After considerable thought, I have now reluctantly disabled all readers' comments on this site. Despite my having recently restricted them to a seven-day period to make them more manageable, the popularity of this site -- for which I am legally responsible -- means that I simply do not have the time to ensure that nothing creeps onto it that is libellous or otherwise unlawful. I am sorry to deprive readers of this facility, from which I myself have learned much of interest, and I may therefore review this decision in the future. Meanwhile, I will of course carry on posting diary entries as before, and hope that these will continue to help promote national and international debate.