As the war in Afghanistan enters its final chapter, Sean Smith's brutal, uncompromising film from the Helmand frontline shows the horrific chaos of a stalemate that is taking its toll in blood
Once in a while I read a column and really, really wish I had written it. For weeks I have been looking for the historical analogy with which to illustrate the argument that removing debt from the economy is not the same as taking money out of circulation. Dominic Lawson in today's Independent has found exactly the right example: Frederic Bastiat's advice to the French National Assembly in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. In doing so Mr Lawson also offers a compelling antidote to the argument that reduced state spending is inimical to growth. He also offers a powerful incentive to read and reread the history of the French revolution. It inspired Karl Marx too, of course (the revolution that is, not Dominic Lawson's column).

Is coverage of Britain's new coalition politics hitting the mark? Are old editorial habits, more applicable to left/right polarity, proving less than ideal in the ConDem Nation? Kevin Marsh of the BBC College of Journalism started a debate about this last week on
Last Thursday England elected 297 Conservative MPs,191 Labour and 43 Liberal Democrats. Scotland will send to Westminster 41 Labour MPs, 11 Liberal Democrats, 6 Scottish Nationalists and 1 solitary Conservative. Similarly distinctive results were returned in Wales and Northern Ireland. According to the unbalanced constitutional geometry created since 1997, Scottish, Welsh and Ulster representatives may yet determine who governs Britain, but English MPs will have scant influence on the Celtic fringe. This anomaly creates potentially divisive tensions that can wreck the UK. They can be salved by the creation of a codified constitution. 
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