High five!

Nobody is safe from the long arm of EU law

When Britain signed up to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) six years ago, critics pointed out that an individual could be extradited to another EU state to face prosecution for something that is not a crime in Britain and had not even been committed in the requesting country. Ministers dismissed such concerns as fanciful, but it has come to pass.

How we change! Derek Hatton, the militant capitalist

Derek Hatton, 60, is best remembered as a radical socialist when he was deputy leader of Liverpool City Council in the 1980s, and Neil Kinnock expelled him from the Labour party for being a member of Militant. Now he runs a property company selling villas and apartments in Cyprus

Bob Dylan names Scottish poet Robert Burns as his biggest inspiration

His powerful songs have inspired countless other musicians. Now Bob Dylan has named his own greatest inspiration as the Scottish poet Robert Burns. The American singer-songwriter was asked to say which lyric or verse has had the biggest effect on his life. He selected the 1794 song A Red, Red Rose, which is often published as a poem, penned by the man regarded as Scotland's national poet.

From Princess Di to the man who invented mini-roundabouts ...fifty people who have wrecked Britain

So much money, so many high-tech advances - yet today Britain is such an unhappy country, so drained of community, so robotic as it staggers towards oblivion. Who landed us in this mess? Who are the halfwits, the mooncalves, the clotpolls whose touches and yanks on the national tiller steered us onto the rocks?

Are there really Clinton supporters in the US who are planning to vote for Palin because she's a woman?

For many centrist voters in America, the desire to vote in more leftwing leaders may be outweighed by other considerations. On a recent visit to the US, I met one or two of that rare breed of American voter whose existence I had previously considered merely a myth: centrists who want to elect a woman candidate, would have voted for Hillary Clinton if she'd been running, but are now intending to vote Republican because Palin is on the ticket.