All religions throughout history have been concerned about - and have sometimes fought over - what it means to represent God, and they have found elegant, intriguing, and awkward ways to confront that dilemma.

Democracy requires information. Plato knew that informed decision-making requires knowledge.

When it comes to silencing women, Western culture has had thousands of years of practice.

We lived in the schoolhouse of the village school in Church Preen, in deepest Shropshire, and my mum was the schoolmistress. She taught the juniors, and one other teacher taught the infants. I went there from the age of three, no doubt as a form of childcare.

The thing about being a university teacher is that you're fairly tolerant about young people saying things they shouldn't have said.

I receive something we might euphemistically call an 'inappropriately hostile' response - that is to say, more than fair criticism or even fair anger - every time I speak on radio or television.

If you ask me what is civilisation, it's little more than an act of faith.