Yet it is nothing short of terrifying to recognise that Clay, on his own authority, gave very serious consideration to using an armoured column backed up by support from the air to break the blockade.

ECONOMIST: The cold war

Lord Cranborne had put his own authority on the line in the negotiations, which included face-to-face meetings between him and the prime minister.

ECONOMIST: Hague��s history lesson

The founder and spiritual mentor of the movement, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, seems at last to have severed his own psychological dependency on the charismatic Mr Deri, and reasserted his authority.

ECONOMIST: Israel��s great divide

If the state can convince the court that Erickson lacked the authority to deal on his own, so much the better for its case.

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He did admit that he had carried out his own research into cot death in infants - a subject on which he was a world authority - without seeking the coroner's permission, but says very little of this was carried out on children's bodies.

BBC: The pathologist

Why would anyone willingly submit to the authority of a government if it delivered no more than the citizen could get on his own?

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