Kelly fluffed it on expenses. But we must back him

The purpose of Sir Christopher Kelly’s report into MPs’ expenses was to pull off the difficult task of enabling MPs to create a modern and robust payments system, while retaining public confidence.

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04.11.2009. 23:53h

You could see those deaths in Afghanistan coming

Yesterday’s awful shooting of five British servicemen by a trainee Afghan policeman took me back to a dusty yard in a Dutch-controlled southern province there, earlier this year, and a rag-tag army of Afghan police “trainees” assembled for us journalists:...

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04.11.2009. 23:53h

The internet is killing storytelling

Click, tweet, e-mail, twitter, skim, browse, scan, blog, text: the jargon of the digital age describes how we now read, reflecting the way that the very act of reading, and the nature of literacy itself, is changing.

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04.11.2009. 23:53h

Afghanistan could be lost in the bars of Britain

The clamour is growing for us to withdraw from Afghanistan. And the tragic loss of five British soldiers at the hands of one of those we are supposed to be fighting alongside will make that clamour louder.

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04.11.2009. 23:53h

Republicans Win 2 Council Races in Queens

Republicans won two open City Council seats in highly competitive Queens races, beating out two Asian-American Democrats who had both survived grueling primaries.

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04.11.2009. 23:53h

Will a Yankee Win Favor Wall Street's Bulls?

Wall Street might want to root for the Yankees in Game 6 of the World Series on Wednesday night. A coincidental sports indicator shows that a Yankee victory in the series has historically been bullish for the stock market.

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04.11.2009. 23:42h

Antitrust suit filed against Intel

New York accuses the world's largest chipmaker of paying computer makers billions in kickbacks.

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04.11.2009. 23:41h

A little more on governance | Michael Tomasky

Matt Yglesias notes today that Bob McDonnell ran on the idea of building more roads in northern Virginia but not coming up with a way to pay for them. Why? Well, I reckon cuz people like roads but they don't like taxes. That's responsible governance for...

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04.11.2009. 23:40h

Glad they've learned the right lesson | Michael Tomasky

Hot on the heels of the Hoffman defeat in NY-23 comes word that teabagging GOP Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina is leading the national charge to support a fellow named Chuck DeVoe in the GOP Senate primary in California next year. The leading GOP...

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04.11.2009. 23:21h

Fox News Takes Tuesday Night

On an off-year election night, the Fox News Channel saw large gains in viewership, Nielsen ratings showed.

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04.11.2009. 23:18h

Adults Told to Hold Off Getting Seasonal Flu Vaccine

Healthy, nonelderly adults in New York should not receive the seasonal flu vaccine until the supply of vaccine increases, the city health department said.

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04.11.2009. 23:10h

Going Tribal in Afghanistan

Some writers are making a provocative argument for a new strategy in Afghanistan: embed small, highly skilled and almost completely autonomous units with tribes across the country.

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04.11.2009. 23:04h

The Very Quiet Season of Michael Vick

The return of Michael Vick, one of the biggest stories of the preseason, has been little more than a footnote in the games that count.

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04.11.2009. 23:01h

Mandelson is playing the altruistic antelope on universities | Zoe Williams

value of their course. The silent driver is that fees have to go up: so much of his document (Higher Ambitions – the Future of Universities in a Knowledge Economy) stresses the fact that the fat years are over, you don't need a degree to see what's going on. However, equally obviously, it would be a straight-talking fool (or non-politician) who, with an election looming, spelt out how much they were prepared to raise fees. I was at university in 1993, when Ofsted did its first inspections of higher education establishments. One lecturer was outraged: they had found him outstanding in every respect, except that he lacked visual aids. But a history lecturer didn't need visual aids, he objected: visual aids were for people doing fake subjects such as fashion and science; and, most importantly, the very inadequacy of an Ofsted inspector in the face of a degree-level lecture was the sine qua non of higher education. One hoped, by this point, to be teaching to a level that couldn't be instantly assessed by a casual observer, not even with some experience of teaching (most inspectors are ex-teachers), not even an ex-history teacher. This, right here, is the coalface of intellectual experiment. Who is this inspector, this ex-something-or-other, to tell us how well we experiment? That is the first hurdle to Mandelson's plans. When we talk about students as consumers, who should be able to make informed fiscal choices based on data, we assume that the quality of a degree can be broken down into measurable quantities – drop-out rates, unemployment rates among graduates from a course, and face-time with tutors. But these are fake measures: drop-out rates are more probably influenced by economic pressures on students (nobody leaves a degree because it's not challenging; they leave because, as much as they'd love to loaf about, they can't afford to); likewise, postgraduate employment rates are presumably linked to employment rates generally. Also, not all degrees are vocational; plenty of professors would take umbrage at the idea that anybody planned to use their wisdom in pursuit of an actual job. And face time with tutors is a red herring; it's not like primary school, where teacher-student ratios have a huge impact on results. Education at this level has moved beyond crowd control, at least during the week. Ivory-tower sensibilities can seem a little haughty and nebulous: university lecturers, who spend their lives grading students, sniff at the idea that they themselves could be graded. But then, the criteria the government would use to grade them make no sense. The Mandelson document also highlights social mobility: how admissions tutors should concentrate more on students' potential than A-level grades. This rankles with the University and College Union, whose spokesman Daniel Ashley remarked: "We are doing that. With these progressive agendas, many universities are ahead of the government anyway. And they can't tell us how to run our admissions policy." (Even if the government has something sensible to say, it is against its terms of engagement with HE to interfere in this area.) Finally, there's an emphasis on a "diverse" student body, comprising not just 18-year-olds but mature students and part-timers. This takes some brass neck from a government that axed ELQ (equivalent or lower qualifications) funding. Previously, if you had a BA but wanted to retrain in a different discipline, you would pay the same fees as the other students – now a former humanities student retraining in medicine, say, could be paying ?7,000 a year – while the fees for everyone else are ?3,000. Naturally this hits mature students, and ensures that university populations are predominantly either moneyed or 18 (or both). Much of this seems not just provocative, but deliberately so: you'd need to be in a very strong position to harangue universities about social mobility, when that is only ever an ancillary aim of theirs, and your own record is hardly flawless. It's strange to talk about mature students being neglected by the institutions of higher education, when the ELQ cutback was bitterly, if ineffectually, resisted by educators. I think this is old-fashioned New Labour spin. The aim is to create fury, a diversionary row between universities and the government. Then, when the fees review doesn't deliver in time for anyone to go into the election with a meaningful pledge about fees, opposition to that will just be more academics, moaning again. Mandelson here takes the role of the altruistic antelope, who leads the lions from the herd by making an irritating noise and running in the opposite direction. It makes me feel sad for him, in an affectionate way. Peter Mandelson University administration University funding University teaching Higher education Ofsted Zoe Williams guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Mandelson's vision of the universities of the future looks like old-fashioned spin – to divert attention from the really big issue Peter Mandelson wants a "consumer revolution" in higher education, with students given far more information on the actual...

