With only three weeks left to Christmas are you rushing down to the shops?

Waiting for the sales, which seem to come earlier and earlier each year, can pay off for the lucky bargain hunter but that might not be your style.

Is the best way of dealing with the shopping season to approach it with military organisation, or last minute chaos?

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Posted at: 10:03 | Permalink | Comments 36

Blog: Blair is America's 'poodle'

In quotes: Kendall Myers on US-UK relations

A top State Department official has delivered a devastating verdict on the state of relations between Washington and London, arguing that Tony Blair has received "nothing, no payback" for supporting President George W. Bush in Iraq.

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Posted at: 10:03 | Permalink | Comments 105

33 pc back Muslim veil ban, survey says

In pictures: The veil explained

One in three people would support a ban on the Muslim full-face veil in public places, according to a survey which shows opinion is sharply divided on the subject.

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Posted at: 00:03 | Permalink | Comments 155

Lifeclass Extra: read Lesley Garner's exclusive online column

Desperate letters about fathers who have been denied access to their children continue to pour in to our columnist Lesley Garner after she highlighted the plight of a single father last month.

We have heard about a father whose only contact with his daughter is to watch her from behind the school gates, and from another who spent £60,000 to secure parental responsibility and a court order, only to find it constantly being disobeyed by the mother.

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Posted at: 00:03 | Permalink | Comments 124

Tony Blair has expressed his "deep sorrow" at Britain's role in the slave trade but stopped short of offering a full apology, despite pressure from some black campaigners and community leaders.

The Prime Minister's condemnation, delivered in the run-up to the bicentenary of Britain's decision to abolish slavery, has reignited debate over judging history by modern moral standards.

Earlier this year, the Government announced that First World War soldiers shot for "cowardice" would be officially pardoned.

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Posted at: 10:41 | Permalink | Comments 387

Michael Grade, the BBC chairman, is joining Britain’s largest commercial broadcaster at a time of crisis: advertising revenues are plummeting and viewers are deserting traditional broadcasters as the internet muscles in on Britain's leisure time.

Could Grade be to ITV what Stuart Rose is to M&S? Or are the problems at ITV too intractable for one man to resolve?

To post a comment click here

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Posted at: 10:03 | Permalink | Comments 25

The dollar is in freefall, closing in on $2 to the pound for the first time in 14 years.

Markets fear an unwinding of the US economy, where plummeting house prices threaten to dent consumer spending and damage corporate profits.

Will the dollar hit $2 to the pound, and are you worried its collapse could lead to a global downturn? Is a weak dollar is good for the UK?

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Posted at: 10:00 | Permalink | Comments 66

David Cameron's decision to pull out of yesterday's annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry at the 11th hour has been seen as further proof that the Tory leader is keen to distance his party from big business.

His withdrawal has been likened to Tony Blair's decision a decade ago not to make the Labour leader's traditional appearance at the TUC's conference.

The snub came on the same day that a CBI poll showed that one in five British companies had relocated some of its activities overseas because of concerns over tax.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 43

A poll commissioned by the Sunday Telegraph showed that more than half of respondents in England and Scotland favoured total independence for Scotland, a move that would effectively end the 300-year-old union between the two states.

The same poll found support for the creation of an English parliament at a historic high of 68 percent among English voters.

None of the three main political parties in the United Kingdom favours a break-up.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 177

The Government is involved in talks with the aviation industry over the installation of fingerprint scanners at the country’s airports, a development which has alarmed civil liberties groups.

The scanners will be used by airlines to confirm travellers' identities, tighten up border controls and crack down on the use of forged travel documents.

Do you agree with the use of fingerprint scanners at airports?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 86

Chancellor Gordon Brown will announce a raft of "green" taxes in the pre-budget report next month, with increases in fuel and air passenger duty on the cards. But are taxes the best way of reducing the nation's carbon footprint?

