Alan Sillitoe is 80 on 4 March 2008: author of 81 books so far in every known category — and counting: radio ham, traveller, map collector, holder of numerous literary awards and academic honours and the least pretentious of famous men, his birthday’s worth celebrating [More >>>]
The obvious and expertly advocated solution to the prison overcrowding problem is radically to reduce the prison population, much of which ought not to be there anyway. So why do successive home and justice secretaries automatically adopt the wrong alternative of building more and bigger prisons? [More >>>]
The iniquitous control orders régime has been renewed for another year, one day before another control order is quashed as unjustified by the high court; and the government continues to demand the extension to 42 days of the maximum time allowed for suspects to be jailed for questioning without being charged. These are indefensible breaches of our human rights [More >>>]
The Guardian has published a spirited and documented rebuttal by Ian Buist of an article about Kenya which played back many of the fashionable myths about the British colonial record. We should be proud of the many positive achievements of those days and especially of the way decolonisation was achieved [More >>>]
Recommendation to listen to a few minutes of comment on the Rowan Williams Shari’a law affair by the Revd. Dr Giles Fraser, vicar of Putney and philosophy don [More >>>]
A new selection of howlers, solecisms and other follies from the print media in the early weeks of 2008 [More >>>]
American scholar Parag Khanna’s Guardian article reinforces my perception of the US and Europe drifting apart, a message that Khanna as an adviser to Obama might usefully pass on [More >>>]
Sadly the gulf between the political climates of the US and western Europe is growing; little hope of reform of the many shortcomings on both sides. But the EU offers a ray of hope for us Europeans [more >>>]
At present John McCain looks the likeliest candidate to beat both his Republican rivals for the nomination and the probable Democratic candidates for the Presidency. Some McCain myths unmasked [More >>>]
J and I spent five days over Christmas with son O and daughter V in Brussels, and were very pleasantly surprised. I was last there with a large, predominantly Canadian military and civilian group...