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04.11.2009. 23:00h

Wednesday's News of Hockey, 11/4/09: O.H.L. Suspends Player for Rest of Season

O.H.L. Commissioner David Branch issued a stiff sentence to Michael Liambas for injuring Ben Fanelli with a check from behind.

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04.11.2009. 22:53h

Off the Wall: White House Drops Painting

A work of art originally designated for borrowing by the Obamas has been deleted from their selections.

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04.11.2009. 22:49h

Frank Seeks Stricter Derivatives Bill

Representative Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is seeking stricter legislation for privately traded derivatives and he wants to make it harder for banks to avoid trading the contracts on exchanges.

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04.11.2009. 22:41h

Video: The Good, the Bad and the Elections

Adam Nagourney takes a look at the new landscape in the aftermath of Tuesday's off-year results.

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04.11.2009. 22:40h

Obama Uses Malia's Test Scores as a Teaching Example

The president reveals that his 11-year-old daughter studied hard to raise her science scores from a 73 to a 95, in a bit of a rare glimpse into the First children's lives.

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04.11.2009. 22:31h

Fete Accompli | Mr. Chow's 30th Anniversary

Photos by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images Michael and Eva Chow. What: Michael and Eva Chow's blowout to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Upper East Side chapter of the Mr. Chow empire. Where: Mr. Chow, 324 East 57th Street. Who: Brooke Shields, Cindy...

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04.11.2009. 22:31h

Deal or no deal in Honduras | Mark Weisbrot

the elected president Manuel Zelaya, for the restoration of democracy there. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, in announcing what she called an historic agreement, said: "I cannot think of another example of a country in Latin America that … overcame such a crisis through negotiation and dialogue." Hopefully this will turn out to be true. But the ink was barely dry on the accord when leaders of the coup regime indicated that they had no intention of honouring it. Some of them clearly saw the agreement as just another delaying tactic. They have talked of postponing congressional approval of the accord until after the 29 November elections, or even voting not to restore Zelaya. If the Honduran congress delays or rejects the restoration of Zelaya, it will violate the clear intent of the accord. The agreement states: "The decision the national congress adopts should establish a basis for achieving the social peace, political tranquility and democratic governability the society requires and the country needs." This and other language makes it clear that the negotiators – who have the ability to deliver the votes in congress – agreed on Zelaya's restoration. Furthermore, justice delayed here is justice denied. Two-thirds of the legally allowed campaign period has already lapsed, under conditions of dictatorship that made free election campaigning impossible. The Obama administration has itself been divided on what to do about the military overthrow of democracy in Honduras. Hence the mixed signals and vacillation from the very beginning, when the first statement from the White House failed to even condemn the coup. Those in the administration who think they can now wash their hands of the accord and let the coup leaders turn their back on it had better think twice. The Obama team has embarrassed itself enough by having to be pressured by the rest of the hemisphere to tell the coup government that Washington would not recognise the 29 November elections without prior restoration of Zelaya. Just a few weeks earlier, the Obama administration had blocked the Organisation of American States from passing a resolution to this effect. But now Washington's credibility is really on the line. The Obama team brokered this accord and got a commitment from the coup leaders. If they go back on it, how much will the Obama administration's word be worth on anything else? Everyone knows that Washington has the ability to force the coup regime to comply. There are billions of dollars of its assets in the US that could be frozen or seized. Seventy percent of the country's exports go to the US. The coup regime has no international legitimacy and no standing to challenge the US under international treaties for any economic sanctions that might be invoked. The Obama administration never used the effective tools at its disposal. Instead it dithered for months, finally cutting off a fraction of its aid to the coup government and revoking some visas. The administration refused to even declare that a military coup had taken place, since this would have required more cuts in foreign assistance. Most tellingly, Washington refused to denounce the massive human rights violations committed by the dictatorship. These included police beatings, illegal detention of thousands, closing of independent radio and television, suspension of civil rights and even some political murders. The crimes were denounced by all major human rights organisations, inside and outside of Honduras – and by many governments – but the Obama administration maintained a deafening silence. Based on the recent past, the coup leaders – one of whom was forced to resign his post as foreign minister after levelling racial epithets at Obama – might think they can safely ignore the agreement. But the rest of the hemisphere, and the Honduran people – who have courageously resisted the coup from day one – will not let them get away with it. No one will recognise the November elections if Zelaya is not restored promptly. Tuesday night, Thomas Shannon, the US assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, told CNN en Espanol that the US plans to recognise the November elections whether or not Zelaya is restored. This would definitely put Washington on a collision course with the rest of the hemisphere, including Brazil. Furthermore, according to diplomats close to the negotiations, both Shannon and Hillary Clinton had given assurances that last week's accord would bring Zelaya back to the presidency. Shannon's statement to CNN prompted a letter from Zelaya to Clinton, asking whether the US government had changed its position on the coup d'etat in Honduras. Obama now has a choice. He can force the coup regime to honour the accord or lose further credibility among governments in the hemisphere and the world. Honduras Obama administration Barack Obama Hillary Clinton US foreign policy United States Mark Weisbrot guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

After brokering Manuel Zelaya's return to power in Honduras, the US must force the coup government to honour the agreement Last Friday an agreement was reached between the de facto regime in Honduras, which took power in a military coup on 28 June, and...

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04.11.2009. 22:30h

'Gossip Girl' Episode Draws Criticism from Parents' Group

An upcoming episode of the CW's headliner series "Gossip Girl" has drawn the ire of the Parents Television Council.

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04.11.2009. 22:25h

Assessing Obama one year on | Poll

A year has passed since Barack Obama's historic election. Are you satisfied with the progress he's made, or do you think he could have done better?

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04.11.2009. 22:21h

BlogTalk: And Now, a Word From the North Country

Bloggers writing off the 23rd District of New York -- from within its boundaries -- offer a few lessons about their views on the race -- and opinions at large.

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04.11.2009. 22:16h

How (Not) to Calm a Child on a Plane

In a guest post, a mother gives advice on how to survive a midair disaster.

