Sharia uproar
Rowan Williams has a knack for creating problems where none yet exist. Prodding, however thoughtfully, the humming nest of multiculturalism and the law, the archbishop has provoked a predictable media storm that in the short term will only obscure his intention of promoting cultural cohesion - as well as confirming his critics' frustration with his apparent lack of common sense. His arguments, mildly and carefully expressed, will simultaneously stoke tabloid fears and infuriate those who believe that the state should be as far from religion as possible. Leader The Guardian
People: Williams: Sharia's fine, but call to prayer 'inappropriate' 
Dr Rowan Williams likes to give the impression that he is a liberal-minded Archbishop of Canterbury, writes Stephen Glover. Who would have guessed that there lurks beneath that genial, bearded exterior a dyed-in-the-wool reactionary who wants to take Britain back to medieval times? His amazing suggestion in a BBC interview yesterday that sharia law should be adopted in Britain marks a gigantic step backwards. We have one law in this country. It may be based on Christian values, but it is a secular law upheld and interpreted by secular judges. To have produced a single body of law, observed and respected by the great majority of people, is one of the triumphs of our civilisation. Can he really have intended to do this? Who are the idiots advising him? What has happened to him? Stephen Glover Daily Mail
Newsdesk: Archbishop remarks cause controversy
Pros and Cons: Call to prayer
Fashionable press criticism
The cliche is that newspapers are so rotten and in decline that they merit no defence against the internet barbarians at their gates, says Simon Jenkins. So claim recent diatribes from John Lloyd, Alastair Campbell and Nick Davies. They are all talking rubbish. This week the press, and the press alone, revealed the MPs' expenses racket, the prison bugging scandal and the antics of the London Development Agency. The so-called glory days of the 1950s and 1960s were actually dreadful. Newspapers were brief, humourless, reverential of authority and composed of Hansard, publicity handouts, court reports and agency copy. Wars were reported from "our" side. A political story was simply taken from a secret "lobby" briefing. Foreign news was rarely more than one broadsheet page. As for much-vaunted investigative journalism, there was almost none. Simon Jenkins The Guardian
The Big Book: Up to a point, Mr Davies
Barack's latte liberals
Consider the exit poll from California, says Gerard Baker. Hillary Clinton's largest single demographic voting bloc was those who did not complete a high school education, where she won 82 per cent, against just 15 per cent for Barack Obama. Among voters whose voting choice is not based on identity politics, Mr Obama's supporters are the latte liberals. These are the people for whom Starbucks, with its $5 cups of coffee and fancy bakeries, is not just a consumer choice but a lifestyle. They not only have the money. They share the values. They live by all those little quotes on the side of Starbucks cups about community service and global warming. For these voters the defining emotion is hope. Mrs Clinton is the candidate of what might be called Dunkin' Donut Democrats. They do not have money to waste on multiple-hyphenated coffee drinks. Gerard Baker The Times
Romney out of race, Huckabee next?
Middle class Radio 4
Let's for a minute, accept the false assumption that Radio 4 does cater largely for house-owning, well-educated types in rich bits of England who know the difference between a Canaletto and Cannelloni, writes Jeff Randall. And let's assume also that many of these are Daily Telegraph subscribers. So what? The BBC has an Asian Network, a black music station, Welsh language, Irish language and Scots Gaelic output. The World Service talks to people in places that most of us have never heard of. On the website, there's BBC Urdu, BBC Bangla and many others besides. Why shouldn't there be a station that's appreciated largely by the Coping Classes in leafy suburbs? Jeff Randall Daily Telegraph
Russians ignore George Clooney
Something quite remarkable has happened, says Dominic Lawson. A group of adults, apparently of sound mind, has told George Clooney [who was set to lecture the UN on the situation in Darfur] that it does not want to see – or hear – from him. That group was nothing less than the United Nations. Perhaps such a rebuff could only have happened at the hands of an emissary of Mr Putin's government, with its bullish – not to say thuggish – contempt for everything the West holds dear (and nothing is held more dear than the movie business). It's certainly hard to imagine any British or American politician treating showbiz royalty with such lack of consideration. Dominic Lawson The Independent
Clooney snubbed by the UN
