On the Sadiq Khan affair
There are special reasons why conversations between MPs and their constituents should be subject to the same exemptions as those which apply to lawyers' relationships with their clients, writes Roy Hattersley. Thousands of constituents would have not ask for help if they feared that their stories might be overheard by "the authorities". Often the authorities would not have been in the slightest degree interested in what they had to say. But a young man - desperate for the visa that allows his Kashmiri wife to join him in Britain - cannot be relied upon to face his predicament with stoic calm. If there is the slightest suspicion of bugging hanging over politicians' advice bureaus, MPs cannot do their jobs. Roy Hattersley The Guardian
Meet Citizen Khan, Tooting's local hero 
There is no suggestion that Sadiq Khan himself is under any form of investigation, writes Dominic Lawson. Yet just suppose that a Labour MP were to be suspected of involvement with al-Qaeda. It seems invidious that the police or security services should have to ask one of that man's Parliamentary colleagues - who might even be a friend - if they could have permission to put him under surveillance. Yet that is what MPs demand as their right. Dominic Lawson The Independent
On the consequences of retreat
Here are the likely consequences of retreat from Afghanistan, writes David Aaronovitch. The Afghan Government would collapse, to be replaced by an overt civil war fought between the Taliban and local governors in the various provinces. A million or more Afghan refugees would again flee their country, many of them ending up in the West. Deprived of support from the US, President Musharraf or a successor would effectively withdraw from the border regions, leaving a vast lawless area from central Afghanistan to north central Pakistan. Al-Qaeda and other jihadists would operate from these areas as they did before 9/11. This time these forces - already capable of assassinating a popular democratic politician - would seriously impact upon the stability of Pakistan, which is a nuclear state. Jihadists everywhere, from Indonesia to Palestine, would see this as a huge victory, democrats and moderates as a catastrophic defeat. David Aaronovitch The Times
News in Pictures: Taliban rising
On Obama's connection with America
Being instinctively connected to the hopes of a generation is a much bigger thing than experience, writes Andrew O’Hagan. What Barack Obama delivered in 2004 wasn't just a speech, it was a clarion call, and it made people feel America could be dignified again. Obama loves his country, but he knows it has become a war-mongering nation in a state of corporate stupefaction. Ordinary people don't feel proud, they don't feel spoken to, they don't feel included, and Obama knows how to make people feel that change is an essential part of growth. He is a young yet old kind of Democrat for a new kind of age, which is why people talk of Kennedy when they hear him. He can inspire people to consider not only their rights but their responsibilities. Andrew O’Hagan Daily Telegraph
American Election 2008
On the second Cold War
Communism in Russia has gone, writes Edward Lucas, but in its place has come "sovereign democracy", a potent cocktail of self-righteousness, nationalism and xenophobia that fuels the Kremlin's power grab abroad. In the "swing states" of Eastern Europe - Bulgaria, Latvia and Moldova - we are already losing the new Cold War. We have avoided catastrophe in Serbia by a hair's breadth. The great engines of EU and Nato expansion, which brought half a continent into our orbit after the collapse of communism, have stalled. But it is not just "faraway countries of which we know nothing" that are at stake. Russia plays divide and rule with the West, ruthlessly using our democratic politics and open economies to undermine us. Edward Lucas The Times
On doctor's hours
A common anecdote is of British families in Europe needing a GP at the weekend and discovering to their amazement that one is available, says Steve Richards. It does not take long to recover from the pleasant surprise before an obvious question is asked: "Why can't we get the same service in Britain?" Soon the sequence of thoughts ends with a potentially fatal conclusion for Labour: "This bloody government has wasted our money. Let's give the others a chance." More than any other innovation, the opportunity to see a GP in the evenings or at weekends would provide a check before the sequence reaches its damning denouement. Steve Richards The Independent
