European Union leaders are celebrating after clinching agreement on a treaty to reform the nation bloc's institutions, bringing to an end two years of supense and stalemate.

The 27-nation bloc will get a long-term president, a more powerful foreign policy chief, more democratic decision making and more say for the European and national parliaments.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said no red lines have been crossed in handing over powers to Europe, and Britain retains opt-outs on justice, tax and social security rules, workplace legislation and union rights and foreign affairs.

But Rupert Murdoch's stable of newspapers has made it clear they believe Brown has betrayed the country, signing over to Brussels veto powers in 61 areas. "Bottler Brown in Euro sell-out", the Sun's front page said.

The Conservative Party has called for a referendum on the treaty, saying Brown had walked away from an earlier promise to hold one.

What can Britain do to ensure that its voice is not weakened? Should Britain hold a referendum? Send us your comment.

Successive increases in interest rates might have succeeded in taking the heat out of the property market, but Britons’ great love affair with bricks and mortar appears unshakeable. Despite numerous signs that the party might be over, almost two-thirds of the general public believe house prices will continue to rise.

The decade-long housing market boom has created thousands of paper millionaires and spawned a generation of property developers and buy-to-let investors on the quest for a fast buck. Average national house prices have risen threefold since the early 1990s, from about 60,000 pounds to some 200,000 pounds now. That has taken the typical house price to about nine times’ average annual earnings - up from about five in 2001.

The boom might have caused huge problems for some - thwarting the home-owning dreams of would-be first-time buyers and pushing more and more people into the inheritance tax net. But, for those on the property ladder, it’s proved one long party.
It’s little wonder that consumers want the good times to roll. And why shouldn’t they continue?

The good times have certainly been rolling. Those who called the top of the property market in recent times have been forced to eat their words: house prices have seemingly defied gravity. But, like the last few stragglers at the bash of the century savouring the dregs of the last bottle of Bolly long after the sagacious among them have long hailed a cab, are consumers blindly revelling on, clinging to a moment that has passed? House prices unexpectedly fell 0.6 percent in September - the first fall since December last year - according to mortgage lender Halifax.

Just yesterday the world’s leading financial forecasters said Britain is heading for housing market meltdown, with homes overvalued by as much as 40 percent. That prediction, from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), would make the British housing market more inflated than US property before prices there crashed, causing chaos to financial markets around the globe. “The extent of house price overvaluation may be considerably larger in some national markets in Europe than in the US,” the IMF said in its bi-annual report on world economic prospects. The estimates suggest that a number of advanced economies’ housing markets could be vulnerable to a correction.”

British borrowers - like those who triggered the US sub-prime crisis - are now struggling to service their mortgage debt and lenders are tightening their lending criteria: factors that could act as a catalyst to such a correction.

The IMF does qualify its pessimism. It concedes there are “considerable uncertainties” in its model, which does not take into account pertinent factors in Britain: supply shortages, boosts to prices from immigration and greater affordability due to the availability of mortgages.

Differences between the climate today and that of the 1980s, when a British house price crash led to two years of wider recession, gives another reason to be less bearish. Chief among them is inflation. It stands around a target 2 percent and economists largely expect the next move in interest rates (currently 5.75 percent) to be down. Back in the 80s inflation was out of control, almost trebling from 3.4 percent in 1986 to 9.5 percent in 1990, and the base rate doubled to 15 percent within the space of a year.

The Treasury does not foresee a repeat of the late-80s property crash. “We’re certainly not expecting a disorderly correction in the housing market,” a senior official told Reuters. But, whether a sharp correction or soft landing is in the offing, consumers’ apparent unwavering belief in the housing market might come at a cost.

This might be the beginning of the end of a beautiful relationship. Those who fail to recognise that might be left with only one refrain: It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.

On Monday the chairman of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospital Trust in Kent resigned after a government watchdog criticised appalling hygiene that contributed to outbreaks of a superbug that killed about 90 patients.

