Things Unseen

Kevin Gosden tells Mark Dowd how, after his teenage son Andrew went missing six years ago, his Christian faith was challenged to the core.

Is it time to take a break from discussing women’s and gay rights in the Church of England and focus on the neediest in society? Roger Bolton throws out the challenge.

Politicians, journalists to blame - and Paralympics ‘won’t make any long-term difference’. Dougal Patmore reports. Image courtesy of dominikgolenia via flickr.com ©©

‘We admire the Paralympians because they chose not to sulk or retreat into self-pity, or to use their problem as an excuse.’ Image courtesy of nickmilleruk via flickr.com ©©

No, says Peter Hitchens. It’s a ‘sentimental belief’ that’s come back to haunt us... Image courtesy of Photodeus via flickr.com ©©

Evidence piles up that cannabis harms us. Yet our laws have never been softer. Are we, asks Peter Hitchens, soft in the head? Image courtesy of N.ico via flickr.com ©©

Politicians hope for a boost to the economy. Athletes look to a generation inspired to take up sport. Others see a resurgence of patriotism, and a greater confidence in who they are and in what they value. Nonsense, says Peter Hitchens, of the Mail on Sunday. The only legacy is ‘increased debt’. We have been ‘surprised by joy’, says Catherine Pepinster, of The Tablet, and ‘the feeling lingers’. Th...

They choose, target, groom, and harm children. So punish them as criminals. Don’t label them weak and sick men who cannot help themselves. Image courtesy of Nick Atkins Photography via flickr.com ©©

A success at the London Olympics, so let’s cash in and take them off the dole and employ them. Image courtesy of Andy Wilkes via flickr.com ©©

‘It’s public schoolboys and girls wot won them. Social mobility hasn’t just seized up, it’s gone into reverse; state schools’ lack of ambition betrays our children’ Image courtesy of ahisgett via flickr.com ©©

'We're firmly in the grip of glorious delusions'. ... admitting you can learn to love them while acknowledging the delusions they foster

‘Obama promised “out of this darkness a brighter day will come”; it won’t, of course, because he won’t do anything about guns and the culture of his society which, like ours, is becoming ever more infantile.’ Image courtesy of esc.ape(d) via flickr.com ©©

Moral relativism of the worst kind: ‘lecturing others on human rights, while trying to escape responsibility for our abuse of them’.

‘Self-control used to be a virtue. Now it’s thought of as dysfunctional. If we don’t display our feelings, it’s assumed we don’t have any’. Image courtesy of Nick J Webb via flickr.com ©©

‘Our rubbish tells more about us than our art, and so it is with this ‘puerile tripe and mummy porn’ Image courtesy of crawford. I via flickr.com ©©

As its President accuses Britain of ‘naked colonialism’. This from a country of European immigrants ‘whose national policy has been to wipe out all trace of the people they snatched it from’. Image courtesy of ¡Que comunismo! via flickr.com ©©

David Cameron supports it, Nick Clegg says ‘when’ not ‘if’, the Churches worry about canon law and sin, and gays are split between ‘bring it on’ and ‘this is not the time’. Heat and light in our provocative and informative debate. Image courtesy of Guillaume Paumier via flickr.com ©©

‘leaving judgment, intellect, and common sense at the door, and Instead fitting in with the vacuous as they glorify the vacant’. Image courtesy of Damien Cugley via flickr.com ©©

.....’partly selfish, partly economic, but especially moral: it’s about justice, social solidarity, and incentivising virtue’ Image courtesy of IanVisits via flickr.com ©©

'It's one thing believing what is inherently unlikely, but what about believing something absolutely, obviously, and provably wrong?' Image courtesy of More Good Foundation via flickr.com ©©

Public busybodies delight in the depletion of our vocabulary and the policing of our thoughts. ‘It impoverishes us all’. Image courtesy of puuikibeach via flickr.com ©©

The King James Bible to every school ...’an empty gesture, potentially divisive, and a thinly-disguised attempt to tell teachers what to teach’. Image courtesy of bookchen via flickr.com ©©

‘In a healthy democracy, it’s every citizen’s right to be insulted... Freedom of speech is at stake here’ Image courtesy of Stephen Dagnall via flickr.com ©©

John Sweeney visits Ukraine to recall Stalin’s great famine with aged survivors, and to tell the story of two journalists – one who lied and won the Pulitzer, one who told the truth and was killed.

The pending Olympics are ‘an excuse for normalising the deployment of Action-men and women packing more heat than soldiers in Afghanistan’. [Image courtesy of Trojan631 via flickr.com ©©]