Business has warned that if Britain goes it alone, national competitiveness will suffer and jobs will be lost with little environmental reward. Then there is the question of incentive. Blanket taxes do not punish the worst offenders. Airlines are arguing for a scaled tax that encourages improvement.

Then again, perhaps business should be targeted. According to the Government's Stern report, business causes more pollution than the public, yet the public foots the majority of the green tax bill. An increase in fuel duty will once again hit ordinary people hardest.

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Posted at: 11:34 | Permalink | Comments 62

Pensions paid to public sector workers are not backed by assets - they are funded on a pay-as-you-go basis by taxpayers. The bill in the decades ahead will mount to an estimated £960bn as a result.

Do you think that we can afford to foot the bill or do you think public sector pension arrangements need reform?

There are calls for people employed by the state to work longer, retire later and accept lower retirement benefits - the sort of thing many private sector workers are facing up to, such as those employed by British Airways.

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Posted at: 07:27 | Permalink | Comments 40

The debate over mixed wards has reignited this week, after the Patients Association revealed the number of complaints from women being treated alongside men has doubled in the last 12 months.

Patients’ complaints ranged from loss of dignity and embarrassment at answering personal medical questions to feeling threatened at night and being unable to sleep.

What are your experiences of mixed wards?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 54

One year after the relaxation of Britain’s licensing laws, a widely-predicted surge in alcohol-fuelled violence and round-the-clock drunkenness has failed to materialise.

The emergency services, however, maintain that they still face similar levels of alchohol-related admissions.

Do you feel safer in city centres at night than you did a year ago? Or in your experience, has Britain’s binge-drinking culture continued unabated?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 32

Americans everywhere celebrate Thanksgiving today, the holiday which recalls their ancestors' arrival in the new continent and the welcome they received from its native inhabitants.

But a new survey claims that “arrogant, unpredictable” immigration officials are tarnishing America's traditional values and driving away today's visitors to the country.

Two thirds of those questioned in the poll found the US "the worst country in the world" for its treatment of visitors, with security measures taken since September 2001 blamed for creating a “climate of fear.”

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 112

David Miles, a prominent economist and former adviser to Gordon Brown, expects the housing market to burst within the next few years.

We've heard it all before. Last year, the respected Capital Economics predicted a 20pc slump. The market rose, so they scaled their forecast back to a 5pc fall over two years. It's up 8pc this year. Market fundamentals remain benign, with unemployment low, and interest rates and affordability - in terms of mortgage cost to income - at historic averages.

Yet prices are accelerating faster than almost every forecaster expected, and the clamour of cautionary voices is rising - accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers being the latest. Mortgage offers are worryingly competitive, with five times salaries and 125pc deals available. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King even felt it necessary to advise the public to be careful. Most economists are predicting a long period of zero house price growth to correct the boom of recent years.

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Posted at: 10:35 | Permalink | Comments 60

The Prime Minister has announced that families struggling with unruly children will be provided with compulsory parenting courses along with "supernannies".

The nannies, who are trained child psychologists, will be deployed to 'problem areas' in the Government's latest attempt to boost family life.

Is this the nanny state taken to extremes? Will the supernannies be a help or a hindrance?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 67

Join the Society of People Who Have Never

Matt's take on the matter

A rebellion which formed on the letter pages of the Daily Telegraph is gaining momentum.

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Posted at: 14:30 | Permalink | Comments 587

A High Court has ruled that a woman in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) should be treated with a drug that can restore bouts of consciousness, against the wishes of her family.

The woman will be treated with the sleeping drug Zolpidem, which can cause PVS patients to regain some brain function, though her parents insist that she would not want to remain alive under the circumstances.

Who has the right to dictate how coma patients are treated: their family, or the law?

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Posted at: 10:30 | Permalink | Comments 35

Tony Blair faces accusations of wasting nearly £7 billion of taxpayers' money on a failing war on terror, though British spending is still dwarfed by America's military expenditure.

