We want a system that will improve consistency and steadiness in the quality of government.

Francis Wheen takes a hugely enjoyable sweep through the tangled thickets of superstition and gullibility in which modern man likes to ramble. He takes particular delight in reminding us how easily fools are parted from their money and how many of them there are.

I hate churches, all of them. But they used to know something about the importance of silence.

A majority in all parties do, I think, want to see local government recover its old vigour and independence.

All the research shows that being married, with all its ups and downs, is by far the most effective way of making young men law-abiding and giving them a sense of purpose and self-worth.

No constitution is or can be perfectly symmetrical, what it can and must be is generally accepted as both fair and usable.

Something is happening to Britain and the British. Or has happened. We are said to be passing through a transition, or a turning point, or a transformation; nobody is quite sure which.