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

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.

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?

This is indeed a clash of civilisations, not between Islam and Christendom but between reason and superstition.

Is anyone serious about the politics of happiness? David Cameron dipped a toe in the water, using the word lightly, but denying the hard policies it implies. Labour shies away from it, but should take up the challenge.

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

Happiness is a real, objective phenomenon, scientifically verifiable. That means people and whole societies can now be measured over time and compared accurately with one another. Causes and cures for unhappiness can be quantified.