Wednesday's comment from the papers in...

Today in Times Comment

• Magnus Linklater: How to spot a homicidal stalker - The violent act has to be predicted before the event, rather than unravelled afterwards
• Alice Miles: It is absurd for Labour to have lost public trust in the NHS and Brown must be desperate to regain it
• Daniel Finkelstein: Experiments have shown that in different situations the same sort of people behave differently
• Peter Riddell: Mr Brown perhaps only deserves a yellow, rather than a red, card at this stage, a caution against excessive enthusiasm
• Richard Morrison: Rachel Carson’s book expressed the idea of the world as a delicate web of interdependent species
• Alan Coren: If I ever get depressed enough to need a walk in the country, I shall come home twice as depressed as I was before
• Carol Sarler: Investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is not helped by psychics, prurience or false sightings

And from the rest of the papers…

• Terence Blacker: (The Independent) - The world according to Sir Alan Sugar? Now there's a thought
• Philip Hensher: (The Independent) - The ban on smoking has become a vendetta
• Hamish McRae: (The Independent) - Sarkozy could teach Brown a lesson
• Simon Heffer: (The Daily Telegraph) - Our next prime minister has been smiling a lot lately but come the next election, he may struggle to find so much to smile about
• Alan Mallinson: (The Daily Telegraph) - Before we undertake more military interventions, we must ask questions about our planning for the Iraq war and its aftermath
• Andrew Marr: (The Daily Telegraph) - My mobile phone is jiggling with calls from friends with a smorgasbord of questions for Gordon Brown
• Zoe Williams: (The Guardian) - Unpaid work experience is just another form of social screening. Only the wealthy can work for free
• Simon Jenkins: (The Guardian) - Cerebral Brown has caved in. This is cynical Brown's work
• Jonathan Freedland: (The Guardian) - Labour has been been gripped by election fever. Here are seven ways the chancellor can turn the frenzy to his advantage

And from around the world…

• Bernard Lewis: (The Wall Street Journal) - Islamists always believed the U.S. was weak. Recent political trends won't change their view
• Herb B. Berkowitz: (The Wall Street Journal) - Roll over, iPod: There's nothing like a genuine jukebox
• Michael Gerson: (Washington Post) - The (relatively) conservative Christians of the Southern Hemisphere are gaining influence over their (relatively) liberal Northern brethren
• Jon Tracy: (New York Times) - When soldiers at war run amok, prosecution is only the first step toward justice. Legitimate compensation and a real show of contrition must also be offered
• Caroline Glick: (Jerusalem Post) - Why anyone would believe that an Israeli surrender of the eternal capital of the Jewish people to Hamas will lead to peace is anyone's guess.
• Mitsuru Kitano: (Japan Times) - The true meaning of Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the United States

Comments

[John Allen]

Philip Hensher was in yesterday's 'Daily Fix'. His article hasn't got any better since then.

[David Moss]

"Daniel Finkelstein: Experiments have shown that in different situations the same sort of people behave differently".

No.

They show that different sorts of people behave differently in different situations.

What Mr Finkelstein's article shows is that the Conservative party, like the Labour party, now believe that there are no people -- there is no personal responsibility -- and no society, only a crowd.

"So there you have it. A fresh way of thinking on the Right. Dare I call it a new paradigm?"

No.

What you offer is a reductio ad absurdum which implies that you had better go back and examine your assumptions:
* There is such a thing as personal responsibility.
* Society does exist.
* Everything good comes from society, not governments.
* Do not confuse the concepts of society and a crowd. They are different.

You have implicated Steve Hilton, Oliver Letwin and yourself in this "fresh way of thinking". And David Willetts. I hope you are as wrong about that as you are about the role of governments and socio-centric frameworks. I thought he was better than that. I didn't imagine he would help to turn the Conservative party into a car wreck.

[Candadai Tirumalai]

Magnus Linklater is so right in his plea: "The violent act has to be prevented before the event, rather than unravelled afterwards." That applies to psychopathic stalkers as well as a wide variety of situations, personal and public. Think of the proliferating after-the-event Commissions of Inquiry in so many matters.