A former cabinet minister once infamously described the homeless as "the people you step over when you're coming out of the opera." As reprehensible a joke as it is, his words are about to be thrown b
It was Bob Diamond, recently of Barclays, who defined business culture as "how people behave when no one is watching." Speaking in a lecture sponsored by the Today programme last year, he declared tha
As a boy I'd have been in dead trouble if I'd ever used the name of Jesus as a swear word at home. Blasphemy just wasn't tolerated, even though my parents were non-believers. The boundaries between ac
"I'm spiritual but I'm not religious" is now a commonplace among people in Britain, the majority of whose population live their lives without reference to organised religion. In my role as an Anglican
I was attending a workshop on women and violence. One told her story. She was 18 and visiting a farm with her boyfriend. Alone together, they had sex even though she didn't want to. Guilt-ridden, humi
On the train yesterday I sat next to a family with some very excited children who were off on holiday. You couldn't help being caught up in their sense of excitement and anticipation. I know just how
Some of the parents I know with teenage children who use cannabis are fairly relaxed about what's happening. 在我认识的父母中，有些并不在意孩子吸食大麻。 "It isn't doing any harm", one tells me, "Alcohol's much worse." “这又
Whatever happened to the silly season? 今年的新闻饥荒期是怎么回事？ You know, that time of the year when the wisdom of the 1st century poet Horace is adopted by news editors, 新闻饥荒期，众所周知，就是每年记者们对公元1世纪的诗人贺拉斯说过的一句至理名言
"What is a Caucus-race?" asked Alice during her adventure in Wonderland. The Dodo explained. “什么是会议式赛跑？”爱丽丝在梦游仙境中问到。渡渡鸟解释道。 First you mark out a racecourse, though the shape of it doesn't really matte
Newspaper obituaries are a useful window onto history and reading accounts of the life of the late politician Alf Morris this week reminded me just how different Britain was 50 years ago before Morris
The original Olympic Games were far from being a meaningless tribute to ancient pagan Gods, Zeus and his many relations. The ancient Greeks can still help us understand what has been happening over th
In a pre-flight news conference in the summer of 1969 1969年夏天，在一次飞行前的新闻发布会上 Neil Armstrong said, "I think we're going to the moon because it is in the nature of the human being to face challenges. 尼尔·
Being here in Edinburgh on the opening day of the International Book Festival feels like the perfect place to celebrate words and stories, especially as we're about to turn the last page of the Olympi
With Mitt Romney's presidential nomination confirmed in a barnstorming acceptance speech two days ago, 米特·罗姆尼两天前的提名巡回演讲进一步巩固了他总统候选人提名的身份。 the race to the White House is now well under way. 通往白宫的角逐正在顺利
If a butterfly flutters its wings, so chaos theory goes, it can cause the path of a tornado to change, and so the reverberations can be felt across the world. 混沌学理论提到，如果一只蝴蝶煽动翅膀，卷风的路线会因其改变，全世界都将感觉到随之而
Earlier this week Sir Elton John expressed anxieties about how his young son, Zachary, might be treated when he goes to school. 本周早些时候，艾尔顿·约翰爵士坦言自己对儿子扎卡里的担心， He fears he might face bullying because hi
Certain appalling events in history stay with us in the form of particular images 某些可怕的历史事件陪伴我们的是特定的图片， and in the case of the Hillsborough disaster the image that sticks in my mind is that of fans be
"A few years ago my middle son who was around seven years old at the time, had cycled away from home without telling anyone. “几年前，七岁左右的儿子一声不吭地骑车离开了家。 It was a mild summer evening and there were many c
Must all good things really come to an end? 天下真的没有不散的宴席？ This weekend we must steel ourselves to say farewell to "London 2012", 本周末，我们必须坚定地对“伦敦2012”告别。 and I think it'd be fair to say that for a lot o
There was just a hint in Stephen Hester's interview on this programme yesterday that the banking sector has finally run out of fig leaves. To his credit, the Royal Bank of Scotland boss certainly used
