"Hi, mate, how are you?" is a greeting that has come to haunt me. It came from my dad on a recent visit to the care home where he lives, offering a glimpse of what he used to be like. Dad suffers with dementia. When the family visits he sits, occasionally acknowledging us, but usually just fiddling with things. At his worst, he appears to be in a sort of [...]

Is Labour becoming the anti-Catholic party? Young Labour's vice chairman, Conor McGinn, thinks so. He has resigned his position, offended by what he saw as the anti-Catholic attitude surrounding the recent Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. This was most stridently articulated by the Labour MEP Mary Honeyball, who asked: "Should devout Catholics such as Ruth Kelly, Des Browne and Paul Murphy be allowed on the government front bench in the [...]

Mustapha Taleb, currently an inmate of Long Lartin prison, came to the UK in the 1990s as an asylum-seeker from Algeria. A death sentence hangs over his head if ever he returns home. In 2003, he was arrested and subsequently cleared at trial in connection with the case that became known as the "ricin plot". After the London bombings of 7 July 2005, Taleb was picked up and served with [...]

The debate over the contribution that faith schools make to society has been raging over recent months between those of a religious background and secularists. Representatives of these two groups have their own cheerleaders in the Labour Government. So last October (2006) saw the then secularist Education Secretary Alan Johnson seeking to force through a measure that would see faith schools forced to accept 25 per cent of [...]

Barry George's success in winning his appeal against conviction for the murder of Jill Dando provides a timely reminder about the reality of British 'justice'.

George was famously convicted in 2001 for the murder of BBC presenter Jill Dando.

The case was high profile with the conviction carrying all the classic ingredients for a miscarriage of justice.

A well-known victim and massive media interest generating pressure on the police [...]

Thousands of asylum seekers have been forced into destitution across the UK, living on handouts from churches and charities due to an inhumane government policy.

The level of suffering being incurred was revealed at the hearings of the Citizens Organising Foundation sponsored Independent Asylum Commission that has recently been taking evidence in Manchester. According to the National Audit Office there are between 155,000 and 283,500 rejected asylum seekers awaiting [...]

Does anyone remember postman Roger Annies, who rose to fame when he was suspended by Royal Mail for telling his customers how to avoid having junk mail delivered to their homes.

There was a great outcry in support of Annies, especially from some of those same newspapers who now condemn the Communication Workers Union for its refusal in the present dispute to accept worse terms and conditions for its [...]

There has been a very public falling out in recent weeks between Amnesty International (AI) and the Catholic Church regarding the decision of the human rights organisation to change its policy on abortion. This has involved AI going from a position of neutrality to one favouring decriminalisation and access to abortion for the victims of rape, incest and in cases where the mother’s life is at risk.

The initial response [...]

The government has missed a deadline. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission gave it until 24 February to produce a "memorandum of understanding" with Algeria about torture. But, despite feverish diplomacy in recent weeks, there is no sign of it.

No doubt the efforts continue, because ministers are desperate for a deal under which Algeria will promise not to torture deportees flown there from Britain.

The difficulties are obvious. As Amnesty [...]

A couple in bed at 5am are awakened by a terrible banging downstairs. The next moment they are surrounded by armed police, uniformed and plain-clothed, who have knocked down the front door with a sledgehammer. They are ordered to get up and dress. The man is arrested, taken to Paddington Green police station, held for five days, questioned intensively and then released without any action being taken against him.

It [...]