Amid fears that Iraq is slipping into civil war and a rising British death toll in Afghanistan, the Prime Minister has pledged £844 million in aid to these two countries as well as Pakistan in a bid to curb hostilities.

This money comes on top of the estimated £5 billion cost to British taxpayers of the Iraq war so far, and the £1 billion spent to date on the British deployment in Afghanistan.

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Posted at: 10:01 | Permalink | Comments 57

The American bourse Nasdaq has launched a £2.9bn takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange. Nasdaq is already the largest shareholder in the LSE, and early this morning it swooped up 7m shares in the LSE, taking its stake to 28.75pc from 25.3pc.

The LSE has remained steadfastly independent despite numerous takeover attempts in the last two years. But given that LSE shares have more than doubled in value in the last year, is it time for the shareholders to take the money and run?

Does it matter, when so many British institutions are already foreign-owned, if the British stock market is taken over by a foreign company?

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Posted at: 00:05 | Permalink | Comments 37

British drinkers and smokers are eagerly awaiting a court ruling on Thursday that could allow them to buy cheap tobacco and alcohol from elsewhere in the European Union, without attracting the UK excise duty.

The European Court of Justice will decide whether consumers will be able to shop online for the cheapest deal on their tobacco and alcohol and have it delivered directly to their door. Britain has one of the highest excise rates in Europe, with £1.29 currently levied on a bottle of wine and £5.48 on a bottle of spirits.

The looming decision has worried British companies, with large wine dealers announcing they will consider setting up business in Europe, if the excise duty is lifted.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 65

In pictures: child's play?

With over 3000 contests in America each year, and entry fees often costing upwards of £500 per child, the junior beauty pageant circuit is big business.

Much-criticised after the murder of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey in 1996, their popularity in the USA has not diminished in the past ten years.

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Posted at: 00:03 | Permalink | Comments 48

Conscientious consumers have been shocked by claims that up to 30 million eggs marketed as free-range may have in fact come from battery hens.

Along with many other Western countries, Britain has witnessed booming demand for 'ethical' produce - from line-caught cod to organic parsnips and fair-trade chocolate.

Has the alleged free-range egg fiasco dented your faith in ethical shopping? How much do you trust the industry as a whole?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 52

Babies born after 22 weeks or less in the womb should not be routinely resuscitated, an ethical council has advised.

The controversial report attempts to give doctors and parents a framework for dealing with premature babies who face slim chances of survival and high risks of disability.Figures suggest that only one per cent of babies tend to survive at 22 weeks and the chances of survival are close to zero for babies born earlier.

Should doctors make every possible effort to save the lives of babies, no matter how premature?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 29

Why did the chicken cross the road? Ask it yourself

Following news that the humble chicken is more sophisticated communicator than bird brain, The Daily Telegraph has compiled a selection of jokes dedicated to the bird.

Among them are the following:

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 61

Ken Livingstone has upped the ante in the war against so-called 'Chelsea tractors', announcing plans to charge the owners of 4x4s and performance cars £25 to drive into the centre of London.

Worst hit by the London mayor’s plans will be the owners of cars with the highest C02 emissions living in the current and planned extended congestion charge zone, which will include Kensington and Chelsea. They will lose the residents’ 90 per cent congestion charge discount, meaning that they will have to pay £25 on any weekday in which they set off from their home.

What do you think of Mr Livingstone's proposals? Should the drivers of large, polluting vehicles such as 4x4s, known in the US as SUVs, pay more?

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Posted at: 18:01 | Permalink | Comments 237

The Queen will deliver her annual speech, as written for her by her government, at tomorrow's State Opening of Parliament and thus set out the year's most pressing legislative priorities.

