The commentators                    11-12-14

...on CIA torture

What America is not is a bunch of thugs with a bucket, a dirty towel and leg irons, and a misguided sense of patriotism and sadism in their hearts. America, however much her enemies may long to believe it, is not the Feinstein report. America has fallen. But she has fallen before. And each time, she has risen again. So, where have you gone America? Because a lonely world still turns its eyes to you.
- Dan Hodges, Daily Telegraph
With its new commitment to station troops in Bahrain, we can have no doubt where the British government stands: behind autocracy and “enduring interests”. Just as the refusal to hold previous US governments to account for terror and torture laid the ground for what happened after 9/11, the failure of parliament even to debate the decision to garrison the Gulf is an ominous one. Britain’s new base isn’t in the interests of either the people of Britain, Bahrain or the Middle East as a whole – it’s a danger and affront to us all.
- Seumas Milne, The Guardian
Jenni Russell
We cannot afford these shameful evasions of the truth. Neither we nor America will have any credibility when we lecture the world on human rights and accountability if we do not act when we break our own rules. 
We have to find and hold the chief actors responsible, rather than maintaining that good chaps like us don’t do this sort of thing.
- Jenni Russell, The Times
America’s rightful position as the West’s standard-bearer of justice and truth is tarnished by revelations of institutionalised inhumanity. The moral high ground, which is rightfully ours in the struggle against jihadi fanatics, becomes threatened. The cause of freedom and justice, to which we are all committed, suffers a bitter blow.
- Max Hastings, Daily Mail
Whatever their faults, our enemies are human beings and we have a duty to respect their personhood. Torture is always automatically wrong because it deviates from that duty. It cannot be right – even if it is carried out for the “right” reasons and even if it does produce useful information (which, of course, it doesn’t).
- Tim Stanley, Daily Telegraph
It is to America’s credit that it is able to declare its mistakes for the world to see. Contrast that to the more than half-a-century it took for Britain to come to terms with the methods it used to suppress Kenya’s Mau Mau rebellion. But confession is not the same as solution. The US is a country based on the rule of law. That principle must apply to those entrusted with upholding the country’s constitution.
- Financial Times
A small country with ten national newspapers (a dozen, if you count the FT and Morning Star) might be expected to see its society accurately reflected on the newsstands. So what do we see today? Diversity? Multiculturalism? Do we see that warmth that Paddington was promised?
No, we see rejection, selfishness, triviality. Five papers splash on our terror of immigration; eight carry stories and/or photographs of people fighting to buy a cut-price coffee maker that will sit unused in a cupboard. The only paper to feature neither on the front - The Times - addresses a different kind of consumerism with an oversized cake and the word Eat! in huge letters.
- Editor's blog 
Tuesday 25 November  The Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards were announced at a breakfast ceremony this morning. David Aaronovitch was named Commentariat of the Year and his newspaper, The Times, won the award for the best comment pages. Stevie Spring, who led the judges, made it a hat-trick for the Times by choosing Melanie Reid for the chairman's award.
The FT, Guardian, Mail and Sunday Times each picked up two awards. SubScribe was also among the winners. You can see the full list of awards here. A video of the presentations will be posted online later. 
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Comment digest courtesy of
Editorial Intelligence
Westminster
December 10
CIA torture
December 9
UK politics
December 8
UK politics
Black Friday
December 5
Autumn Statement 
December 4
Autumn Statement
December 3
Autumn Statement
December 2
Gordon Brown
December 1
Black Friday
Rochester
November 28
Scotland
November 27
European finance
November 26
David Mellor
November 25
Lewis Hamilton
November 24
British politics
Cameron at G20

November 21
British politics
November 20 
British politics
November 19 
British politics
November 18
British politics
November 17
British politics
Ed Miliband
November 14
Labour and Ed Miliband
November 13
Forex-rigging scandal
November 12
British politics
November 11
The Labour Party
November 10
Ed Miliband
Branson crash




November 7
British politics
November 6
Midterms and UK politics
November 5
British politics
November 4
British politics
November 3
Space tourism
Picture


October 31
British politics
October 30
Immigration
October 29
Immigration
October 28
British politics
October 27
British politics
Picture
October 24
NHS
October 23
British politics
October 22
Ukip
October 21
Britain and EU
October 20
British politics
October 17
Lord Freud
October 16
British politics
October 15
British politics
October 14
British politics
October 13
British politics