Friday's comment from the papers in...

Today in Times Comment

• Ben Macintyre: The biggest library ever built
• Martin Samuel: Claire Verity and her ilk should not be touched with a bargepole - and should be left to wail
• Gerard Baker: Let them in. But it's still a mess. Italy, Denmark, Switzerland . . . all around us we are having to deal with the consequences of immigration
• Mick Hume: Don't you dare steward me
• Carol Sarler: The rules of huggability
• Peter Riddell: Cutting edge of reform is in danger of going blunt
• Bronwen Maddox: Resonant address slips into trap of delusion
• Ann Treneman: Mad Dog hands out gongs for the year’s best in class

And from the rest of the papers…

• Jeff Randall: (The Daily Telegraph) - Gordon Brown will be defined by Northern Rock
• John Kampfner: (The Daily Telegraph) - Spotlight on Gordon Brown's ministers
• Alice Thomson: (The Daily Telegraph) - Warn your children: alcohol is a killer
• Simon Jenkins: (The Guardian) - The assault on geography breeds ignorance and erodes nationhood
• Polly Toynbee: (The Guardian) - The Lib Dems face a clear choice: get radical or fudge into eternal decline
• Alexander Chancellor: (The Guardian) - The Google millionaires are cleverer than the Saudis. They know money can't bring happiness
• Dominic Lawson: (The Independent) - In a hidden corner of the EU, defenceless children are suffering unimaginable cruelty
• Thomas Sutcliffe: (The Independent) - British teens aren't cultural cretins
• Matthew Norman: (The Independent) - Could it be that Brown is worse than Blair?
• Quentin Letts: (The Daily Mail) - What about Ian Blair, Boris was asked. 'Yup. Er, um, he should go,' said the oracle

And from around the world…

• David Brooks and Ben Schott: (The New York Times) - Candidates in a box. A grid outlining the gifts and deficits of the 2008 presidential hopefuls.
• Eugene Robinson: (Washington Post) - Rhymes with front-runner. Lessons from the rhymes-with-rich episode
• Charles Krauthammer: (Washington Post) - Alliances in Ruins? The reports of our abandonment by our allies are greatly exaggerated.
• Peggy Noonan: (The Wall Street Journal) - On setting an example. Being a "beacon to the world" is more challenging than it sounds.
• Kevin J. Martin: (International Herald Tribune) - Where's my paper? If we don't act to improve the health of the newspaper industry, we will see newspapers wither and die.
• Peter Hartcher: (The Sydney Morning Herald) - John Howard has blown his best chance to turn around his failing election campaign

Comments

[John Charlesworth]

Simon Jenkins comments, in the Gurdian, are spot on. It is nice to see that his quality comments for the Sunday Times transfer across.

England, on the World Stage, does not exist as a Country: I am amazed that England, Scotland, Northernm Ireland and Wales have got away with it for so long. The downside is that, eventually, we will cease to exist and our historical links and influence will be lost.

Scotland and others are on the way to escaping this situation. England does not appear to have the will.

[Candadai Tirumalai]

As someone who has lived in the United States since 1960, I think Peggy Noonan offers salutary advice and reflection. Two of America's greatest passions are self-improvement and idealism, but they need to be galvanized in a deeper and broader context than they are at present. This requires that enough people step back from what they are doing from time to time to ask why they are doing it and if things can be done differently. The citizen (or individual) is more important than the consumer. The American Vision is deeper than the American Dream.

[Simon Stephenson]

It's a long time since I have been as impressed by a piece of writing as I was today by Matthew Norman's devastating criticism of Gordon Brown in The Independent.

Wake up to a touch of reality, folks!