The Week

Leading article

Leading article: Labour’s opportunity

By now, Ed Miliband should be feeling upbeat about next week’s Labour party conference. No matter what happens in Liverpool, it can’t be more debasing than the spectacle the Liberal Democrats laid on in Birmingham. The Lib Dems’ decision to insult their coalition partners did nothing to enhance their standing. If the Tories are, as

Portrait of the week

Portrait of the week | 24 September 2011

Home The International Monetary Fund reduced its growth forecast for Britain this year from 1.5 per cent to 1.1 per cent and for next year from 2.3 to 1.6 per cent. A debate rumbled on in government about whether to spend more money on public infrastructure works as dark financial clouds loomed. ‘What I will

Barometer

Barometer | 24 September 2011

Objects in space — The six tonne US Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite was due to fall to Earth, with Nasa calculating that it has a one in 3,200 risk of striking a human. It poses less of a risk, however, than the 75 tonne Skylab did when it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere in 1979. In

Letters

Letters | 24 September 2011

Euro bonds Sir: In your leading article, ‘A new deal with Europe’ (17 September), you argue that as Brussels will not agree to radical reform and massive deregulation, the only remaining options are to renegotiate our membership of the European Union or ‘pull out entirely’. However, we must be clear that unilateral withdrawal is out