This is especially true in Britain, where power is so centralised and voters are offered a simple choice every four or five years between two alternative governments, which they have to accept warts, beauty spots and all.

ECONOMIST: The power of sleaze

When examined by BBC Radio 4's Document programme, the format, language and tone of the documents all rang true, but establishing whether they were genuine was not simple: MI6 never discusses its operations or declassifies files and all the people named are dead.

BBC: The 'secret agents' of the UK press

This is a victory for true feminism, in its old-fashioned sense of a simple assertion of the equality of men and women.

WSJ: Things Are Tough All Over