What is regarded as good news and bad news is a changeable thing. Thirty years ago, when anxiety about rising population and diminished resources was fresher than it is today, figures showing a flattening out of population growth in many countries, including our own, would have been seen as a boon.
The first lesson of the French political crisis provoked by Jean-Marie le Pen’s first-round poll success in the presidential election is that if you treat your politics as farce they can all too easily turn into tragedy