Friday's comment from the papers in...

• Gerard Baker: Don't believe the headlines, historians will call our age "The Great Moderation"
• Ben Macintyre: Forget the alchemy of spin doctors, politicians know that art is the way to sell a message
• Jamie Whyte: Why compulsory insurance is an utterly bankrupt idea
• Mary Ann Sieghart: The voting system in Britain is no longer trusted and I blame the Electoral Commission
• Mick Hume: You think Big Brother is the most tawdy programme on TV? You might need to think again
• Peter Riddell: Democracy's reputation is down but it's not out

And from the rest of the papers…

• Dominic Lawson: (The Independent) - Jade is crude and abusive, but her freedom of speech extends to the right to be rude
• Joan Bakewell: (The Independent) - Holocaust denial should be debated, not banned
• Matthew Norman: (The Independent) - There's something about Barack...
• Jeff Randall: (The Daily Telegraph) - The dilemma for many Scots is that because the Conservatives are so weak, those who want to get rid of Labour have nowhere to go but the SNP
• Julia Langdon: (The Daily Telegraph) - We have an unwritten constitution in this country, which has enabled Tony Blair to operate under his own self-designated rules with a consummate lack of respect for political propriety
• W F Deedes: (The Daily Telegraph) - David Beckham, who has struck a gold mine in the US, is made to sound in some quarters like a man whose name is on a missing Home Office file
• Polly Toynbee: (The Guardian) - The worst doctors, who make the most money doing least, will benefit from direct employment by the health service
• Simon Jenkins: (The Guardian) - Even Beckham can't compete with the fanatical conservatism of sport
• John Pilger: (The Guardian) - The social regression and flag-waving promoted by Australia's neocon prime minister may come unstuck in Guantánamo
• Analysis: Britain hopes to profit from its old ties with India. Thus far it has been disappointed - The Economist

And from around the world…

• Yuval Levin: (New York Times) - A middle ground for stem cells - biomedical science can offer us tremendous benefits, but only if we make sure they do not come at the cost of our highest ideals
• David Ignatius: (Washington Post) - Cheney's enigmatic influence - how does the most important but elusive presidential adviser in modern history use his power behind the scenes?
• Peggy Noonan: (The Wall Street Journal) - Thoughts in advance of the State of the Union
• Mehmood Kazmi: (Lebanon Daily Star) - For many Muslims, the 'bad news' of globalisation travels fast
• Larry Derfner: (Jerusalem Post) - The racism of Israeli youth: 75% of Jewish high schoolers say Arabs are 'uneducated'; 75% say they are 'uncivilised.'
• Hugh Cortazzi: (Japan Times) - Very few parents in Britain or Japan are happy about the state of education available to their children. The response of politicians in both countries to these concerns is inadequate and sometimes dangerous

Comments

[Ephi Levyn]

Peter Riddell is correct in his proposition that democracy is down, and in his analysis that 'The main problems with our representative democracy lie elsewhere, in the disengagement of a more demanding public with Parliament.'

An electoral system that provides a party with a majority of 60-plus seats from 35 per cent of the votes cast at a General Election and the support of less than one in five of the electorate is a system more suited to a banana republic than a modern democracy. Elections are decided not by a demanding public as an entity, but a few tens of thousands of voters in a handful of marginal seats. Small wonder that a demanding public opts for disengagement.

Mr Riddell will not need reminding that in its 1997 manifesto Labour promised to hold a referendum on a system of PR, a promise subsequently reneged on. But then, back in those heady days, Labour's charismatic young leader also promised a Third Way in politics and an administration committed to be purer than pure.

[John Hirst]

Dominic Lawson is correct to state that freedom of speech extends to the right to be rude. For example, Jade Goody has the IQ of a cabbage and those who watch Big Brother can be found in a cabbage patch.