Thursday's comment from the papers in...

Today in Times Comment

• Anatole Kaletsky: Post-Davos, what is Britain's role in dealing with the critical world issues - nuclear disarmament, global warming, the clash of civilisations?
• Matthew Parris: The peculiarly appropriate tree planted by Tony Blair at Chequers ; and how the Scots sabotaged a sensible Bill to alter daylight saving
• Camilla Cavendish: Just because we are not getting very many convictions for rape doesn't mean we are getting it wrong.
• Stefanie Marsh: BA's big mistake is relying on openly bored, useless, incompetent and surly British employees
• Tim Worstall: So the Manchester supercasino is going to regenerate the area? What, just like the nearby City of Manchester Stadium didn't?
• Peter Riddell: Spare a thought for No 11's next tenant

And in the rest of the papers…

• Boris Johnson: (The Daily Telegraph) - Women are running out of men to marry - if the feminist revolution is good and unstoppable (and it is both), we should perhaps consider some of the downsides
• Peter Foster: (The Daily Telegraph) - Yesterday, as Corus, formerly British Steel, accepted a £6.2 billion bid from India's Tata Steel, should be remembered as the seismic day when corporate India slammed its fist on the global table of trade and demanded to be taken seriously
• Alan Cochrane: (The Daily Telegraph) - Labour will struggle to combat the Nationalists
• Timothy Garton Ash: (The Guardian) - Beyond boo-words like multiculturalism, the reality is that young British Muslims are deeply alienated
• Ed Harriman: (The Guardian) - US troops will stay in Iraq, and the war will get worse
• Anthony Lester: (The Guardian) - Lord Goldsmith's folly has now been brutally exposed
• Johann Hari: (The Independent) - Bring back conscription (even for me)
• Adrian Hamilton: (The Independent) - Don't write off multiculturalism yet
• Steve Richards: (The Independent) - Manchester gets its supercasino, but who really knows how it won?
• Leader: Hugo Chávez is popular with the Venezuelan poor, but there is scant evidence that they want a Cuban-style dictatorship. Mr Chávez could be riding for a fall - Telegraph

And from around the world…

• Robert D. Novak: (Washington Post) - Pollster Frank Luntz for the past decade has issued warnings to his fellow Republicans that they did not want to hear, but never has he been so out of touch with them as he is today
• Timothy William Waters: (New York Times) - There is nothing magic or moral about Kosovo's borders. Partition is possible, and possibly the right thing to do
• Robert Scheer: (San Francisco Chronicle) - For a president, not all lies are created equal - A case for impeachment
• Vladislav Inozemtsev: (Moscow Times) - After Moscow and Kiev managed to settle their dispute over prices for Russian gas deliveries at the beginning of last year, a concerted effort was made by the Russian side to portray the whole imbroglio as an anomaly
• Editorial: President Thabo Mbeki is like British Prime Minister Tony Blair and not only because of their similar approaches to modern social democrat politics. Both do fine ostrich impersonations when it comes to arms deals - South Africa Mail & Guardian