Comment Headlines
Stories dominating today’s comment pages…
- TURNER BANKING REVIEW: The Daily Telegraph’s Tom Stevenson says one message comes through loud and clear from Lord Turner’s review of banking regulation – there is no silver bullet. Richard Fletcher says the inability to bring public sector wages under control is worrying. In The Daily Mail Alex Brummer believes anyone looking to the Turner Review for startling insights into what went wrong in the bubble years may be disappointed. In The Daily Express Leo McKinstry believes that if there were any justice in Britain then the top bankers who have helped drag our country to the brink of financial ruin would have been thrown out of their jobs without a penny. Peter Cunliffe says Lord Turner’s long-awaited report yesterday acknowledged the failings of the FSA and Bank of England and warned that a tougher regime was coming. The stable may need fixing but the authorities must be careful not to make up policy on the hoof and risk replacing one lame system with another. Public hatred of bankers and their booty stands in the way of the expansion needed to stop world economic collapse, Anatole Kaletsky argues in The Times. For all Lord Turner’s report’s careful crafting and inherently complex subject matter, he is no less blunt than his henchman, FSA chief executive Hector Sants, writes Andrew Hill in The FT’s Lombard column. The Guardian’s Nils Pratley says Lord Turner’s review just about lived up to its billing as a revolutionary document. But how could it not? The past regulatory regime had failed so completely to see, let alone prevent, the banking crisis that credible reform had to involve a rush in the opposite direction. Dan Roberts, Guardian head of business, says the Turner report reads like a time capsule from another age. The Independent’s Jeremy Warner salutes Lord Turner for doing a masterful job in steering his way through the conflicting demands to report on bank regulation while also attempting to keep some elements of the free-market system.
- FRITZL TRIAL: In The Times Libby Purves wants Josef Fritzl dead. No. Worse than dead. This secret Satan, this evil old pig, should be tormented for life, not snugged down in some cosy mental hospital but jailed, humiliated, flogged, confronted daily by his deeds. In The Daily Express Virginia Blackburn wonders how anyone who is a sentient human being can bring themselves to do what Josef Fritzl has done. The Independent’s Deborah Orr notes that his lawyers argued that a real monster would have killed all the children straight away but Orr believes this case suggests that some crimes are even worse than murder. Tony Paterson reflects on how Fritzl, in the flesh, was something of a let down looking deflated, defeated and guilty.
- NATASHA RICHARDSON: In The Daily Mail GP Martin Scurr, commenting on the death of Natasha Richardson, explains how sometimes a seemingly minor head injury can kill. Natasha Richardson was talented, full of skill, insight, poetry and searing intellect, film director Ken Russell writes in The Times. Her physical presence was unique and warm, inviting yet cool, vulnerable yet proud.
The Daily Digest tells me what the thinkers are thinking – Peter Bale, Executive Producer, Microsoft UK
Leader Lines
We select the most interesting leaders of the day…
- GARY NEVILLE’S GARDEN: The Daily Telegraph observes that the Manchester United player has planted shrubs spelling out MUFC in letters 10ft high outside his rural Lancashire house. Not all his neighbours are pleased. Some seem to regard the initials as the horticultural equivalent of a tattoo. There is no easier way to a feud than through next door’s garden. But Mr Neville is no leylandii vandal. His MUFC may be visible on Google Earth, but not from the next village. If an Englishman’s home is no longer his castle, he should still be able to cultivate his garden according to taste, whether cultivated or not.
- WE MUST HAVE THE TRUTH OVER BINYAM MOHAMED: It is clear the Government is deeply embarrassed about the alleged torture of Binyam Mohamed, says the Guardian. Yesterday’s Commons remarks from Gordon Brown on the affair were a step forward. But it is not the last word, however much ministers may wish it so. The truth must be told about what happened in Mohamed’s case and others through a proper inquiry. Ministers appear to want to do the right thing. But they must come clean about the wrongs of the past.
- WELL SPOKEN: A Sun leader praises Sri Lankan-born shopkeeper Deva Kumarasiri who refuses to serve immigrants who won’t learn English. His view that if you come to England, you speak English is common sense. If only all immigrants would listen to him, the paper pleads. At present one schoolchild in seven doesn’t speak English as a first language. This must change if we are all going to rub along properly together. It’s not racist for immigrants to be told to learn the language of their adopted land. It’s good manners and promotes unity.
Comment Cornucopia
Some of the wide-ranging topics covered today…
- SINGLE-SEX MADNESS: The Daily Telegraph’s Bryony Gordon says only an idiot would argue against single-sex education on an academic basis – but it’s on the non-academic side that all-girls’ schools go badly wrong. Your daughter will indeed leave a single-sex school with a clutch of wonderful grades, says Gordon. But more importantly, she will also leave with a clutch of mental health issues.
- RECESSION TEACHES HUMILITY: The Daily Mirror’s Brian Reade is glad that billionaires have seen their wealth plummet by 23%. He finds it healthy that reality TV stars like Anthea Turner, Kerry Katona and Antony Worrall Thompson are in financial trouble. It lifts the soul to hear that some City Boys are re-evaluating their priorities and taking up vocational work.
- GOVERNMENT MUST ACT ON EQUITABLE LIFE: The Equitable Life scandal is not going away, nor should it, Peter Riddell argues in The Times. The Public Administration Committee of MPs today produces an excoriating analysis of the Treasury’s handling of the affair, notably its `slippery` response to last July’s damning report by the Ombudsman. There is a key issue of principle, says Riddell. The Government has accepted that public bodies were responsible for maladministration that caused injustice. But it also argues that it is under no duty to right these wrongs. The MPs feel that while this may be legally valid most people would find it morally unacceptable.
Thought for the day
from Max Hastings in The Daily Mail
To commemorate D-Day is not a surrender to nostalgia. It is a celebration of a great moment in our heritage which all those living in modern Britain should be proud to share.
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