WE all know that southerners are softies who fly into a blind panic at the first hint of a bit of the white stuff.

MY principal reason for opposing a return of capital punishment is the worry that our legal system gets it wrong far too often, or certainly seems to in the light of convictions which are overturned later.

PERHAPS the seven sixth formers at a Cumbrian school, who complained that they were victims of discrimination because they were asked to attend the annual carol service despite their atheist views, are the free thinking intelligensia of our future. I doubt it though.

DICK Turpin didn’t have the brass neck of some of these bankers who, a year after being bailed out by the taxpayer, expect to trouser big bonuses.

GORDON Brown swept into Cumbria at the weekend and promptly announced £1 million worth of relief for flood victims.

ONE small victory for commonsense, but, hey, don’t get carried away into thinking that at last we’ve got the health and safety fanatics on the run because the truth is all their precious H and S has actually made us less safe.

IN civvy street my father was a gentle gentleman who sought a peaceful life, doing his job and coming home to his family.

THERE is no greater moment of hypocrisy than that which precedes Question Time in the House of Commons. It’s that moment when the Prime Minister offers his condolences to the families of the latest dead soldiers, the leaders of the other main parties solemnly nod in accord and dishonourable members mutter approval before launching into yet another session of yah-boo politics.

WE pride ourselves on being the nation of free speech. Well, forget it. In reality we are becoming a nation that is in danger of slipping into a paralysis of fear over saying anything that might be calculated to give offence.

WHEN it comes to getting in touch with human feelings, the vicar who this week slammed funerals featuring modern songs ought to take a lesson from those arch-predators of the ornithological world, the magpies.