It will be the last time she addresses both houses of parliament on behalf of Tony Blair before he steps down as Prime Minister next summer. Since Mr Blair came to power nine years ago, Labour has passed five Acts on immigration, seven on terrorism, 10 on education, 11 on health and social care and 23 on criminal justice. According to the Liberal Democrats, it has also created more than 3,000 new crimes at a rate of nearly one a day and passed more than 32,000 statutory instruments.

What would you like the Queen to say in her speech? What new laws is Britain most in need of? Or would less, rather than more, legislation better suit the country's needs? Which statute passed since 1997 do you think has done the most good - or the most harm?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 71

A nursery where children spend all day outside, even when it rains, has opened in Wiltshire.

The children, aged from two to five, only go inside for breaks and the rest of the time are encouraged to play and explore outside.

Sue Palmer, Farley nursery's head teacher, believes “outdoor learning” is a better way of teaching very young children than enclosing them in classrooms.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 33

President George W. Bush has announced he is "open to any idea or suggestion" on the Iraq war, signalling a more conciliatory approach after the Republican Party's electoral losses this week.

Amid a rising US death toll and bitter sectarian violence, the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress is expected to push for a change of tactics towards the country.

"I'm open to any idea or suggestion that will help us achieve our goals of defeating the terrorists and ensuring that Iraq's democratic government succeeds," Mr Bush said in the White House's Rose Garden yesterday.

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Posted at: 11:31 | Permalink | Comments 119

ITV is in crisis. The company is losing audience share to digital channels and can't seem to find a new chief executive.

ITV's share of commercial television advertising has fallen from 54pc to 40pc in just four years, with poor programming to blame. Celebrity Wrestling and Celebrity Love Island were notable flops.

Worse still was Philip Schofield's It's Now or Never, cancelled after just one show.

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Posted at: 10:00 | Permalink | Comments 38

War in all its guises has been the talking point of the week, from Iraq and the Republicans' electoral routing to the wearing of white Remembrance poppies rather than red.

We received an impassioned, significant response after asking readers why they wore their poppies with pride, and what they made of the white poppy which is supposed to represent pacifist, Christian values. Over 200 readers replied, with the following giving a flavour of their views:

"Poppies were seen as symbols of new life emerging from the death fields of Flanders and to put any other interpretation on their use is perverse. Brave men and women have willingly sacrificed their lives for us over many, many years. We use poppies as a tangible way of saying, 'We remember you.'" Thomas Murphy

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 12

Dairy farms were closed down at the rate of one a day last year and if the industry continues its decline Britain will be a net importer of milk within five years, farmers warn.

But are they exaggerating their problems?

Many smaller farms have merged to create fewer, larger operations and there are always those Government hand-outs farmers can rely on.

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Posted at: 11:30 | Permalink | Comments 51

The Poppy Appeal will need significant public support for decades to come in order to care for servicemen wounded in recent conflicts as well as elderly veterans, the Royal British Legion has warned.

With Remembrance Day approaching, however, there have been some reports of people encountering difficulties either in selling poppies or being allowed to wear them in the workplace.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 250

The Democrats have won control of the House of Representatives and are within striking distance of taking over the Senate at the end of a damaging night for President George W. Bush.

Although he was not on the ballot, the US mid-term elections were America's last chance to voice its opinion of Mr Bush at the polls before he leaves the White House.

Opponents of the war in Iraq had hoped to seize on any Democrat gains to force the president into withdrawing troops from the Middle East.

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Posted at: 07:01 | Permalink | Comments 108

Scientists have applied for permission to create part-human, part-animal embryos with the aim of finding new treatments for debilitating neurological diseases, reigniting the debate over the ethics of embryo research.

The researchers want to use therapeutic cloning to fuse human cells with rabbit, cow and goat egg in order to create early-stage “chimeric” embryos that would be 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent animal.

It is hoped the technology could ultimately help treat people suffering from conditions such as spinal muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 76

Saddam Hussein's death sentence for crimes against humanity has left Iraq braced for retaliation from the former leader's Sunni supporters.

