Opinion in 1986

The Chirac government in France seems to have made a hash of its intended university reform.

Not much has happened in the nuclear power industry since Chernobyl. But now the British government has to make a decision that will determine not only British plans, but influence what others do.

The British and US governments are both embarrassed by the doings of their undercover people.

The European Commission threatens dire consequences if it is not given a bigger budget for research. But its case is fragile, at best

Governments are moving quickly on publicity about AIDS; should they be doing more?

A new study of undergraduate education misses an opportunity to tell what is really wrong.

Week-end diplomacy seems to have won Britain a prolongation of its role as a nuclear power, but the time has come to ask when and how this will be attenuated.

Two retracted papers do not make a scandal, but too much reticence about the circumstances may.

Mr Baker's little extra has also created a dilemma in which leaving CERN may be the only choice.

The British government has scraped together a little money to save its universities from catastrophe, winning in return a series of promises that academics may not be able or willing to keep.

Governments can no longer hope that AIDS will simply go away. Time could yet show that AIDS is as great a threat as nuclear war. And the time has come to act. But how?

The inquiry into the dealings between the United States and Iran has so far concentrated on the supply of arms. What promises have been made about the price of oil?

Cleansing the world's financial markets of fraud may be more difficult than supposed.

Is the proper education of the young too important to be left to teachers?

The City of London is entering the twentieth century awkwardly and apprehensively.

Both the Soviet Union and the United States have evidently over-committed themselves to arms control proposals that cannot be safely carried through. They need help in backing away from them.

Few are fond of the Strategic Defense Initiative, but a boycott of research would be mistaken.