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04.11.2009. 22:04h

The Tories' phoney war on Brussels is just posturing | Seumas Milne

on "any EU treaty" that emerged from the Lisbon negotiations will surely come to bear out William Hague's private warning that Europe is his "ticking time bomb". He can't even resort to the government's fig-leaf defence that its own referendum promise was only for the Lisbon treaty's first incarnation as a European constitution. Whenever Europeans have been given a chance to vote on this entrenchment of unaccountable power and corporate privilege, they have rejected it – or, in the case of Ireland, been made to carry on voting until they get the answer right. Once again, in a tradition stretching back decades, the European elites have swatted away the public and imposed their own favoured order. If it hadn't been for their backroom haggling, there was until the last few days the grotesque prospect of the co-architect of the Iraq catastrophe being foisted on Europe as its unelected president. Now Lisbon has been ratified, Cameron today sought to wipe the memory of his ditched guarantee with a new promise of a prolonged struggle to wrest back the liberties of true-born Englishmen, repatriate social, employment and justice powers from Brussels, and legislate to require a referendum in Britain on any future constitutional change cooked up in Europe. But this is largely posturing. No further constitutional change is on the agenda. Britain already has an effective opt-out from the migration and justice part of the Lisbon treaty. And the prospect of a Tory government doing battle over one bit of the European Union that is actually popular in Britain must make even the hardest-bitten nationalist think twice. Would Cameron really go to war over the four weeks' holiday, equal rights for part-time workers and parental leave delivered by Brussels to buy acquiescence to the single market? Perhaps it's no surprise that Conservative leaders have felt it necessary to try to buy off their Eurosceptic party by abandoning the main European centre-right grouping for an alliance with the rightwing fringe, and are now struggling to defend their links with the Polish politician Michal Kaminski, an admirer of General Pinochet with a well-documented fascist and antisemitic history, and the Latvian Freedom and Fatherland party, which campaigns for military pensions for Waffen-SS veterans. But for all their huffing and puffing, there are all kinds of interference from Brussels which the Tories don't have any problems with at all. You don't, for example, hear Conservative politicians denouncing the Lisbon treaty for effectively turning the liberalisation and privatisation of public services — transport and energy are the new targets — into a constitutional goal. As even more enthusiastic supporters than New Labour of the neoliberal ideology that underpins such legislation, you wouldn't expect anything else. Nor has George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, complained about this week's very public intervention of Neelie Kroes, the unelected European competition commissioner, in the British banking system. Nicknamed Steely Neelie, the Dutch free-marketeer ordered the sale of hundreds of branches and highly profitable insurance businesses in exchange for the agreement of Brussels to the second, monster bailout of the part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. Under EU state aid rules, which go back to the original Treaty of Rome and limit government support for public enterprise, Neelie also signed off the plan to split state-owned Northern Rock and sell off the profitable bits as soon as possible. But far from criticising such naked interference by the despised Brussels bureaucrats, Osborne hailed the EU's role and boasted that breaking up the banks to increase competition had been his idea in the first place. In reality, the forced sell-offs are unlikely to inject much meaningful competition into Britain's highly concentrated banking sector, though they should provide some rich pickings for companies like Santander and Virgin. Once again, however, the government is pouring billions of pounds into banks it substantially owns, but refuses to take control of and run in the public interest. As a result of last year's crash, ministers had the opportunity to create a core of publicly owned banks to reshape finance in Britain and channel credit into rebuilding a more diversified and productive economy. Instead, they are treating the public stakes in the banks they bought at far above their value like some sort of equity or hedge fund investment, and engaging in ever more complex and expensive manoeuvres to avoid full nationalisation. RBS, now 84% owned by the government, is to all intents and purposes being run in the interests of the 16% of its private shareholders. Alistair Darling constantly repeats the mantra "the government does not want to be in the business of running banks". Given that his colleague Lord Myners described RBS in private ownership as "probably the worst managed bank this country has ever seen", Darling ought to be under more pressure to explain why. At a time when state-owned banks should be a motor of recovery, expanding credit to beat the recession, bank lending is actually contracting sharply and holding back growth. But what can Cameron and Osborne meaningfully say about the government's decision to sacrifice jobs to protect City interests except agree with it? What response can they offer to the ?39bn pumped into zombie banks except blame New Labour's enthusiasm for 1980s-style deregulation, which they share? The same goes for the liberalisation dogma embodied in the Lisbon treaty and its predecessors. The truth is that dogma is, if anything, clung to even more tightly in London than in Brussels, and its grip has to be broken in both. Criticism of the European Union has for too long been dominated by a phoney chauvinistic Euroscepticism that ignores the real interests that have driven its development. Cameron's posturing yesterday about "referendum locks" and a bill to prevent the transfer of further powers to the EU does nothing to challenge that. Like New Labour, the Tories positively embrace loss of democratic or national sovereignty when it comes to corporate, or US, power. Euro European Union David Cameron George Osborne Seumas Milne guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Cameron claims to be defending national sovereignty. But when it comes to the City or the US, he's happy to ditch it So now we know what a "cast iron guarantee" from David Cameron is worth. The Tory leader's abandonment of his pledge to hold a referendum...

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04.11.2009. 22:00h

Mavizen TTX02: Plug-and-Play Racing for the People

The Mavizen TTX02 electric motorcycle was developed by Azhar Hussain, who founded the TTXGP race series for electric motorcycles.

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04.11.2009. 21:57h

Reader's Digest Closes Rick Warren Magazine

Less than a year after launching a hybrid magazine and membership organization, Reader's Digest Association and the minister Rick Warren said Wednesday that they're pulling the plug.

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04.11.2009. 21:54h

A Bountiful Buzz

An exceptionally busy hive on the grounds of the White House lawn has had an extraordinarily productive season.

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04.11.2009. 21:49h

President of New York City Transit Resigns

Howard H. Roberts Jr. had been in charge of subways and buses. He started as president of New York City Transit in 2007.

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04.11.2009. 21:49h

Will the Phillies Change Their Lineup?

Charlie Manuel will not change the Phillies lineup for Game 6. But there are a few machinations that could change the team's offense in ways that would matchup well against Andy Pettitte.

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04.11.2009. 21:48h

Staten Island Elects Its First Black Council Member

Deborah L. Rose, who had made two previous runs for the City Council, will represent the increasingly diverse North Shore.

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04.11.2009. 21:45h

Obama rising above the sea?

When I moved to Washington around four months ago, the front cover of a local magazine proclaimed 30 reasons to live in DC. Number one was: our new neighbour is cool. It had a picture of Barack Obama in red shorts. He and the first lady are still cool....

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04.11.2009. 21:41h

The Concierge | The Blind Date

The Concierge on where to take that blind date...

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04.11.2009. 21:40h

Photo of the Week

A dancer in Bucharest's reviving Lipscani district.