While President George W Bush has hailed the verdict as a "milestone" representing a "move to democracy" for Iraq, observers fear Saddam's death by hanging will ignite even more sectarian conflict in the volatile country.

Do you think the sentence risks turning Saddam into a martyr and further destabilising Iraq? Will he be more dangerous dead than he would be alive?

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Posted at: 10:02 | Permalink | Comments 84

Green taxes, loutish teenagers and the surveillance society all raised the ire of Telegraph readers this week.

Monday began with an alarming warning from Sir Nicholas Stern, the Government's chief economist, that global warming could lead to an economic upheaval on the scale of the 1930s Depression.

We asked what readers would give up to halt climate change, and received some 227 responses - mostly from readers who questioned the existence of the phenomenon in the first place. Proposed "green taxes" were also given pretty short shrift.

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Posted at: 00:02 | Permalink | Comments 33

Cyclists and drivers have formed two warring factions on the Telegraph blog site after Erin Baker, our motoring commissioning editor, confessed she was getting "steadily angrier" at the aggressive behaviour of cyclists on London's congested roads.

One camp defends cyclists as safe and environmentally friendly road users, the other brands them self-righteous and reckless.

What is your experience of cyclists - or cycling? Which group of road users do you consider the least considerate?

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Posted at: 10:02 | Permalink | Comments 124

Britain's teenagers are the worst behaved in Europe, according to a survey which takes into account drug use, drunkenness, violence and promiscuity.

A separate report, meanwhile, has revealed that two thirds of British teenagers are too fat to join the army.

Do you find these results credible? Does Britain really have the worst teenagers in Europe? If so, why?

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Posted at: 00:02 | Permalink | Comments 67

The Government's privacy watchdog has issued a stark warning that Britain is becoming a surveillance society, with CCTV, databases and tracking technologies making Britain one of the most snooped upon countries in the democratic world.

News that the Government has proposed asking questions on income and sexual habits in the next census has further stoked the privacy controversy.

Do you get the feeling that Big Brother is watching Britain? Has the surveillance culture become too intrusive?

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Posted at: 00:02 | Permalink | Comments 183

John Reid has compared the technological advances needed to fight Islamic terrorism in Britain to the innovations which helped the country defeat Nazi Germany.

The Home Secretary appealed yesterday for a return to the spirit of great wartime scientists such as Barnes Wallis, the inventor of the bouncing bomb, and Alan Turing, one of the pioneers of modern computers.

He also announced that he is setting up a taskforce drawn from the business and academic worlds to pool ideas that would keep Britain one step ahead of al-Qa’eda and its sophisticated use of cyberspace.

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Posted at: 00:02 | Permalink | Comments 135

The cryptic crossword has thrived for more than 80 years, with puzzles such as Sudoko failing to dent the appeal of anagrams, hidden solutions, contortions and word play.

Val Gilbert, who has been crossword editor at the Telegraph since 1977, retires today and has revealed her ten favourite clues.

What do you think explains the popularity of the crossword? What are your own favourite clues?

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Posted at: 00:02 | Permalink | Comments 39

Until recently, Carphone Warehouse was seen as a long-running success story. But the company has come in for a pasting over the last few months.

Carphone launched its "free" broadband service to much fanfare in the spring. But customers signing up to the new service have endured long delays before being connected. The company also scooped more broadband customers with its acquisition of AOL's UK arm last month. But it was stung the next day when Vodafone dumped Carphone's stores as one of its distributors.

Do you think Carphone Warehouse overstretched itself by entering the broadband business?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 0

PricewaterhouseCoopers warns there is a 30pc chance house prices in 2010 will fall below today's levels. The warning comes after home owners have seen strong gains in the value of their properties since the mid-Nineties.

Another study has found monthly mortgage repayments on the average British home eat up more than half of take-home pay and that house prices are now the equivalent of 6.6 times the average salary.

Do you think property prices are set to fall or even crash?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 39