Friday's comment from the papers in...

Today in Times Comment

• Ben Macintyre: In the next few days, weather permitting, an ageing explorer will begin to haul himself up the Eiger
• Mick Hume: The Lords by any other name would still be "useless and dangerous" to a democratic society
• Jane Shilling: It would be interesting to explore whether the destructive relationship the Brits have with their public spaces has its origins in our weather
• Jamie Whyte: Why is it that the British public has such a visceral distrust of private enterprise in the concept of healthcare and education?
• Peter Riddell: Get ready for a counter-revolution over a House of Clones

And in the rest of the papers…

• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: (The Independent) - Where is the shame over this tide of filth?
• Deborah Orr: (The Independent) - An ingenious plan to remove drug users from under the criminal justice jackboot
• Thomas Sutcliffe: (The Independent) - Slavery isn't just a 'black' subject
• John Major: (The Daily Telegraph) - As it contemplates its tercentenary, the Union between Scotland and England is in danger. It is not difficult to identify the culprits
• Clive Aslet: (The Daily Telegraph) - Some of my happiest hours have been spent in gardens. Gardens very much like the 30,000 each year that are to be lost forever, covered with housing
• Con Coughlin: (The Daily Telegraph) - Just what has come over the Saudis? For as long as anyone can remember, the House of Saud has been a model of discretion and reticence in its dealings with the outside world
• Simon Jenkins: (The Guardian) - Foxes are having such a hard time in the country it's no wonder they are flooding into town to make our lives a misery
• Tony Benn: (The Guardian) - The vote for a fully elected second chamber is a historic breakthrough. When it all becomes law, I might even stand myself
• Mark Lawson: (The Guardian) - I have known too many friends die class A deaths to be convinced by a new call for drug tolerance

And from around the world…

• Peggy Noonan: (The Wall Street Journal) - Our political discourse needs less censorship and more self-discipline
• Charles Krauthammer: (Washington Post) -  A pardon for Scooter Libby should be granted without further delay
• Gregg Easterbrook: (New York Times) - If our goal in legislating against carbon releases is about truly trying to reduce the accumulation of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, the main event will be in the developing world
• Fyodor Lukyanov: (Moscow Times) - Washington's decision to place elements of an anti-ballistic missile battery in Poland and the Czech Republic has become a catalyst to a complex process in Europe

Comments

[John Hirst]

Sorry, I haven't got time to read the article by Ben Macintyre "In the next few days, weather permitting, an ageing explorer will begin to haul himself up the Eiger". But is this a reference to Menzies Campbell and his Zimmer Frame and his quest for votes?

[James Kennett]

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is right to be concerned about an increase in racism; but her analysis has so many flaws that discussion of them all would take far too long. To pick just one: she chooses not to mention the appalling racism of some Muslim preachers and demonstrators who publicly and repeatedly called for the murder of others. When this used to go on week after week, year after year, it created the impression that the authorities found such speech acceptable: it gave everybody permission to be equally racist. It also destroyed the image of minorities as tolerant, helpless, anti-racist victims.

Thankfully, this form of hate speech is now subject to law enforcement; but why did it take so long? I suspect that the long period of neglect is the single greatest factor that encouraged a wider upsurge in racism. It will take years to undo the damage.