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04.11.2009. 21:30h

Separating history from hype | Dayo Olopade

sitting on a curb, alone, moments before taking the podium at an event. We see Michelle Obama at home in Chicago with her children. We see the future president riding in a convertible, waving – and we wonder: where is the secret service? The cameras are close enough, in fact, to see the single tear of the 2008 campaign course down soon-to-be-president's face. The film, shot over the course of two years by Amy Rice and Alicia Sams, sketches the basic contours the 2008 campaign, with a particular soft spot for Obama. Key aides like David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs give candid interviews, and many journalists give their real-time gloss on events. One confessional in particular stands out for its comedy and its tragedy. The film's first interview with Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau seats him, theatrically, near a photo of Ted Sorensen, John Kennedy's wordsmith, as he waxes on about how Obama's speeches are always trying for echoes of Camelot. But as the campaign wears on, the romance wears thin. By June – after the Iowa caucuses, Super Tuesday, superdelegates and the 3am phone call ad – Favreau summarises what is now just one of many election-night speeches he's written for the candidate: "We won, thank you other candidates, Hillary you're great, McCain, blah blah blah. Hope, change. You know." Victory speeches, it seems, like happy families, are all alike. And campaigns – no matter how many times the words "juggernaut", "unprecedented", or "historic" are applied – leave little substance to hold on to once they come to a close. The documentary faithfully replays the greatest hits of electoral controversy in 2008. Cringe along as Obama tells Hillary Clinton: "You're likeable enough". Watch former Obama pastor Jeremiah Wright "damn" America a tenth or hundredth time. Listen as Republican ingénue Sarah Palin stokes paranoia about "terrorists". Yet, reliving the most stressful year of my journalistic life (What was the chattering class doing at 3am? Refreshing polling websites), I felt nothing. Yes, it was stirring to remember the spontaneous chants of "race doesn't matter" or revisit the euphoria of Obama's nomination acceptance speech in Denver. But it's also a sour reminder of the days when the president's comments at a San Francisco fundraiser – an incident known, clunkily, as "Bittergate" – swamped the airwaves. Even Obama had trouble keeping up. Asked at one point in the film if he was having time to "reflect on what is happening" to him, he answered honestly, and curtly: "No." There's a lesson here. After a campaign that spent an inordinate amount of time obsessing about minutiae like whether Michelle Obama had or had not used the word "whitey" on a secret audiotape, why is the American political class, fuelled by conservative grassroots anger, still obsessing about the president's birth certificate, "death panels", which congressperson dissed whom and whether the designation "tsar" can be taken literally or not? We should remember how a perfect thriller of a campaign can be reduced to nothingness with only the passage of time. Forget Wright's booming soundbites. In fact, it's the quiet and unexpected moments that rocked campaign 2008 – the failing banks of 15 September, the pledge to fight the "good war" in Afghanistan and the pitched battle over whether to include an individual mandate in a healthcare reform bill – that laid the true foundation for our current political debate. Obama has done a remarkable job since taking office of advancing past the campaign-era fault lines within the Democratic party. Former rivals like Hillary Clinton and avowed Republicans like US army secretary John McHugh are now firmly on his team. And the president, as Peter Baker wrote in the New York Times, "has discovered that the oratory that proved so powerful on the campaign trail does not as easily move votes on Capitol Hill or stir souls in the Kremlin." In other words, he's learning the limits of symbolism. But the rest of the country hasn't been able to let go of the instinct to leap and pounce on every gaffe, every tic and every wild-eyed conspiracy theory that trickles its way into the political bloodstream. As a result of the pumped-up, 24-hour spinfest, some Americans undoubtedly missed the major themes in the 2008 campaign that are now central to the much-less-sexy project of governing. The McCain campaign's gimmick of distributing tire gauges labelled "Obama's energy policy", for example, took attention away from the substance of the debate on oil prices and energy security. Purveyors of these stunts are irresponsible, manipulative and, sadly, ever-present – even among the ranks of our current elected officials. One year after Obama's historic (I said it) win, we must face reality: History distils even the most exciting elections into bullet points that are entirely unpredictable at the time. "I feel your pain", Michael Dukakis in the tank, Richard Nixon's sweaty lip. These close-ups from the campaign trail tell us nothing about the men who won and lost. We must let them go and turn from voyeurs to doers, both during election season and when the hard work of governing begins. Barack Obama United States Democrats Republicans US television HBO Dayo Olopade guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Looking back at Obama's election one year on, it's clear that the campaign controveries obscured the issues that really matter By The People, a new documentary about Barack Obama's campaign for president now airing on HBO, gets up close. We see Obama...

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04.11.2009. 21:30h

European Puck: 100 Days Till Vancouver

Three and a half months to go until the 2010 Winter Olympics.

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04.11.2009. 21:27h

The Morning Skate: Star Injuries, N.H.L. Attendance and the Flames' Boogie-Woogie Flu Shots

An unusually large number of star N.H.L. players are currently injured and some think the game's speed, intensity and parity are responsible.

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04.11.2009. 21:25h

Raptors pre-game chat

Join Doug today at 4pm for a live chat as the Raptors prepare to meet the Pistons tonight at the ACC. Raptors pre-game chat

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04.11.2009. 21:18h

Technology Squeezes Jobs at Indian Outsourcers, Too

The chief executive of Infosys, a leading Indian outsourcing firm, says that technology is making his employees more efficient -- which ends up costing some of them their jobs.

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04.11.2009. 21:11h

Lisbon Treaty: David Cameron's referendum Uturn is another test of trust

David Cameron's change of course over the Lisbon Treaty referendum was a painful and necessary part of the return of honesty in politics says Benedict Brogan

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04.11.2009. 21:02h

What Did the Election Mean?

Lessons learned for Democrats and Republicans.

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04.11.2009. 21:01h

How Did Barca Fare in Russian Test?

Rubin Kazan held Barcelona to a tie in Russia, two weeks after defeating the European champion in Spain.

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04.11.2009. 21:01h

A rigorous first step to a cleaner Parliament

Telegraph View: the committee on standards in public life's 60 detailed recommendations to control MPs' expenses can only be the start of Westminster's cleanup operation.

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04.11.2009. 21:01h

One Artist Journeys Down Another's 'Road'

Ed Ruscha, an artist very familiar with the road culture of America, has dedicated a new project to the 1957 novel that made that brought that subject to the masses: Jack Kerouac's "On the Road."

