The generals don't want to know about the true scale of the disaster - they are exporting rice rather than distributing it to the cyclone's victims, says Rosemary Righter. Their refusal of international humanitarian aid is, the UN laments, 'unprecedented'. Unprecedented - or almost unprecedented - decisions are called for. Governments with the power to help must insist on doing so, with or without the junta's co-operation - with the approval of the UN Security Council if they can, and without it if they must. Forcing aid on the regime would be a risky venture; but to cite sovereignty as the reason why nothing can be done without its assent would be to let this foul regime get away with mass murder. France is right to say that it will start delivering aid without the junta's permission. Imposing aid is a messy business. Dying for lack of it is messier by far. Rosemary Righter The Times
Burma latest: Military claims aid is gift from the junta
In pictures: cyclone devastation

The Tories now seem to have the gift of confidence, says Max Hastings. So much in politics, as in all human affairs, is about feeling sufficiently comfortable with oneself to make others feel likewise. As long as he projects this, Cameron doesn't need precise policies. Rather than threaten radical change, for which there is little public appetite, the Tories promise competent administration, for which there is an intense hunger. Cameron is wisely saying much less about the green issues he showcased during his first year. Windmills are a much lower public priority than rising prices and punitive taxation. No government for the next decade will have any spare money. Might the toff issue still undo the Conservatives? Probably not: to most people, it seems much more important that the Tory leader today presents himself as a decent human being who relates easily to other people, than that he once liked to cavort about in a white tie and throw champagne bottles. Max Hastings Daily Telegraph
Tories must reject policies of Blair and Thatcher

Britain is stumbling in a daze towards Tory rule, says Johann Hari. Cameron now dares to depict the Tories as the true progressives. But how will his suspicion of state regulation help tackle climate change? Or poverty? The 'solutions' he proposes are oddly feeble. Will £40 a week for married couples really turn Shameless families into Terry and June? Markets are brilliant at many things, like generating wealth. But they cannot, on their own, ensure that people at the bottom of the pile have enough to live on. Markets do not magically ensure a liveable income for everyone. Only government can, by redistribution. Coverage of the Tories seems increasingly like a Mitchell and Webb sketch where increasingly absurdist political groupings demand to be taken seriously: Bullingdon Club Progressives for Taking Money Away From Poor Children. You can argue for Cameron's policies, but if words mean anything, you cannot call them 'progressive' or 'green'. Johann Hari The Independent
Cameron can't be too cocky about Crewe

New Labour was a fiction, says Janet Daley. Now, like a character in a cartoon who fails to realise for the longest time that the ledge he had been standing on has disappeared, it has suddenly looked down in horror at the emptiness and plummeted to the ground. Being a Labour supporter used to be a matter of class loyalty: now the party is a mish-mash of platitudes about social justice and fairness to which any party can lay claim. The new political argument is not about class as we have always understood it: it is about social mobility. Politics is now an open contest between conflicting solutions to real problems in which parties must convince individual voters of the force of their arguments. We just might be on the verge of a triumph of reason over sentimentality. Janet Daley Daily Telegraph
The Mole: Darling must move fast on tax to save Brown

It's an astonishing success story, combined with the extraordinary failure by all sides to find a political settlement which will allow the Israelis to live in peace consistently, says a Times Leader. Fatalism, though, is inappropriate. Whatever the rantings that might come out of the presidential office in Tehran, every serious actor in the Middle East recognises that Israel is a settled aspect of the political landscape. The respective fates of Israel, Egypt and Jordan are tied to one another, whatever harsh words might be issued. The Gulf states, not least Saudi Arabia, may see Israel and its prominence as an embarrassment, but they deem Iran to be the real threat to them. Predictions of Islamist fundamentalism sweeping the whole Arabic world are often made, but have not yet manifested themselves in practice. The status quo is essentially one of 'no war, no peace'. This is scarcely ideal, but a noticeable improvement on where Israel stood 30 years ago. Leader The Times
Anti-Zionist Jews come out of the shadows
In pictures: Israel, birth of a nation

The most important event in British politics in the week was not the ascent of the Tories but a new rise in the crude oil price, writes William Rees-Mogg. The oil price has doubled in the last year: this is the greatest shock to hit the world economy for 30 years. It will seal Brown's fate. We do not need to explain Gordon Brown's unpopularity in terms of his gloomy face, or of his being 'a son of the Manse', when every householder is paying more at the supermarket checkout and every motorist is paying more at the petrol station. In the 1970s almost every democratic government at the start of the decade had been turned out by the end. The higher oil price caused an inflation of voters' costs and a deflation of voters' assets. We shall pay more for petrol and bread, but our houses will be worth less. The average person is likely to express his protest in his vote. If oil goes to $200 a barrel, it will not matter who is leading the Labour Party - the Labour Government will be kaput. William Rees-Mogg The Times