The Week

Leading article

Leading article: The salesman and the spies

There was a strange juxtaposition of events on Monday. That was the day Britain launched the fourth wing of its armed services: a ‘cyber-command’ designed to protect our country against online attacks, most of which are carried out by China. It was also the day when David Cameron welcomed Wen Jiabao, the Premier of China,

Portrait of the week

Portrait of the week | 2 July 2011

Home Teachers went on strike for a day. The National Association of Head Teachers strongly advised heads not to allow parent volunteers to keep schools open. Public-sector workers chose the same day to strike, also in a dispute over pensions. The UK Border Agency advised against flying that day. Ed Miliband, the leader of the

Barometer

Barometer | 2 July 2011

Life of Pi A group of mathematicians is campaigning for the mathematical constant pi to be replaced by tau, the latter being the ratio of the circumference to the radius as opposed to that of the circumference to the diameter. As tau is simply twice the value of pi (approximately 6.28) it won’t consume so

Letters

Letters | 2 July 2011

Child benefit? No thanks! Sir: I was particularly struck by Melanie McDonagh (‘What women want’, 25 June) trotting out the same old complaint about the ‘cloth-eared’ decision to take child benefit off families in the higher tax bracket. How and why have we got ourselves into a situation where even middle-class journalists think that they