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04.11.2009. 21:00h

Colonic-irritation of US style gurus| Dan Kennedy

the country, the AP is the final word on abbreviations, capitalisation, hyphenation and whether numbers should be rendered as numerals or spelled out (numerals for 10 and above, with the exception of – I'm not making this up – the Twelve Apostles). Consistency is not a bad thing, of course. But the basic guidelines could (and have) been boiled down to a page or two. The AP Stylebook, though, has metastasised into a monstrous (my 2004 edition is 378 pages long) compendium of arcana and technologically obsolete rules – like the one that specifies italics should never be used because "they cannot be sent through AP computers", as though anyone was going to believe that. The AP's authority stems from its position as the dominant US – uh, make that U.S. – wire service, similar to Reuters or the Press Association in the UK, with its tentacles spread out to virtually every newsroom. Its rules may be arbitrary and capricious at times, but journalists flout them at their peril. So I felt a tingle of joy last week when the following scrolled up on my Twitter feed: "Always capitalise 'Bible'. You don't want to get letters from those people." The entry was a retweet from a feed called the Fake AP Stylebook. I'd never heard of it. I subscribed immediately. The Fake AP Stylebook was launched two weeks ago, and has proved to be a phenomenon. As of Monday evening, it had attracted more than 37,000 followers. The co-founders, 31-year-old journalism-school dropout Mark Hale of Louisville, Kentucky, and 28-year-old copy editor Ken Lowery of Dallas, say they already have a book agent and are furiously working on a proposal with their 14 contributors, or "bureau chiefs". "We had no plans other than making each other laugh at first, and then dragging our friends into it so they could make us laugh, too," Hale told me by email. "Given the talent of the people involved, I'm not surprised people like it. I'm just surprised there are so many. The number of followers is nearing the population of my small Indiana hometown." (My interview with Hale and Lowery appears on my blog, Media Nation.) The 280-plus entries in the Fake AP Stylebook range from the mildly amusing to the hilarious. They derive much of their humour from their deadpan imitation of the real AP Stylebook's earnest tone. Taken as a whole, it comes across as the Onion of style guides. A few examples: • "'Fuckhead' should only be capitalised at the start of sentence. When referring to a talk radio host it is hyphenated." • "Slander is harder to prove, so avoid libel charges by just yellin' that shit out the window." • "If your story reveals the perpetrator of a crime, it is polite to put a spoiler warning at the top." • "Open a story with 'It was like something out of a nightmare' or similar only if two or more children have died." • "While it's tempting to call them 'baristi' because of the Italian roots, the plural of 'barista' is 'journalism majors'." The jokes wouldn't work if the real thing weren't so mordantly humorous in its own right. Take the aforementioned ban on italics. The AP Stylebook itself uses italics promiscuously, an inconsistent – OK, make that hypocritical – practice that it explains in a mind-bending entry called "words as words". Even better, in the 2009 edition the AP keeps the anti-italics rule but drops the computer excuse, simply saying: "AP does not italicise words in news stories." Damn straight. Got a problem with that? The folks at the AP have attempted to extend their hegemony through a subscription-based website, an iPhone app and their own Twitter feed – which, as Callie Kimball notes in a piece for Wired.com, has attracted considerably fewer followers than its fake counterpart. Hale says the inspiration for the Fake AP Stylebook was sparked when Lowery showed him the AP on Twitter. "I remarked to him, 'I can't tell if I'm sad or relieved that this isn't a joke feed,'" Hale recalls. It's no joke, unless this is your idea of humour: "#APStyle tip: Daylight saving time, not savings. When linking with time zone, use only daylight, e.g. Pacific Daylight Time." Not sure how we managed to turn the clocks back last weekend without that bit of advice. In truth, the AP standard isn't what it once was. Quality newspapers like the New York Times, the Boston Globe and others long ago switched to more elegant variants by which abbreviations are kept to a minimum and – yes – italics are allowed under certain circumstances. And needless to say, the only consistent rule in online media is chaotic inconsistency. The AP Stylebook is a throwback to era when we still believed in fairy tales like objectivity and getting "both" sides (only two?), and when we placed our faith in knowing that Milwaukee was one of the cities for which you should never, ever specify a state when using it in a dateline. "Precede basic statements of fact with 'allegedly' to avoid accusations of bias: 'the allegedly wet water', 'the allegedly poisonous poison'." That's not mere humour. It's media criticism, and of a fairly high order. Consult the real AP Stylebook if you want to be stylistically correct. But if you're seeking the truth, the Fake AP Stylebook is an essential reference. Associated Press Twitter United States US press and publishing Newspapers Dan Kennedy guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

A merry band of comma comedians is using Twitter to successfully poke fun at American journalism's sacred text For American journalists, the authority wielded by the Associated Press Stylebook is both awesome and terrifying. At news organisations across...

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04.11.2009. 21:00h

The shine is back

The purchase of a sizable quantity of gold by the Reserve Bank of India from the International Monetary Fund is significant not just for India but for the IMF, and the global financial system as well. The RBI has paid approximately $6.7 ...

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04.11.2009. 20:57h

Afghanistan’s election fiasco

On November 1, Abdullah Abdullah, the opposition candidate in the runoff round of the Afghan presidential election scheduled for November 7, withdrew his candidature. The Independent Election Commission (IEC) then declared the incumbent ...

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04.11.2009. 20:57h

Needed: ‘basic’ doctors of modern medicine

Opening more medical colleges is not the solution to India’s chronic shortage of doctors in the rural areas.

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04.11.2009. 20:57h

India’s cultural pluralism its best defence

To question the patriotism of the Muslim community on the ground that it refuses to “worship” India as a concept is to make a mockery of the real meaning of patriotism and national loyalty.

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04.11.2009. 20:57h

He transformed western world’s outlook of “primitive” societies

Claude Levi-Strauss sometimes expressed disgust with the West and what he called its ‘own filth, thrown in the face of mankind.’

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04.11.2009. 20:57h

East Germany answers back

The mutual mistrust between East and West Germans that followed the collapse of the Berlin Wall is diminishing and the social values of the East are being given greater credit.

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04.11.2009. 20:57h

Divorces dipping along with economy

While squabbles over money have split up many a marriage, the lingering global recession is helping keep couples together — for better and for worse. More than half of the 1,600 lawyers who responded to a recent American Academy of ...

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04.11.2009. 20:57h

Corrections and clarifications

* * The emergency proclaimed in Pakistan by General (retired) Musharraf was on November 3, 2007. The fifth paragraph of a report “Zardari facing another debacle” (“International” page, November 3, 2009) gave the date ...

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04.11.2009. 20:57h

Jamiat resolution

Thanks to the resolution passed at the 30th general session of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind that patriotism does not require the singing of Vande Mataram and that singing it is un-Islamic, the BJP has found an opportunity to revive its hate ...

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04.11.2009. 20:57h

Shocking

It was shocking to read that a kidney patient died on his way to PGI, Chandigarh, as he was reportedly stopped by security personnel in view of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the medical institute (Nov. 4) and could not be ...

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04.11.2009. 20:57h

On the hijab

As a Hindu, I revere a woman in ‘hijab.’ I feel it is for Muslim brothers and sisters to debate on ‘hijab’ and for the elders of the community to advise them on it, not for other communities to criticise. N. ...

