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Norman Foster: Only a brand new airport can keep Britain in the game

airport
Expanding Heathrow would be a stop-gap measure. We must have the vision to build for future generations

Sebastian Shakespeare: Gossip: it’s a necessary evil — and such fun

Oscar Wilde said one should always have something sensational to read on the train. I suppose the next best thing is to sit next to Rebekah Brooks.

Evening Standard Comment: Eurozone approaches the moment of truth

It is hard to escape the sense that with the latest lurches in the European economy, the eurozone crisis is coming to boiling point.

Melanie McDonagh: I’m a one-woman personification of Greece

You could say I’m the very personification of Greece, or at least an object lesson in the costs of easy credit.

Evening Standard comment: Risks for Britain with Greece on the brink

The most telling aspect of the eurozone crisis is not the rhetoric of politicians but realities on the ground.

More

Is this the bubble that shows no sign of bursting?
It seemed too good to be true but Facebook is such a part of our lives that its flotation is sure to succeed
Tim Evans: Why don’t we start privatising the police?
Private security companies nowadays encompass a huge array of specialities, ranging from traditional uniformed security officers to highly skilled technicians installing security systems.
We are busting our guts to keep our jobs

Happy days! The Conservatives have cracked it. It’s taken two years, but the Tories have finally worked out how our nation will be dragged out of the financial fug and popped back on the path to economic Arcadia.

Gossip: it’s a necessary evil — and such fun

Oscar Wilde said one should always have something sensational to read on the train. I suppose the next best thing is to sit next to Rebekah Brooks. Jack Straw told the Leveson Inquiry this week that he used to gossip with the then Sun editor on the train when he commuted to work. Talk about supping with the devil and consorting with the enemy.

Risks for Britain with Greece on the brink

The most telling aspect of the eurozone crisis is not the rhetoric of politicians but realities on the ground: in the City, dealers are preparing for drachma dealing and Greek depositors are pulling billions out of the banks.

Facebook flotation: Is this the bubble that shows no sign of bursting?

It seemed too good to be true but Facebook is such a part of our lives that its flotation is sure to succeed

Why don’t we start privatising the police?

So Home Secretary Theresa May is “destroying” the police — at least that’s what the Police Federation claimed yesterday. But the real problem is not that May’s reforms to pay and working conditions are too radical, it’s that they are nowhere near radical enough.

We are busting our guts to keep our jobs

Happy days! The Conservatives have cracked it. It’s taken two years, but the Tories have finally worked out how our nation will be dragged out of the financial fug and popped back on the path to economic Arcadia.

Charles Saatchi

Charles Saatchi: Is it only perverts who download sex filth onto their computers?

Some of my primmer friends are blithe about enjoying porn movies, but I have only ever viewed a few particularly sordid scenes; it put me completely off anything to do with sex for some time, possibly as long as an hour.

Forget about sexism — we’re all victims now

MEN! Are you the victim of sexism? Ever been made to feel bad by a so-called feminist? Perhaps you weren’t even aware you were being discriminated against, says philosophy professor David Benatar. He makes his pitch in a new book, The Second Sexism: Discrimination Against Men and Boys — and it’s a pretty compelling one.

Evening Standard comment

This ban on insults is a gag on free speech

It is a remarkable issue that can unite gay rights groups, the Christian Institute, the National Secular Society and civil liberties organisations, but Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 manages to do just that. This is the provision which bans “insulting words or behaviour”: it has been invoked to suppress an astonishing variety of views, from the student who called a police horse “gay” to Christians or Muslims saying homosexual activity is a sin, or gay rights groups protesting at religiously grounded opposition to homosexuality.

Can David Cameron limit the fallout from his friend Rebekah Brooks's woes?

Politicians are judged by the company they keep. However innocent, Mr Cameron is now embroiled in the Brooks saga

No BBC boss should be flying political colours

Has triumph gone to the Mayor’s mop so soon? Boris Johnson thinks the BBC’s new director-general should be a full-blooded Tory. This will avoid the corporation remaining in the hands of a motley crew who are “‘statist, corporatist, defeatist, anti-business, Europhile and overwhelmingly biased to the Left”.

Mr Cameron needs to re-establish his grip

The opinion polls suggest no end yet to the Coalition’s bad patch. The latest poll from YouGov has Labour on 45 per cent and the Conservatives on 31: by comparison, in 1997’s landslide, Labour polled 44.4 per cent to the Tories 31.4 per cent. The same poll suggests that more people now think Labour would manage the economy better. Meanwhile, David Cameron’s previously impregnable personal ratings are sliding, with a rise in Labour leader Ed Miliband’s fortunes. How worried should the PM be?

Kensington Palace

Monarchy is the solution not the problem

A sunny weekend at last and I got around to seeing the refurbished Kensington Palace public rooms. The £15 ticket is not cheap but visitors — mostly foreign tourists — were not put off. We crowded into the imaginatively restored rooms, fully blown history but with a playful touch. It is the Hilary Mantel-isation of British royalty that is our great national asset.

Delaying same-sex marriage is a way of crushing it

Some Tory MPs claim the reason voters have turned against them is down to the Government’s stance on same-sex marriage.

Council houses are homes for the poor, not assets for the rich

Abuse of the council housing system is rife in London. Hammersmith’s bid to tackle it is to be applauded

End this Tory backbench fairground freak show

I saw Shakespeare’s Richard II at the Donmar Theatre recently. It was a great production and well received by the critics. The play is about kingship, high politics and revenge. It’s all very Shakespearean in its grandeur.

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