A liberal society should permit cultural or religious minorities to wear distinctive clothing - but only if that doesn’t get in the way of an institution’s ability to enforce basic standards of security, which the full veil most definitely does, since it obscures the identity of the person beneath the covering. But it does more even than that. It destroys nothing less than the presumption of equality on which human communication is based. ...read
Melanie Phillips for the Daily Mail's recent articles
The election of Australia's new PM Tony Abbott is clear evidence that genuine conservative policies can win elections
Something truly astounding has happened, writes MELANIE PHILLIPS.The best political candidate for a country's future has won a general election. A true conservative won a general election on true conservative principles. This has just occurred in Australia where the leader of the Liberal (conservative) Party, Tony Abbott, has been elected Prime Minister by a landslide. ...read
A rapier of steel under a blanket of bonhomie. What the bully boys of broadcasting today could learn from Frost
All too often, it is only when someone dies that people suddenly publicly discover that individual’s many virtues. That is almost certainly the case with Sir David Frost, the broadcaster and media mogul who died at the weekend. Sir David's hallmark characteristic was his affability and niceness. And it was this good-natured quality that encouraged people to drop their guard. ...read