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04.11.2009. 20:57h

Statoil Sells U.S. Oil Interest to Chinese Company

Statoil, the Norwegian energy giant, said Wednesday that it had sold partial interest in some of its American energy development leases to Cnooc of China, marking the first time that a Chinese company would take an ownership interest in energy asset in...

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04.11.2009. 20:56h

A lock on more Lisbons

Telegraph View: David Cameron comes out fighting.

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04.11.2009. 20:54h

Losing the pot

Telegraph View: an ugly office plant can be just as annoying as missing the bus by a second

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04.11.2009. 20:52h

Cat diagnosed with swine flu

The Checkup | Pet thought to have caught virus from an owner, marks first time cat tests positive.

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04.11.2009. 20:41h

Graphic Content | Diagramming Fritz Kahn

Fritz Kahn developed a graphic style that visually codified the metaphoric notion of man as machine.

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04.11.2009. 20:40h

Mr Nice a Clinigol - am gyferbyniad!

Helo! Shwmae? Heb sgwennu ers ache fi'n gwbod, allen i ddod lan a llu o esgusodion am hyn ond y gwir yw dwi jyst wedi bod yn ddiog... Ond ta beth, ma da fi 'treats' gret i chi ar gyfer Nos Iau a Nos Wener, sef remix o un o...

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04.11.2009. 20:37h

Credit Card Offers 100,000-Mile Sign Up Bonus

British Airways and Chase Card Services will soon be offering 100,000 miles to people who sign up for the British Airways Visa Signature card.

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04.11.2009. 20:34h

Journal's Bay Area Edition to Make Debut Thursday

The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco Bay Area edition will make its debut Thursday.

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04.11.2009. 20:34h

Update: Fortune Small Business Lays Off 11, Not 1

Eleven employees of Fortune Small Business have been dismissed.

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04.11.2009. 20:10h

Abandoning Afghans is not the answer | Malcolm Rifkind

after the sad news today of five more British soldiers having lost their lives. While I understand his views and respect his arguments, I believethat he is profoundly wrong. I say that as one who opposed the Iraq war but I believe the challenge in Afghanistan is very different. Howells makes three fundamental mistakes in his article. First, he suggests that by withdrawing from Afghanistan, we could use the resources saved to improve our counter-terrorism efforts in this country, increase our intelligence-gathering and thereby defeat the terrorist threat in Britain. This is a false choice. I have seen no evidence that the government is damaging our intelligence agencies or counter-terrorism effort in Britain because of lack of resources. The reality is that funding has been greatly increased in recent years. The sad fact is that about 80% of planned terrorist incidents in this country have originated from planning and training in Pakistan and Afghanistan. We cannot just pull out our forces without giving an unprecedented boost to al-Qaida and their allies. Second, Kim Howells wants us to withdraw British forces, leaving behind the Americans, the Dutch and some other Nato countries to continue the struggle. He recognises that this "would alter fundamentally" our relationship with the United States, but seems quite relaxed about it. The reality is that such a unilateral withdrawal would not only destroy our special relationship with President Obama and the United States, but undermine the foreign policy we have pursued, under successive governments, since 1945. It would do extraordinary damage to Britain's global interests and reputation. Third, he fails to understand that the premature withdrawal of Nato forces from Afghanistan would not just destroy the Afghan government, but would also be a body blow to the greatly enhanced efforts of the Pakistani government to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida in their country. The struggle in Pakistan and Afghanistan needs to be dealt with by a single strategy and a common purpose. The proper alternative to the status quo is not unilateral British withdrawal. It is to ensure that, over the next three years, the Afghan army is trained and enlarged to enable it to take full responsibility for ensuring stability and security in their country. That would enable all Nato ground forces to be withdrawn. To assist the Afghan government we should, however, continue thereafter to provide Nato air cover to their forces. The Taliban have no air power and can never conquer Afghanistan if faced with a fully trained Afghan army combined with Nato air force fighters and bombers. I have no illusions about the difficulties and disappointments of the current mission in Afghanistan. While we must recognise the limits to what we can achieve, it does no service to anyone to throw in the towel. "No man is an island," wrote John Donne. Sometimes our national security requires us to fight in foreign lands. That is true today. Afghanistan Al-Qaida Foreign policy Taliban Terrorism policy UK security and terrorism Malcolm Rifkind guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Kim Howells's call for a unilateral withdrawal from Afghanistan is superficially appealing but profoundly wrong Kim Howells's call for an early, total withdrawal of our military forces from Afghanistan will strike a chord with many people, especially...

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04.11.2009. 20:07h

Signs of a Bruised Body Image

A new blog devoted to body image explores some of the signs that a woman feels bad about herself.

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04.11.2009. 19:52h

Sir Christopher Kelly's Report

Here is the full version of the report everyone is talking about today....

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04.11.2009. 19:51h

Vote shows Obama team must listen up

The president didn't watch the election returns Tuesday night, according to his press secretary, Robert Gibbs. He watched his beloved Chicago Bulls instead.

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04.11.2009. 19:51h

Alabama Case Costs JPMorgan Over $700 Million

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday that JPMorgan Chase had agreed to pay $75 million and forfeit another $647 million in termination fees to settle civil charges that its securities firm had engaged in an "unlawful payment scheme" in...

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04.11.2009. 19:49h

On ABC, a Big Night for 'V'

The new ABC drama "V" opened its run Tuesday night looking like the biggest hit of the television season so far.

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04.11.2009. 19:35h

Hottest Record - Fout Tet - Love Cry

We go deep in the Hottest Record dept tonight. Influential electronic artist Four Tet's new offering 'Love Cry' pre-empts a new album due in late January called 'There Is Love In You'. Along with Joy Orbison, this is showing a new / old depth in the clubs...

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04.11.2009. 19:35h

Moral Maze on Twitter and mob rule

This evening starting at 2000, the disputatious crew of the good ship Moral Maze will be debating 'Twitter and mob rule'. Guests are regulars Melanie Philips and Clifford Longley plus Kenan Malik and James Panton. The programme's billing says:This week...

