The Observer: Main section

Barbara Ellen: As a skint Yuletide approaches, are we to drone on about the evils of consumerism?

Henry Porter: Ian Blair's besetting sin was to forget he was a servant of the public, not our master

Tim Lewis: Still, when the tirade was in full swing, it was hard not to feel some nostalgia for the good old days of English football

Chris Riddell on David Cameron's response to the global financial crisis

Editorial: Hilary Benn's support for crop gene manipulation could prove invaluable

Editorial: The current market turbulence does not distinguish between brands of capitalism

Andrew Rawnsley: This is surely the wildest plot twist in the already convoluted history of New Labour

Robert Yates: Twittering liberals fear the chef's new show is 'patronising'. They're the ones who are at fault

Brian Morton: Local authorities' disgraceful habit of avoiding paying for appropriate care is beyond satire

This week's corrections

Marc Quinn's sculpture of the model in a yoga position has joined the British Museum for three months

Letters, the big issue:Business Editor Ruth Sunderland is correct in noting that the lightness of regulatory touch for the financial markets began with Thatcher and Reagan

I'm entirely in favour of presumed consent with easy opt-out for organ donation, but am totally against allowing bereaved relatives to refuse organ donation if the dead person has signed a donor card and/or is on the organ donor register

Patricia Williams: Sarah Palin speaks to us in a wipe-your-nose and sit-up-straight inflection that is quite Orwellian

Catherine Bennett: Debbie Purdy says the present legislation on assisted suicide is cowardly. She's wrong - it's barbaric

Nick Cohen: George Osborne and David Cameron's condemnations lacked all conviction and their embarrassed faces proved it