Inequality makes everyone unhappy, the poor most of all, and that is well within the remit of the state. More money gives less extra happiness the richer we get, yet we are addicted to earning and spending more every year.

The best care on earth cannot prevent us all dying in the end.

But instead of standing up for reason, our government is handing education over to the world of faith.

So what really works? Treatments in jail do some good, but it's mostly too late: finding a family and a job or just growing older make most prisoners eventually give up crime.

How do you make any sense of history, art or literature without knowing the stories and iconography of your own culture and all the world's main religions?

My mother begged doctors to end her life. She was beyond the physical ability to swallow enough of the weak morphine pills she had around her. When she knew she was dying I promised to make sure she could go at a time of her choosing, but it was impossible. I couldn't help.

There is all the difference in the world between teaching children about religion and handing them over to be taught by the religious.