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04.11.2009. 19:33h

Fight the old guard over MPs' expenses | Martin Bell

have taken the scandals of the past few months to bring our politicians into line with other professions, in which only necessary expenses can be claimed. The phasing out of the employment of family members gives our MPs plenty of time to take wives, partners and children off the payroll. Even the European parliament, not famous for its honest accounting, does not allow the nepotism that has been practised for years by so many of our honourable members. Of course husbands and wives can be allowed to work together in other walks of life, but not in parliament and at taxpayers' expense. The House of Commons is not Fawlty Towers – though in my time there I was struck by certain resemblances. As the scandals unspooled, it emerged that all the husband and wife teams in the house had difficulty with certain details of their accounting. Likewise the new rules will prevent the practice of flipping homes and the accumulation by some MPs of extensive property portfolios. Renting is simpler and more straightforward. The phantom mortgages will be like the ghosts of the past. So, far from making the House of Commons the preserve of the wealthy, I believe that Kelly's reforms will help attract a higher calibre of MP. Over time, with modestly increased salaries and transparent expenses, our politicians will have an opportunity to restore public trust in public life. As a general cross-party guideline, I suggest a politics of the four senses: a sense of right and wrong, a sense of public service, common sense and – when all else fails – a sense of humour. Kelly is right to insist that his suggested reforms are not a menu to be picked apart but a consistent package to be adopted wholesale or not at all. Much depends on the incoming Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and its chairman Sir Ian Kennedy. They will face opposition from some of the praetorian guard round the former Speaker, Michael Martin, most of whom are still in office, having fought tooth and nail to prevent the publication of their expenses. Kennedy will need some tough-minded commissioners alongside him to ensure that the reforms are not blocked by some of these relics of the old regime. An obvious choice would be that of Elizabeth Filkin, the former parliamentary commissioner for standards who was eased out in 2002 for doing her job too well. Her appointment, as a member of the new authority, would serve notice on the discredited old guard that, if they will not step down, the time has come for their assisted retirement. MPs' expenses House of Commons Martin Bell guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Enforcing Sir Christopher Kelly's expenses system reforms will require a tough-minded parliamentary standards authority Sir Christopher Kelly's proposals for the reform of MPs' expenses are tough, fair, reasonable and eminently workable. It should not...

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04.11.2009. 19:30h

Koslowitz Will Return to City Council

Karen Koslowitz will return to the seat she held from 1991 to 2001, representing the middle-class Queens neighborhoods of Forest Hills, Rego Park and Kew Gardens.

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04.11.2009. 19:28h

PayPal Seeks New Ways to Use Its Payment System

PayPal officially opened its platform to developers on Tuesday and start-ups are quickly coming up with new ways to let people pay online.

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04.11.2009. 19:25h

And Now for Gordon Ramsay, a Cooking Competition Show

Gordon Ramsay, the British chef who already oversees "Hell's Kitchen" and "Kitchen Nightmares" on Fox, will host a new culinary competition for the network.

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04.11.2009. 19:21h

A New Way to Comment on Moral of the Story

Starting today, the comments section of this blog will work a little differently, in ways that should be familiar to those of you who comment on articles in the Times.

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04.11.2009. 19:18h

A New Comments Tool for At War

At War is switching to a new comments tool. Try it out, and let us know what you think.

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04.11.2009. 19:18h

What We're Reading...

Pay-by-the-mile auto insurance, and other economic news from around the Web.

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04.11.2009. 19:14h

Alun, Janet ac Adam

Wedi ei gladdu yng nghrombil adroddiad Kelly ar lwfansau Aelodau seneddol mae 'na gymal bach difyr ynghylch aelodau sydd â mandad dwbl, hynny yw pobol sy'n Aelodau Seneddol yn ogystal â bod yn aelodau o gyrff datganoledig. Dyma mae Kelly'n dweud. ...for...

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04.11.2009. 19:10h

S.E.C. Likely to Charge More People in Galleon Case

The Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to bring charges against additional defendants in its wide-ranging insider-trading case against Raj Rajaratnam and his hedge fund firm, the Galleon Group, an S.E.C. lawyer said at a court hearing on Wednesday.

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04.11.2009. 19:06h

Video of Protests in Iran on Anniversary of Embassy Seizure

State-sponsored demonstrations marking the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the United States Embassy in Tehran were met today by opposition protests, which in turn were broken up by police and paramilitaries.

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04.11.2009. 19:04h

S.E.M.A. Trends: That's a Wrap!

Meguiar's, known for its car waxes, has cast a bit further afield with a new line of "designer" car wraps. It's called Wraptivo, and it is essentially a plastic product made by 3M that shrink-wraps onto the surface of a vehicle, with the deft use of a...

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04.11.2009. 19:00h

Economists Concur on Threat of Warming

More than 140 top economists agreed that global warming threatens the United States economy, and that a cap-and-trade system is needed.

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04.11.2009. 19:00h

Poulter and Fisher look to build on wins

Confidence is a wonderful commodity and Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher have it in abundance as they prepare to tee it up here in Shanghai. Poulter is aiming at breaking into the world's top 10 before the end of the season; Fisher believes he now has what...

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04.11.2009. 19:00h

Mourning gay marriage in Maine | Melissa McEwan

had hoped that Maine would be the first state in the US to approve gay marriage in a statewide ballot, but the record of majorities saying no to marriage equality remains unbroken. After whinging about "activist judges" for a decade, the rightwing has convinced a plurality of Americans that decisions about same-sex marriage shouldn't be made in the courts – and it's because they know, and here is more evidence, that putting the rights of a marginalised class to the majority means those rights will be denied. The judiciary, however, is generally less susceptible to persuasion by expensive campaigns run by the anti-gay industry. Historically, we have depended on the courts to make decisions about the application of constitutional guarantees in spite of popular opinion, and they have repeatedly secured protections for marginalised groups decades before Congress and state legislatures, which more closely track public opinion, would have done. John Rogers once noted that "when the supreme court struck down the bans against interracial marriage in 1968 through Virginia v Loving, 72% of Americans were against interracial marriage. As a matter of fact, approval of interracial marriage in the US didn't cross the positive threshold until – sweet God – 1991". That's exactly 30 years after our current president was born to an interracial couple. Waiting for the whole of society to be on board with granting equal rights to everyone is simply not in our collective best interest. There is no legitimate claim to be made by opponents of marriage equality that their lives will be diminished by extending marriage rights to same-sex couples. Too much evidence to the contrary, even now in their own country (I'm looking at you, Massachusetts), debunks that assertion thoroughly. There is only the reality that people denied their equal rights stand to gain – and that is a net benefit to the entire community. Sometimes the stragglers at the tail end of this slow march of progress need a boot to get them moving forward. When the legislatures haven't provided it, it has been the judiciary's job to deliver it instead, as marginalised groups were never meant to have no recourse against discriminatory practices, even if the will of the majority is to extend the codified biases in perpetuity. Just because something is popular doesn't make it right. And so came the howling about "activist judges". But in Maine, it was not left to a judge to decide the fate of same-sex marriage, but instead to the state legislature. And then – what a surprise – that wasn't good enough, either. It still had to be brought before Maine's voters, so that every straight person in the state would be allowed to cast their own opinion on whether their gay neighbours should be allowed their rights, which is only fair. On some planet where "fair" means "deferential to the tyranny of the majority so as not to hurt their precious wee feelings". This country is not, and never has been, well-served by leaving the civil rights of the minority in the hands of the majority. Putting that up to a vote which is subject to deeply held prejudice is ruling not by democracy, but by mob mentality. There is, at this point, only one thing to be done: The US Congress needs to repeal the Defence of Marriage Act. It stands, currently, as a wall between gay couples and the courts. Couples have no right to sue if their home state won't recognise the legal marriage they can get in another state. We need to rescind any and all barriers to marriage equality being decided in the judiciary, lest we allow the anti-gay industry, which funnelled millions from out of state into Maine, to continue calling the shots. Gay rights United States US Congress US supreme court US constitution and civil liberties Melissa McEwan guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

After 31 defeats at the ballot box, America's gay community can't rely on the majority to promote their right to marry Tuesday night in Maine, supporters of a state law that would have legalised same-sex marriage lost, 53-47%. Marriage equality advocates...

