Is intervention possible?
We ask for the UN to go further than its recent resolution, condemning the violence in Zimbabwe, to encompass an active isolation of the dictator Mugabe, writes Morgan Tsvangirai. For this we need a force to protect the people. We do not want armed conflict, but the people of Zimbabwe need the words of indignation from global leaders to be backed by the moral rectitude of military force. Such a force would be in the role of peacekeepers, not trouble-makers. They would separate the people from their oppressors and cast the protective shield around the democratic process. The battle in Zimbabwe today is a battle between democracy and dictatorship, justice and injustice, right and wrong. It is one in which the international community must become more than a moral participant. It must become mobilised. Morgan Tsvangirai The Guardian
Ash Smyth: Let's go in 
Why Tsvangirai pulled out of election run-off
There is a sense in which Mugabe's hysterical anti-British analysis of his predicament is correct, says Simon Jenkins. His Zimbabwe is a creature of British imperialism and post-imperialism. Partly for this reason, there is no alternative for Britain to sitting out the Zimbabwean tragedy, impotent on the sidelines. If Africa wants to help its own, it will. If not, so be it. We cannot starve Mugabe into submission, since that is his own strategy towards his people. We take comfort by endlessly declaring his country "close to collapse", but that is idiot economics. Subsistence and remittance economies do not collapse. We should send food to the starving of Zimbabwe because that is something we can do, however much Mugabe distorts the supply. But as for dreaming of toppling him, those days are over. Britain has done enough damage to Zimbabwe over the years. Prudence tells us please to shut up. Simon Jenkins The Guardian
No need for wage restraint
Alistair Darling’s call for "wage restraint" is drivel, says Simon Heffer. There is not inflation because of rising prices, or rising wages. There is inflation because the Government has for years allowed the supply of money to be increased by far in excess of the combined rates of inflation and growth. We have too much money chasing too few goods. And who put all that money into circulation, not least by excessive borrowing? The Government. It has long been obvious that interest rates really ought to go up. The resulting bankruptcies would have the cathartic effect of driving inefficiency out of the economy. Having less money in circulation would genuinely ease inflation. Simon Heffer Daily Telegraph
Only pay rises all round will save us from recession
Hurray for Davis
David Davis’ behaviour has been quixotic, writes Jan Morris, but like the great mad progenitor of the condition, Don Quixote of La Mancha, he is fighting a cause in a truly fateful battle - a battle for liberty of the human spirit. Being spied on by CCTV demoralises us. And when you are afraid to say what you think, it is a step nearer to the most dreadful condition of all: being afraid of what to think. As I see it, Davis's display concerns not just political liberty but liberty of the mind, of the identity, of the spirit - even, patriots might sententiously say, of the national soul. It is not simply 800 years of hard-won political rights he is defending, it is nothing less than a view of life itself, which civilised peoples have so pain-stakingly fashioned down the centuries. Jan Morris The Guardian
Peregrine Worsthrone: Maybe we need Davis
Why David Davis is a hero
Olympic planning
Of course the London Olympics will be a good party, writes Hamish McRae. We know how to party in this country. What we seem to be less good at is creating high quality, long-term infrastructure. Yet it is the legacy that matters. It is not hard to organise a good show if they are given £10bn or whatever to do it. To blow that on a fortnight's fun, however, is at best insouciant, at worst deeply irresponsible. A one-off exercise, be it building new stuff or running a huge party, requires a different set of skills from the long slog of running and maintaining any economic entity for years to come. We have to combine the two skills, because ultimately the long-term success of a huge part of London is more important than having a good party.
Hamish McRae The Independent
Olympics 2012: the great debate
Silly chap
To an impartial, clinical observer it is quite clear that Simon Mann is a complete twit. Instead of sliding gracefully into his fifties, the mercenary decided on one last jolly jape. He and his chums would go into Equatorial Guinea, overthrow President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and install the exiled opposition leader instead. To the gentlemen of the British press, though, he doesn't seem to be a twit at all, but something completely different. It's not that he is a hero, exactly. More that he is A Chap. He is a chap, who was off doing good chap's stuff, the sort of thing other chaps can only dream of. The name of the chap is never written without the name of his school prefixing it, so he is always Old Etonian Simon Mann, as if that somehow excuses everything.
Gill Hornby Daily Telegraph
People: Met keen to talk to Mann about Thatcher
