A Labour leadership contest would take months, writes Bruce Anderson. It would be accompanied by a gale of public derision against which the candidates would be barely audible; the worst possible way to prepare for the inevitable early election. In such circumstances, who would want to lead the Labour Party? It might seem like standing to be Mayor of Berlin in May 1945. The youngsters who aspire to the job would be wise to wait until after the election. If any of them won a blood-soaked contest early next year, the fruits of victory would be an embattled interim leadership plus the right to challenge Mr Brown for the title of least effective Premier of the 21st century. There is a clear conclusion. It is almost impossible for Mr Brown to cling on. It is also almost impossible to displace him. Bruce Anderson The Independent
Full article: It is almost impossible for Mr Brown to cling on. And it is almost impossible to replace him

With Carol Vorderman's departure from Countdown a sign that the bubble has burst, the BBC will presumably be telling its own presenters to take a 90 per cent pay cut or go searching for another job, says Ross Clark. Reducing its wage bill for presenters to £24.2 million will allow the BBC to save £218 million and so cut the cost of a TV licence by about £10. You don't believe this will happen? Nor do I. The public sector loves to talk the language of the private sector, which is why the BBC has performance bonuses and the town clerk at your local council now calls himself a "chief executive". But when it comes to controlling costs like private companies, the BBC, in common with other public sector organisations, just doesn't get it. Ross Clark The Times
Full article: The 'market rate' should mean just that

Everyone loves a horror story, so the capture of Karadzic, the pursuit of Mladic and the stomach-turning bestiality of Srebrenica can soon be turned into big headlines again, writes Peter Preston. Thus are our continent's foulest days since 1945 remembered. Oh good! There's a happy ending. But Serbia has no end in sight yet, no hope of swift closure. For what are our leaders saying once they've rejoiced, hailed western values and - in some tortuous way - claimed victory for their beliefs? They're mumbling. Let's say out loud, then, what every chancellery in Europe whispers behind its hands. The European Union project is not complete until membership in the western Balkans is complete. Serbia must have a European future, or it will have nothing but trouble. But was Belgrade even mentioned when Dublin voted on the EU treaty? Of course not.
Peter Preston The Guardian
Full article: The Balkan evasion
Why is Ratko Mladic so hard to find?

There is an increasingly noticeable divide in the way pensioners live: on the one hand, writes India Knight, you have Mick Jagger, with his consorts and children and priapic lights undimmed, and on the other you have people such as my friend's mother who, although fit as a fiddle, checked herself into a sheltered housing complex at the age of 62 and is fond of uttering the immortal line "My cuddling days are over". It will be interesting to see how the generations below mine, for whom cheap drugs and cheap travel – and therefore the opportunity to live like a rock star, or the tabloid version of one – became widely available regardless of class or income, will approach their own old age: I expect fighting for the right to party well into your eighties will become the norm rather than the exception. India Knight Sunday Times
Full article: There’s a lot to be said for ageing disgracefully