Something similar happened in Germany last week when the Dalai Lama arrived there at the start of his five-country Western tour (Australia, the United States and France are next), a trip which will keep him in the headlines in the run-up to the Olymp...

The Armed Forces should indeed be better appreciated by the public. Last year General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army, gave voice to widespread concerns in military circles, when he complained of a "growing gulf between the Army and the nat...

The countryside around me here changes colour with the shifts in the market. Pay silly prices for milk and the cows give way to sheep. Pay silly prices for wool, and the grazing land gives way to polytunnels and potatoes. Panic about the shortage of ...

And yet even though there is universal respect for these mothers' dignified response, public opinion is more polarised. The more usual response from someone who has lost a loved one is that of Helen Newlove, who in February this year spoke of bringin...