These are editorials and articles from today's London Sunday Times:

Leader: Spinning to death

The tragedy of Dr David Kelly’s suicide will leave most people in Britain with a sense of sadness mixed with anger and disgust. A hard-working public servant, who in his work as a United Nations inspector did as much to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction as any posturing politician, should have had much to live for, including the wedding of one of his daughters in the autumn and his own impending retirement. But Dr Kelly, an honourable and private man, chose instead to end his life by slitting his wrist, a gruesome end to a distinguished career. He was, it seems, driven to the blackest despair by being the unwilling pawn in a game being played between Downing Street and the BBC. Until last Friday that game was all about reputations. Now it has become a matter of life and death and all those involved — Downing Street, the Ministry of Defence (MoD), an unusually hostile foreign affairs select committee and the BBC — should be ashamed.

A day that changed everything for Blair

On Tuesday evening, one of the warmest evenings of the year, Tony Blair and his Downing Street staff retired to the rose garden of No 10 for the annual staff party. Basking in temperatures higher than in California, they could have been forgiven for thinking that the prime minister’s troubles were fading in the summer heat.

Cabinet ministers concede that a usually sure-footed prime minister has been uncharacteristically clumsy in the past few weeks, with a dreadfully botched reshuffle, a big Commons rebellion on foundation hospitals and what even some of Blair’s close allies saw as an unnecessary row with the BBC over the Iraq dossier. Some, in private, have begun to contemplate life beyond Blair.

But on Tuesday, at No 10 at least, all this was forgotten. The “finishing line” of the long summer recess was in sight. There would be a fresh start in the autumn, but for now it was time to relax. Alastair Campbell appeared on the balcony to play his bagpipes for charity. Cherie Blair joined her husband in a raffle of signed bottles of whisky and teddy bears. Scores of officials, Blair’s brightest and best, chatted over sauvignon blanc and posh nibbles.

Isolated Blair stays silent amid a sea of unanswered questions

David Cracknell and Melissa Kite

THE prime minister had never looked more isolated or more hunted. Last night Tony Blair refused to answer a series of questions over the death of David Kelly, the weapons expert, but said the affair was “an absolutely terrible tragedy”.

Blair, looking sombre, anxious and with a sometimes croaky voice, appeared at a news conference in Tokyo with Junichiro Koizumi, his Japanese counterpart.

After Blair had answered a few brief questions, a British journalist shouted out: “Have you got blood on your hands, prime minister?” Blair stared ahead and for almost 10 seconds did not answer or even blink. The question came at the end of a press conference that had been intended to address subjects ranging from the European Union to North Korea.