Smash hit

Here’s the case for not pulling the plug

It is not the undiagnosed locked-in syndrome that Houben experienced that fills me with horror

• Dominic Lawson

Hospitals may be bad but our regulators are worse

NHS policies bring to mind an interfering child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

• Minette Marrin

Cameron’s tactical Blond moment

The Conservative leader is genuinely anxious to counter Labour’s charge that he leads a gang of hard-faced Thatcherites

• Martin Ivens

Columnists  

However they sugar it, you’re swallowing a delusion

While there is no evidence for the efficacy of homeopathy, there is for the power of the placebo

• Daisy Goodwin

Flushing out the high priests of climate change

It is up to the scientific establishment to set out better ground rules and insist on more openness

• Charles Clover

• The great climate change science scandal

I’m so dead – shot by both sides in the website war

I've told my kids they can smoke, drink and push old ladies into lakes, as long as they don't steal a song or a film

• Jeremy Clarkson

• Unchecked BBC 'chilling', claims James Murdoch

Leading articles

Dubai needs to stop the contagion, fast

Even casual observers could see this was a boom built on sand, yet the banks kept lending

War in Iraq touches a raw nerve

More than 8,000 Iraqi children have suffered severe and lasting injuries as a result of the conflict that began in 2003

Final word

If only some of the great masters were still with us, what would they make of our political leaders?

Faith  

Archbishop tells Pope: women priests here for good

Dr Williams takes hardline stance in Rome as he dismisses Catholic Church's attempt to lure disaffected Anglicans

Muslim teachers and students reject Darwin

In countries such as Egypt and Pakistan academics are, under conservative influence, rejecting evolution, a physicist warns

Scholar finds death certificate in Turin Shroud

Dr Barbara Frale claims she deciphered the burial certificate of 'Jesus the Nazarene' from fragments imprinted on the cloth

Archbishop says more tax could do us good

Dr Rowan Williams says that the constant search for 'fantasies' of economic growth is creating personal anxiety and rivalry

Obituaries  

Anne Mustoe

Headmistress who became a round-the-world cyclist in middle age and wrote about her remarkable travels

John Hartley

Author of the lexicon Hartley’s Foreign Phrases and a strident self-taught historian

Robert Rines

Inventor, physicist, lawyer and composer whose sonar technology enabled the discovery of the Titanic wreck

Geoffrey Moorhouse

Journalist who turned with success to writing non-fiction books on history, sport and foreign countries, often imbued with mysticism

Join the Debate  

Ofwat ruling will hit unmetered homes

Water companies to increase bills as regulator relaxes tough stance on industry and encourages frugal usage

Brown wants royal law changed for Catholics

PM suggested he wants to lift ban on Roman Catholics ascending to Throne and overturn male supremacy in succession

Wikipedia stalls as volunteer numbers fall

Study shows that the website is suffering a sharp decline in volunteer contributors amid allegations of disenchantment