It gives us a competitive advantage over them inside the single market, as it would within the euro-zone. We would benefit if our French and German markets could return to higher growth, but their domestic problems are no more a reason for staying out of the euro than they would be for leaving the [...]

A Prudential spokesman said: “We can confirm that a number of individuals have resigned from the company.” But he refused to expand on reasons for their departure. “Our critical illness policy was extremely successful and it is a feature of the market in general that there are ongoing changes to the pricing of products. [...]

He still gets listeners writing in – “Of course” – to complain that he was too rude to this or that minister: “But for every letter you get like that, you get a dozen saying ‘Why did you let the bugger off the hook?’” In any case, attempts to muzzle him have tended to [...]

He had a huge hot tub on the terrace and after dinner the less sober of us peeled off our clothes and jumped in.”Oh please, please, could you not take your champagne in with you, it’s so dangerous,” pleaded his wife, more significantly soon to be his ex-wife, in obvious distress by the side. [...]

And why he thinks that a distant Jewish relative leads ineluctably not only to undue influence, but undue influence in a sinister cause.Enough Jews are prominent in their opposition to the policies of the present Israeli administration, let alone to the manner of their implementation, for Mr Dalyell to rest assured that wherever two [...]

Excitingly, designers began to comprehend that the freedom of staging which worked so well with new plays could also work with old ones and Herbert’s collaborations with a golden group of directors – Lindsay Anderson, John Dexter, William Gaskill, Tony Richardson – eventually carried over to productions at Stratford or in the West End.Working [...]

He is best known for his series The History of Britain, which attracted audiences of 4.4 million.He has now become the best-paid historian in the world after signing a £3m deal with the BBC and Harper Collins for two new series and accompanying books.DAVID STARKEYHad a strict Quaker upbringing in Cumbria, where he attended [...]

Some of the rule-busting exuberance of the first three series faded when college replaced school for the central “Scooby gang” of Buffy’s friends. With early adulthood, the dilemmas of Buffy, Angel and the lesbian sorceress Willow dredged ever-darker emotions into the scripts.In the fifth series, Buffy’s mother died, with no supernatural intervention. Then Buffy [...]

If a scholarly journal’s description of this bot is correct, it is sharing these files with its clients, without my permission. Isn’t sharing copyrighted files the very thing record companies find so objectionable? At least when it’s their material.Recently the record industry trade group RIAA apologised for sending dozens of erroneous cease-and-desist orders to [...]

For many others, perhaps, being insulted is a little less worse than not being noticed at all.Despite these comic turns, the House retains a power of its own. It is, even in these degraded days, a magnificent institution. When Giles Coren dropped his pen down into the chamber itself, he rushed out of the [...]