Society

My wife will not let our 11-year-old daughter take the dog for a walk around the large field adjoining our house in case a paedophile jumps out of one of the hawthorn bushes with a bag of sweets or a beguiling promise of puppies. For every yellowhammer singing its insipid chorus, the missus thinks there’s at least one nonce crouched down in the undergrowth beneath, waiting, waiting. We live six miles from the nearest town and two from the nearest village. From the age of six I spent all of my holidays out, playing, and would not be heard of from dawn until dusk. Quite often I would walk a

Ah, home ownership. It’s the holy grail of living arrangements, isn’t it? No more nasty landlords and money-grabbing letting agents. Now you’re king or queen of the castle and you can install a hot tub in the garden, paint a Banksy-style mural on the wall, and finally get the canine friend you’ve always wanted. Or can you? If you buy a leasehold property you’re likely to find you’re bound by as many, if not more, rules than you were as a tenant. And if you think the rip-off fees stopped when you bought your home, think again: letting agents are mere amateurs compared to unscrupulous freeholders and the equally dodgy

There are three supermarkets in the small market town where I live. That’s three major chains serving just 14,000 people, not to mention another five within a four-mile radius. So when Sainsbury’s lodged planning permission to build a fourth outlet within spitting distance of the existing shops, local people had had enough. Objections were launched and Sainsbury’s withdrew its bid. Now I’m wondering if the people of my Northern town made a mistake. According to new research from Lloyds Bank, homes located close to a Sainsbury’s are likely to command around £26,000 more than other properties. Of course, that’s a national average and, given house prices in the North, homes

The latest challenge was to supply a poem that takes as its first line W.S. Gilbert’s ‘A policeman’s lot is not a happy one’ but replaces ‘policeman’ with another trade or profession. Although this line doesn’t come until line eight in Gilbert & Sullivan’s ‘Policeman’s Song’, it was the opening I prescribed and so it was with a heavy heart that I had to disqualify some excellent entries that veered off piste (Judith McClure; Hilary Cooper; Charles Clive-Ponsonby-Fane; Carolyn Beckingham; Bill Greenwell). A competition-setter’s lot is not a happy one, then, but it does have its consolations and I was entertained — and informed — by your parade of teachers,

There’s one headline you didn’t read in the aftermath of the Manchester attack:  Isis celebrates ‘crusaders’ attack and vows further violence against Christians Sounds silly, I know. But look at what Isis actually said in their statement after the bombing: I have not seen the word ‘Christian’ mentioned in a single report since this statement was published. Not surprising in itself, as mainstream hacks can be relied upon to avoid the ‘C’ word wherever possible. In this context, though, it’s a serious oversight.   For Isis, the West is a Christian construct. In their astonishingly retro outlook, we’re all under the religious authority of Rome – and that makes us all followers

This week’s Best Buys, provided by Moneyfacts, are Remortgage Rates.

The meeting place of the two worlds could not have been more sharply defined. In Manchester Arena, thousands of young women had spent the night singing and dancing at a show in Ariana Grande’s Dangerous Woman tour. Songs such as the hit ‘Side To Side’ were performed: ‘Tonight I’m making deals with the devil/ And I know it’s gonna get me in trouble…/ Let them hoes know.’ Waiting for them in the foyer as they streamed out was Salman Ramadan Abedi, a 22-year-old whose Libyan parents settled in the UK after fleeing the Gaddafi regime. A man whose neighbours said he must have been radicalised in Manchester, ‘all those types’