Sky High

It's time to take on gangsters of the sea

We run down British naval power at our peril. Without it we would have little food, fuel - or safety

• Libby Purves

Biographies that cast long shadows

As a new life of V.S.Naipaul demonstrates, books about our heroes can be painfully honest

• John Sutherland

Déjà vu: six steps that make up a great panic

For 2008, read 1907. This time, however, China and India have emerged well, unlike America, Britain and Europe

• William Rees-Mogg

Do you need a mortgage? Just join a party

There's a surprise benefit of nationalising the banks

• Tim Worstall

Gordon’s tonic may yet leave hangover

Brown believes this is his Churchillian hour, the moment for which his hard work has prepared him

• Martin Ivens

Everyday Britain scrounges the jackpot

Public institutions seem to have a list of priorities upon which the most deserving people come last

• Rod Liddle

Thankyou, and Goodbye

Nouri al-Maliki's call in today's Times for British combat troops to leave Iraq deserves a swift and honest response from London

Tesco cuts price of petrol by 3p a litre

Plunging oil prices prompt supermarkets to slash pump prices by 3p per litre with BP hinting at 5p per litre cut

French author wins 2008 Nobel Literature Prize

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio was described as an author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy

Dial M for Mufti to quiz first Islamic helpline

A call centre for those seeking a fatwa is attracting 3,700 calls a day from Muslims around the world, its organisers claim

Michael Andreevich Romanoff

Unassuming scion of the Russian imperial family who eschewed the limelight to live modestly in Australia

Elizabeth Eames

Meticulous archaeologist whose definitive research into tin-glazed tiles helped to illuminate the art and life of the Middle Ages