The Wardman Wire

Here is today’s roundup of stories.

Comment

Giles Fraser (Comment is Free)

- Intimations of mortality
We have lost the art of plain speaking when it comes to death - and that is not healthy for children

Naomi Klein (Comment is Free) - It is no slur to be called a Muslim
The turban photos affair was a missed chance for Obama. If he really is to repair the world, he must tackle this Islamophobia

Economist (Economist) - Whorehouses and American nostalgia
MY DAD, who lived a long good life, always used to tell us kids that a town without a whorehouse was a stupid place in which to live. So wrote one woman in a letter to Helena’s daily newspaper in 1973. Montana may not want to bring back its old brothels, but everywhere I went, there seemed to be one or two on the list of things to see.

News

BBC (BBC)

- MPs apologise for motorbike error
The influential Commons Public Accounts Committee of MPs has apologised to motorcyclists after wrongly suggesting 40% of motorbikes were untaxed.

BBC (BBC) - Political quakes hit parliament
The magnitude of this earthquake only really emerged inside the House when Labour’s David Winnick suggested that reform of the expenses for MPs, under Mr Speaker, was not really going fast enough.

Guardian (Guardian) - Provinces pay price for green Olympics
Reservoirs around Beijing are being tapped to flush out the foul, polluted waterways in the centre of the city and to fill the fountains and keep the grass green in the Olympic park. Meteorologists are even firing silver iodine crystals into the clouds to induce rain.

NYT (NYT) - In 2008 Politics, Rhode Island Defies Its Size
For the first time anyone can remember, this small state is relishing its role in the presidential primary cycle.

Scotland

BBC (BBC)

- Holyrood will not give back powers
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Nicol Stephen has said his party would oppose any UK Government move to take powers from Holyrood.

BBC (BBC) - MSPs vote to scrap endowment fee
Students will no longer have to pay the graduate endowment fee when they finish university, after MSPs voted to abolish the charge.

Sport

Times Online (Times Online)

- Timely Andrew Strauss century cements Test place
Andrew Strauss was a relieved man after hitting a timely century for England on a rain-hit final day of the last warm-up match for the Test series with New Zealand.

Wales

BBC (BBC)

- £15m plan to aid Menai economy
The Welsh Assembly Government says it wants to see an economic hub of industry and tourism for Anglesey and Gwynedd based around the Menai Strait.

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