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04.11.2009. 19:00h

Nearing the end of the expenses saga

This, Messrs Kelly and Brown and Cameron and Clegg all agreed, must mark the end of the MPs' expenses saga. It might not prove that easy. Today's recommendations by the Kelly inquiry are just that - recommendations. Before becoming law they must be adopted...

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04.11.2009. 18:57h

Kids Love Lies on The 5:19 Cut Special

Ah, good Wednesday everyone! On yesterday's 5:19 Cut special, we chatted to Kids Love Lies (not that we've gone music mad or, err, anything). They told us how nervous they were to play Radio One's Big Weekend, who has the smelliest feet and then they...

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04.11.2009. 18:55h

Morpurgo reads Sassoon on PM

In the hour or so before Prime Minister's Questions today, MPs were invited to another event. In one of the Commons' committee rooms, the National Heritage Memorial Fund announced it was donating half a million pounds to save the collection of Siegfried...

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Morpurgo reads Sassoon on PM

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04.11.2009. 18:55h

Cameron swerves on Europe | Tim Montgomerie

worry that Europe could still explode at any moment, but as the years have passed since the very difficult and extended period when Europe was splitting the party, their fears have slowly subsided. "Don't move the bomb" has become the tactic of choice for most of the leading members of the Conservative party. The "don't-move-the-bomb" crowd feel that their stance has been vindicated by the row that has engulfed the party since David Cameron took Tory MEPs out of the European Peoples' party and joined a new group of MEPs from Poland, the Czech Republic and Latvia. The Guardian, Financial Times, Independent and, to some extent, the Economist have hit the party day-after-day with the (false) suggestion that there is something unacceptable about the views of David Cameron's new European allies. One Europhile Tory MEP has warned the leadership that carefully-nurtured relations with the centre-left side of Fleet Street could be ruined by an anti-EU stance. The average Conservative party member doesn't much care what the Guardian thinks. They note that the most widely-read newspapers are just as Eurosceptic as them. They also note surveys that show British voters becoming more Eurosceptic, not less. The Conservatives and the United Kingdom Independence party topped June's Euro poll. Scrapping the pound remains incredibly unpopular, despite predictions that opposition would melt away as Britons used the euro while on holiday in Spain, France and Greece. Grassroots Tories are overwhelmingly opposed to any further European integration. The party leadership is calculating, however, that the grassroots hunger to oust Brown will mean that their disappointment at David Cameron's decision not to hold any kind of referendum will be contained. New polling by ConservativeHome.com suggests that the leadership might get its way. A majority of Tory members think two things about the Europe issue. First, a narrow majority accept that a vote on Lisbon is no longer sensible – but they would have still liked some sort of referendum. The sort of suggestion made by David Davis in the Daily Mail would probably have won their support. But the second key thing about the Tory grassroots is that they want David Cameron in No 10. Or, more to the point, they desperately want Gordon Brown out. Nearly three-quarters of Tory members say that Eurosceptic MPs need to keep quiet and maximise David Cameron's chances at the next general election. I can't pretend I'm enthusiastic about what David Cameron has announced this afternoon: no referendum of any kind. Given that Lisbon is a self-amending treaty, full of ratchet clauses, the promise of future referendums on transfers of power is a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. There will be no meaningful threats to Europe if there is no serious willingness to renegotiate. If David Cameron had put a big Eurosceptic beast in charge of renegotiations – someone like John Redwood or David Davis – I would have been more reassured. But that did not happen either. David Cameron gives every impression of wanting to kick the European issue into the long grass so that he can get on with other things. Those other things are incredibly important. They include Michael Gove's revolutionary schools reforms; Iain Duncan Smith's compassionate conservatism; Andrew Mitchell's reforms to overseas aid; George Osborne's ambition to cut corporation tax; Chris Grayling's plans to elect police chiefs; Dominic Grieve's mission to restore Britain's civil liberties. And, of course, the number one priority: to reduce Gordon Brown's budget deficit. There is enough in all of the Conservative programme to make me enthusiastic about David Cameron becoming prime minister. After today, however, I am far from convinced that Britain's relationship with Europe will be fundamentally different after five years of a Conservative government. David Cameron Conservatives European Union Tim Montgomerie guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

By abandoning a referendum, to the despair of Tory grassroots, David Cameron has dodged any confrontation with Brussels William Hague has long regarded the Europe issue as something of a ticking bomb at the heart of the Conservative party. Party managers...

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04.11.2009. 18:54h

Should India Worry About Jobs?

American economists and policy makers are not alone in worrying about where jobs will come from in the future. So is the leader of one of India's biggest technology services company.

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04.11.2009. 18:49h

S.E.C. Likely to Charge More People in Galleon Case

The Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to bring charges against additional defendants in its wide-ranging insider-trading case against Raj Rajaratnam and his hedge fund firm, the Galleon Group, an S.E.C. lawyer said at a court hearing on Wednesday.

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04.11.2009. 18:48h

Dreamland: Saturday, November 21st.

We're delighted that we can at last confirm that Dreamland will debut on Red Button and on this site on Saturday, November 21st. As we've already confirmed, it's a six part adventure, and details about individual episodes are starting to emerge... details...

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04.11.2009. 18:45h

Thank goodness for Fulham

Is it possible to keep fans happy at a big club? When I say happy, I mean feeling part of it. "Disenfranchisement" is a very long word - and a very American one - that makes me feel slightly nauseous, but it does sum up how a lot of football...

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04.11.2009. 18:45h

Conviction in CIA rendition case

22 agents guilty of kidnapping cleric in Milan, sending him to Egypt without judicial oversight.

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04.11.2009. 18:41h

A New Way to Comment on Motherlode

Starting today the comments section of this blog will work a little differently, in ways that will be familiar to those of you who also comment on news articles in the Times.

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04.11.2009. 18:37h

G.O.P. Leader Relishes Victories

The chairman of the Republican National Committee credits grassroots efforts as helping lead to the party's successes on Tuesday night.

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04.11.2009. 18:35h