There is more than a hint of Lucky Jim to Professor David Coleman, as he poses for a photograph, tweed-jacketed, in his book-lined room at Oxford. He looks like a man who would rather enjoy stirring things up and goosing...
Read moreAn alarming insight into the minds of the people of Warwick has been provided by the psychology department of the town's university. A study into British attitudes to character, published in the magazine Personality and Individual Differences, interviewed 17,056 adults,...
Read moreSo, the great carnival of celebration that will climax in five and a half years' time with the London Olympics is now under way. This week the former rower Sir Steve Redgrave is launching a campaign to find some quite...
Read moreThere is some good news at last this week for Planet Earth. The writer Iain Banks has announced to the press that he has undergone a major change of conviction about the environment, and is changing his lifestyle accordingly. He...
Read moreAs a political leader nears the end of his period in power, he is likely to loosen up in interviews and perhaps even in the way he behaves. He might admit that, early in his career, he was too eager...
Read moreHow did they feel, the 1.8 million protesters, when this week they received a long email in response to their petition from the Prime Minister? They had logged on to the Downing Street website, a new exercise in online consultation...
Read moreIt is the season for self-mortification with the start today of Lent, one of Christianity's better inventions. There is much to be said for a short, bracing spell in our personal wilderness, without booze or chocolate or fags or TV,...
Read moreThis month, some startling new statistics have come to light. A higher proportion of Britons find Sir Cliff Richard a powerfully erotic fantasy figure than they do George Clooney. Between Carol Vorderman and Nicole Kidman, it is the Countdown presenter...
Read moreFingers on buzzers, your starter for 10: which public figure has just achieved the unique double distinction of having an exhibition based on his work shown at Tate Britain while in the same month being voted 2007's Most Inspiring Political...
Read moreThe signs are now in place on the borders of the restricted zone. Local newspapers have moved on to emergency footing and bear headlines which read "The crisis - what YOU can do". Meanwhile, within the zone, we are doing...
Read more
