fairness is more than fine words

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

Since this newspaper expressed dismay at the scale of Stephen Hester's pay last week, the boss of RBS joined Sir Philip Hampton, his chairman, in turning down his bonus. It was a welcome gesture, but it was only a gesture. Just as stripping Fred Goodwin of his knighthood last week was a gesture. It does not deal with the larger problem, which is that the taxpayers who own the banks disapprove of the level of their executives' pay; or with the still larger problem: that pay in the financial services sector is seriously out of line with most people's idea of fairness.

Leading article: Not such innocent presumptions

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

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

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

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.