The Week

Leading article

Bad habits

The brutal assassination of the US government workers Lesley Enriquez and Arthur Redelfs, carried out by gangsters linked to the Juarez drugs cartel last week, is reported to have been a retaliatory exercise following the recent extradition of several Mexican drugs lords to the States. It was another reminder that the US-led ‘war on drugs’

A propaganda war

If you want to know about Labour’s election campaign, simply turn on a commercial radio station. If you want to know about Labour’s election campaign, simply turn on a commercial radio station. Soon enough, you will hear an advertisement offering to help you lose weight, buy a car, claim more benefits, deal with door-to-door salesmen

Portrait of the week

Portrait of the week | 20 March 2010

A European Commission report warned that Britain would not meet the 2014-2015 deadline for reducing the budget deficit to below 3 per cent of domestic output. Mr Liam Byrne, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: ‘We think the EU has got the judgment wrong.’ British Airways cabin crew belonging to the union Unite announced

Diary

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody | 20 March 2010

Monday Thank goodness! The Great Wobble of 2010 is over!! Never again will I go to Lanzarote so close to an election. Turns out, there wasn’t a single person doing strategy in my absence. Jed was doing brand detox and message aromatherapy, Gary was doing shouting at the press and Mr Letwin was doing sitting

Ancient and modern

Ancient & modern | 20 March 2010

Jack Straw is proposing to replace the 700-year-old House of Lords with an elected body. Fifth-century bc Athenians went through an equally dramatic constitutional change involving an age-old institution, but in their case, with real purpose, though not without bloodshed. The Areopagus was so named from the rock (pagos) of Ares on the Acropolis with

Letters

Letters | 20 March 2010

The cunning Mandelbrown Sir: David Cameron and his gallant band do not seem to realise that they no longer face the clumsy and clunky Gordon Brown, but a new political hybrid — Peter Mandelbrown. The outward form may still be as lumpy and leaden as ever, but that merely serves as concealment for the hybrid’s cunning