Today the same watchdog, the Healthcare Commission, said one in four acute and specialist hospitals in England and Wales did not comply with at least one of the government's three standards on infection control.

It said it did not believe the hospitals were unsafe. But the watchdog's chief executive, Anna Walker, acknowledged the public's concern.

"We recognise that patients are genuinely frightened of catching a superbug in hospital," she said.

Are you too scared to go to hospital? Send us your comments.

Age was no barrier for the great Liberal leader William Gladstone, who became prime minister for the fourth time at the age of 82.

But Menzies Campbell, a sprightly 66, has quit as leader of the Liberal Democrats amid falling poll ratings.

Leading LibDem MPs say "Ming" Campbell was a victim of ageism, particularly from the press, where cartoonists mercilessly portrayed him with a Zimmer frame and pension book.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is a decade younger, while Conservative leader David Cameron, riding high in the polls, is just 41.

What do you think? Was Ming too old for the constant demands of today's politics, with 24-hour news and regular newspaper polls?

Send us your comments.

A shake-up of dental service last year was meant to improve access to NHS dentistry.

But a survey of 5,200 dental patients has found that many been forced to go private after their dentist stopped offering NHS treatment.

Other patients have not been able to register with any dentist or have even started treating themselves.

Dentists told the survey the quality of care given to patients had declined under the new contract, introduced in April 2006.

The government acknowledges that problems remain but says the report gives a very narrow picture of NHS dentistry.

What do you think? Have you or your family had problems finding an NHS dentist? Send us your comments.

Sebastian Coe said the negativity shown by Londoners towards hosting the 2012 Olympic Games doesn't get him down.

But he must have had the wind knocked out of him by the questions and sometimes anger shown by local residents and politicians in recent question and answer sessions.

During meetings with the London Assembly and Newham residents, Coe and various other important Olympic-planning bods were constantly put on the spot by doubters about the costs and financing of the Games.

"We're being taken for a ride over costs," said one councillor.

At one stage during a meeting at Stratford Circus Arts Centre, in Newham, near the site of the proposed main stadium, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell was forced to dismiss similarities with the much under-used and unloved Millennium Dome.

Coe and co were keen to stress the legacy the Games will provide, including providing employment, skills, affordable housing and business space. But residents were more concerned about the now.

What about the cyclists who have had to give up their track to make way for the Olympic park only for their replacement to be held up by a protected breed of newt?

What about the effects of contamination that has already forced the canoeing events to be transferred to another site?

What about the mum and dad who have to drive their daughter to Sheffield to train because there aren't diving facilities?

Surely the emphasis should be on the youngsters and their dream of competing in 2012 rather than on buildings, one councillor asked.

That prompted the double-gold medallist Coe to suggest the "world was beginning to wobble" if the councillor was implying he didn't understand the demands of training.

"Hit a nerve, have I?" she retorted.

And what about the cats being rounded up from the site, asked one woman? Well, 150 have been collected already, an official answered.

Coe must be wondering how much more cattiness there is to come

Long queues and unmanned tills figure at the top of Britons’ list of retail gripes, according to new research today. But there’s so much more to customer dissatisfaction than this. Anyone who’s been dragged out to their nearest High Street on a busy Saturday by their other half will know what it feels like to be an unwilling participant in what is sometimes said to be Britain’s most popular leisure activity - shopping.

Never mind the tedium of walking at snail’s pace through packed and overheated department stores. Or the difficulty of attracting shop assistants who seem to have perfected the 1,000-yard stare. Or the endless hanging around outside fitting rooms while your partner discovers that they’re not a size 12 after all and all the outfits picked have to go back and be replaced with bigger ones.

No, it’s just the fraught nature of it all. The long queue to get into the multi-storey car park and the extended delay when you want to get out thanks to the fact that there’s only one pay machine in operation which will invariably cost you extra in parking charges.

