Bristol Most taxi drivers are self-employed. If a taxi driver is shown to have avoided paying income tax and national insurance contributions, then not only will he be punished by imprisonment or...

For years, Israeli security officials have insisted to anyone who will listen that, without swift military action, Iran's path to a nuclear weapon is assured. Those claims have not so far been...

A shadow had hung over Chris Huhne's position as Energy Secretary ever since it became clear that the police were taking more than a voyeuristic interest in the allegations made by his now...

A founder member of The Independent David Lister joined the paper in 1986 as Assistant Home Editor. He became the paper's arts correspondent in 1988 and is now Arts Editor and writes a column...

Celebrated novelist Howard Jacobson's most recent novel is 'The Finkler Question', published to great acclaim in 2010. An acerbic critic and broadcaster with a passion for literature...

Andrew Grice has been Political Editor of The Independent since 1998. He was previously Political Editor of The Sunday Times, where he worked for 10 years, and he has been a Westminster-based...

Maybe it's because I've been in the Middle East for 36 years, but I sniff some old herrings in the air. Leon Panetta, the US Defence Secretary no less, warns us that Israel may strike. So...

Who knew that Anna Ford and Sandi Toksvig take woodwork classes together? Who knew that woodwork, come to that, is the new knitting? But it apparently is, and in that capacity it has cemented one of...

Michael McCarthy, the Independent's Environment Editor, is one of Britain's leading writers on the environment and the natural world. He has three times been Environment Journalist of the...

Stephen Foley is Associate Business Editor of The Independent, based in New York. In a decade at the paper, he has covered personal finance, the UK stock market and the pharmaceuticals industry, and...

Given the explosively pungent mix of economic disquiet, social unrest and general misery, it's little wonder we're burying our noses in books. You'd think we'd all be ramming on...

Cameron's EU veto turns out to be no more than a UK opt-out. Just so, it turns out that Prince Andrew has not been sacked from his role as UKTI's Special Representative for Trade and...

It's been quite a week for pre-judgment. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Condemned in the court of public opinion, but not in any court of law, the chief executive of the...

For possibly only the second time in its history, the England football captaincy has become fleetingly relevant. You'll have guessed the dateline and details of the single other occasion on...

After Newt Gingrich's double-digit defeat in the Florida primary on Tuesday, there have been widespread calls for him to throw in the towel and admit defeat to Mitt Romney, the now seemingly...

Celebrity insights, dontcha just love 'em? Really, there's nothing a harried parent needs more than to read about how very, very famous people feed, clothe and discipline their...

The upsurge in the number of people cycling is a hugely welcome feature of modern Britain. The figures are most noticeable in London, where the increase over the past decade is put at about 50 per...

Do we send our children to school too early? There is a deep ambiguity in the report by the National Audit Office into the state of nursery provision. On the one hand, it acknowledges that the...

The Independent's parliamentary sketch writer and columnist since 2000, Simon Carr was described by Tony Blair as "the most vicious sketch writer working in Britain today"....

Being British, I still prefer the view that it was a spontaneous outburst of fan fury that got out of hand. But in Egypt at the moment, you can't take the politics out of sport, particularly one...

Once it was a story about hacking mobile phones. But the scandal over British media malpractices has spread to include illicit payments to police and now the hacking of email accounts. And, as this...

Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Exeter, Philip Hensher was among Granta 20 Best of Young British Novelists in 2003. The author of six novels, a collection of short stories and an...

Cyclists running red lights is bad form, I know, Minister, but some cyclists run red lights because that is one way of avoiding lorries.Of course, lorries are supposed to stay out of cycle lanes and...

Every so often, observers of our body politic have to pinch themselves. Did they really hear that? Did the minister say that? So it proved yesterday, when the Chief Secretary to the Treasury was...

The man has lost a piece of decorative flim-flam. Many, many others have lost or are still losing their livelihoods as a direct result of his actions. We taxpayers are subsidising the giant mess that...

I found myself thinking about the low status of whimsy the other day. The place was the Hayward Gallery, which is currently hosting the funniest art exhibition I've been to for some time, David...

The writer and broadcaster Terence Blacker contributes a twice-weekly column on a wide range of social, cultural and environmental issues. He is the author of four novels, of prize-winning fiction...

Why are Britain's health charities bent on sucking the blood from the NHS? The very same organisations that do such sterling work funding research, supporting patients and promoting awareness...

One of the country's most respected commentators on Russia, the EU and the US, Mary Dejevsky has worked as a foreign correspondent all over the world, including Washington, Paris and Moscow. She...

Chris Huhne has resigned after it was announced he would face a criminal charge in connection with a speeding offence. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty...