'The intelligentsia ignored the irruption of religious fanaticism into domestic British politics. In the face of these foes of civilisation, silence is the worst form of cowardice'

'While discussing sex education it emerges that Doncaster has the highest rate of STIs in the UK. I turn down an offer to hit the town'

'Gove has restored ordinary rights to classroom teachers. Yet the unions hate the man who made it possible for teachers to breathe again'

'Crumbling stones are nothing compared to the mangled bodies of Assad's victims. They are a good illustration, though, of the price of our impotence'

This isn't just any bureaucracy, this is M&S bureaucracy: Miriam Gross was told by the high street giant that she needn't worry about her lost card. That's when she should have started worrying.

'New Labour's top brass doesn't live on council estates, but it might have the decency to check the impact its policies have had on the UK labour market'

'Surely tax avoidance is perfectly legal? Not when you are a multinational corporation operating in the third world, it seems'

'Two successful sharp cookies marry and bear sharp cookies: voilà, a self-sustaining upper class based not on historical injustice but merit'

'Charitable income will suffer from the Budget, as the Treasury knows'

‘Sexual relations between same-sex couples will never produce babies. That unavoidable difference justifies having a different legal institution’

'Unlike Nazis shooting defenceless women and children into ditches, or herding them into purpose-built as chambers, RAF air crew faced the nightly risk of violent death'

'I was fond of my father's old friend Günter Grass. I'd like to think he knew better'

Life in Birmingham as a vicar’s wife opened our Mole’s eyes to what has become of Britain’s second city

Cyber-activism spreads quickly and reaches many, but the lack of risk involved means it is largely superficial

Impact Foundation Bangladesh funds a floating hospital which provides treatment to remote villages

New columnist Saintsbury relates the tale of Christmas Eve in Jane Austen's Emma — but which wine did Mr Elton employ in his quest to warm the heroine's heart?

Will today’s scientists hunting the Higgs boson prove as ingenious as the ancient Mesopotamians?

Some of the game's greatest have had trouble playing against the clock. Not so Bobby Fischer, who was a lord of time.

A master of drinking scenes, Shakespeare brilliantly articulates the ambivalence of wine — Cassio's devil and Iago's instrument — throughout Othello

A conversation about the Boat Race veers off course