The way you are assailed with loud, pumping rock music in practically every shop, inflicted with surly teenaged Saturday staff who simultaneously know everything and nothing at all. And the long, long wait to pay while the person in front struggles to remember their PIN at the cash till. Not to mention the virtual bombardment of ‘closing down sale’ messages, charity muggers and middle-aged women with clipboards who want to stop you at every corner for their ‘quick little survey’.

There’s no escape even when you’ve finished shopping. Want a quiet drink or a bite to eat? Bad luck. You can try one of the identikit ex-bank premises that now offer 24/7 drinking venues, complete with the obligatory crowd of unreformed puffers loitering outside. Or you can take pot luck in a pseudo French-style pavement cafe with a curly sandwich and over-priced cappucino.

There’s simply no escape from the hordes. Even the retreat back home in the car will be to no avail, stuck as you will be in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam all the way out of the town centre. Get back and sigh with relief only to listen to the plaintive cries of regret as your partner recounts the list of stores that we just didn’t have time to get around to and the dreaded words - ‘never mind, we can always pop back tomorrow’.

For, truly, on the seventh day man has no rest.

It’s a sign of how far the Conservatives have changed under David Cameron that a fringe meeting about grammar schools could be feverishly anticipated in the media as a rallying point for dissidents at the annual conference here in Blackpool.

The National Grammar Schools Association would not once have been regarded as a forum for a Tory rebellion.

But Cameron’s decision to end what he calls the sterile debate over the 11-plus exam by adopting Labour’s mantra of “no more selection” means that grammar school supporters in his party have been pushed to the non-conformist sidelines.

In the end the meeting did not quite live up to its billing, as one paper put it, as the “hottest” fixture of the week.

The hundred-strong audience barely filled half the meeting room – and a good many of them were journalists hoping for a story.

Under the glare of the television lights backbench Conservative MP Graham Brady – who quit as shadow Europe minister over his repeated support for grammars – began by puncturing the media’s hopes he would spoil the conference’s air of unity by launching an attack on his leader.

“If you are here looking for a vibrant debate about the evidence that selective education works and raises standards, not just for people in grammar schools but across the whole spectrum … then you are in the right place,” he said.

“If any of you have come looking for criticism of David Cameron or something to report about splits and disharmony in the Conservative Party, then I hope you will leave disappointed.”

Grammars were the scene of a rare u-turn by Cameron earlier this year – when it was conceded that some new grammars could be built in areas of growing population.

Brady’s caution might have been due to the presence of a party minder in the room making sure he didn’t speak out of turn.

After one delegate questioned how the MP for Altrincham and Sale West could square party allegiance with his support for grammars, Brady joked about the surveillance.

“I hope the deputy chief whip present here in the room has noted the rebuke that I have been delivered for following party discipline and the criticism that I am facing.”

Former Chief Inspector of Schools Chris Woodhead, a conservative by nature but not a party member, was under no such restraint.

Well known for his trenchant views on education, he said Cameron’s decision to abandon support for selection would be a “tragedy” for hundreds of thousands of teenagers.

Noting the huge popularity of the remaining 164 grammars among parents – most are heavily oversubscribed – he warned that it could also be a costly political miscalculation.

It's the end of the world as you know it, and how do you feel?

A British survey using the apocalyptic premise of an asteroid barreling towards earth revealed 54 percent would choose to be with or phone their loved ones.

What would you do before the end of the world?

Pray? Eat? Loot?

Or sit back, accept the inevitable and reach for a glass of champagne?

Send us your comments.

It's every patient's nightmare - go to hospital for a routine procedure and then become infected with a potentially deadly superbug.

Last month Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised a "deep clean" of every National Health Service hospital in England to rid them of killer infections.

But this morning the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent is facing the possibility of criminal action after outbreaks of Clostridium Difficile that killed around 90 patients at its hospitals.

A Healthcare Commission report said appalling hygiene, a shortage of nurses and poor management at the trust were all to blame.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said the findings were a scandal but said they did not reflect the state of other hospitals across the country.

What do you think? Have you experienced poor hygiene in an NHS hospital? Do you fear catching an infection during a hospital stay?