SOME years ago, in Afghanistan, the anthropologist Scott Atran asked a Taliban fighter what it would take to stop the fighting, because families on both sides were crying. The fighter replied: “Leave our country and the crying will stop…”
This article first appeared in The Guardian on 24 September 2021. To continue reading, click here.
JUST over two years ago, my friend Janet came over to commiserate with my husband, whose leg was in plaster after a road accident. We immediately noticed a change in her. This sharp, funny woman in her mid-60s, who had nothing good to say about men (with the exception of her three beloved sons, whom she had raised almost single-handedly) had softened…
This article first appeared in The Guardian on 18 March 2021. To continue reading, click here.
Sir Graham Brady, Richard Tice and Toby Young proposing; me, Phil Whitaker and Layla Moran opposing. Online on 28 January 2021 (lockdown obliged). Worth a watch:
SARAH and her brother Benjamin (not their real names) have never seen eye to eye. She’s a professional scientist, he – according to Sarah’s description – is someone who is susceptible to conspiracy theories. They maintained an uneasy truce until a few weeks ago. Tensions came to a head when Sarah was on the phone to her mum, talking her through the online procedure to book a slot for her Covid-19 vaccination…
This article first appeared in The Guardian on 26 January 2021. To continue reading, click here.
BY the end of March, one week into the UK’s first lockdown, recorded crime in Lancashire had dropped by a startling 40% compared with the four-year average. “At first there was some mild panic,” says DCI Eric Halford, of Lancashire Constabulary. “Most senior officers expected a surge in demand…”
This article first appeared in The Guardian on 27 December 2020. To continue reading, click here.