Humans versus animals

On the front page of my local paper this Saturday evening is the story of a young man caught on CCTV punching and kicking his pet dog, in a drunken attack lasting twenty minutes. The man currently awaits sentencing whilst the dog, a Staffordshire bull terrier, has been taken into the care of the RSPCA, who are seeking a new home for him.

Lions led by donkeys

Perhaps it is an indication of how emotionally frozen we have become in this age of immorality and mayhem that we are rarely moved by the things we see in newspapers. Even the most sensitive individuals, it seems, become desensitized to continual barrages of appalling news.

A crime to be a Christian?

"We are entering the early stages of what could become persecution and outright criminalization of Christianity if it is not exposed and fought vigorously by all freedom-loving people." Joseph Farah.

The Cestello Annunciation, Sandro Boticelli,
c.1489; Uffizi, Florence (source Web museum).

Was Mrs Whitehouse right?

One of my boyhood heroes was the comic Spike Milligan, a manic-depressive eccentric who consistently broke the rules of TV comedy, and came to exert a powerful influence on successive generations of "alternative" comedians, from Monty Python onwards.

My favourites of his shows were the Q-series on BBC2, which began in 1969 with Q5. The shows were brilliantly anarchic compilations of (sometimes unfinished) sketches featuring memorable creations such as The First Irish Rocket to the Moon, the Pakistani Daleks, the Cock-A-knees (cockneys) and Adolph Hitler doing an impression of George Formby.

Dealing with the internal terrorist threat: the case for deportation of suspects

In the period preceding the outbreak of World War Two, the British government had to decide what to do with tens of thousands of "enemy aliens" – mainly Germans, Austrians and Italians living in Britain – and also British citizens of foreign descent. Though it seemed likely that most of these people were no threat, still it was the duty of government to address the real possibility of sabotage and espionage by fifth columnists amongst their number.

Save our butterflies!

Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui). Photo: Alvesgaspar.

This year has been a bumper year for British butterflies, and readers who have ventured out into the countryside or explored overgrown corners of their towns may have been surprised to find large numbers of common species such as the Red Admiral, Peacock or Large White fluttering around fragrant Buddleia bushes or amongst tall stands of grass, nettles or wildflowers.