Articles
Tolerance, and its limits, on display at the World Cup
For all those hopes that football, indeed sport as a whole, is the great leveller, a pursuit capable of bringing unity to a divided world, reality still falls short of that lofty objective.
Marseille's Muslims win right to build mosque
Attempts by the far right to block the project appear to have at last been overcome.
Baroness Warsi is UK's first female Muslim minister
Sayeeda Warsi has been made minister without portfolio after being named as the chairwoman of the Conservative Party.
The UK election: excitement, drama, just no winner
There is the prospect of another vote before the year is out after Cameron's Conservatives fail to gain an absolute majority.
Labour dissidents take aim at MP over 'slap in face' to Muslims
Veteran legislator accused of offending the Muslim community in the East End of London by walking out of a wedding because men and women were segregated.
The political fringe comes to the fore in the UK election
Fringe candidates are increasingly capable of gaining sufficient support from disaffected voters in the UK to pose a real threat to Labour, Tories and Lib Dems.
A full stop is reached, but the words will go on. Salut!
It was never my ambition to impose a homogenised version of the language, but I make no apology for insisting that any self-respecting newspaper should lay down clear rules of expression.
Lies, damned lies and politicians - it's election time
If you believe that people in public life should, by and large, tell the truth, now may be a good time to give British newspapers, news bulletins and political discussion programmes a wide berth.
When it comes to words, Mr Q hits the nail on the head
Michael Quinion does more than most to keep up the good work of Fowler, Partridge and the other linguistic ghosts who haunt this column.
Splitting hairs vs spilling blood: the split infinitive debate
My word: In one corner are those who avoid splitting infinitives. In the other corner are champions of the notion that infinitives are, indeed, there to boldly split.
UK winter a distant memory on the road back to France
The road from London to the shores of the Mediterranean takes travellers past two natural weather frontiers.
Trials and tribulations of a reluctant football supportee
My word After offering some thoughts on crowd behaviour to a magazine, he was horrified to see his remarks paraphrased so that he appeared to describe himself as an "attendee".
The mysterious creature that is the press officer
A longtime journalist wonders what, exactly, press officers do.
In politics, as football, the loudest and cleverest slogans win
The Left, it has often been said, has all the best tunes. Does it also have a monopoly on the most effective words?
Time waits for no man - but man is certainly kept waiting
As one grows older, delays can start to feel like cruel and unusual punishment.
