Janet Daley says British national identity is becoming more and more like the weather: so tepid most of the time that it is difficult to describe.

If teenagers are somehow being influenced to take their own lives, the influence is likely to be coming from their peers, not from weird-beard strangers, says Sam Leith.

The internet age is coming and the politicians who embrace it will have a decisive advantage over the dinosaurs who resist, argues Robert Colvile.

Despite their apparently archaic nature, the adventures of Billy Bunter still have a telling resonance, writes Jim White.

Wodehouse's works overbrim with many Shakespearean allusions, but Joy in the Morning is more Shakespearean than most, writes A N Wilson.

Alistair Darling has calculated that nationalising Northern Rock will reassure the electorate. Whether he is right depends on whether the proceeds from the eventual sale offset the costs incurred by taxpayers.

It is not often that a new country is born, and our first reaction should be to offer the Kosovan Republic a warm welcome. Kosovo will need its friends, for the circumstances of its creation are far from auspicious.

Surely the most basic staple of life should not be considered a luxury if it actually tastes as it is supposed to.