Nick Page

Last week the wife and I went to Leveller’s Day at Burford. The event is held in commemoration of the Levellers killed there by Cromwell in 1649. This year the theme was about food sustainability and the speakers gave some fascinating facts. Here are just a few of the thought-provoking nuggets which I jotted down. [...]

If you thought the Mont Blanc Gandhi Pen was spectacularly ill-judged, then prepare to applaud Leica for their three limited edition cameras to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of People’s Republic of China. The camera body has ‘Mao Zedong front type’ and a ‘Tiananmen Square pattern.’ (I don’t know what that pattern looks like. Bloodstains, perhaps?) [...]

Given the unique nature of a British summer (i.e. it’s like winter) it’s always a good time for cloud watching. One of our favourite books of recent years is Gavin Pretor Pinney’s The Cloudspotter’s Guide, which is a great book to have in the car and really makes you appreciate what fabulous things these huge, [...]

More on the poppie stuff today with newsreader Jon Snow complaining of 'Poppy Fascism' in the media. And Foreign Office minister Kim Howells is in Kenya where he is talking about corruption. He’ll be going to Mombasa to visit Baraka FM, the Christian radio station I visited when I went to Mombasa recently. Baraka does [...]

There’s an excellent and thought-provoking exchange of letters on the Christianity Today website about the current conflict in Lebanon. The two correspondents — Dr. Martin Accad and Professor David P. Gushee — are eloquent, gracious and perceptive. A couple of quotes from both correspondents: Because the Bible says so, I believe that one day Christ [...]

In January I had the privilege of visiting Jerusalem and I was completely overwhelmed by the city. I had hopes that through my writing I could encourage other people to visit Israel — and to talk to people on both sides of the conflict. Now those hopes seem naive to say the least. The Palestinians [...]

Freezing cold here today, but my heart was warmed by a tale from the Telegraph which tells of a member of the Royal Navy who uses frequent foul language. What makes this sailor different, is that he’s a parrot. Sunny is “a six-year-old African grey with the official service number of RN Parrot No 1″ [...]

Any legislation, however good and right it is, will be misused at some time. The anti-terrorism act, however, seems to be setting new highs. Or lows. First we had it used to bar an elderly heckler from the labour party conference. Now BBC’s Broadcasting House programme is reporting on its use in places like Derbyshire, [...]

At last the election debate seems to be focused on what I think is the single most important issue: the war in Iraq and the erosion of civil liberty. We have colluded in a war which, as far as I can see, was about regime change, pure and simple. It’s legality was dubious, it’s morality [...]

The Israeli courts have cleared the soldier who shot James Miller of any wrongdoing. They should read Leviticus 24.22. Meanwhile back here the election has featured a lot of argument about immigration and tax, but relatively little about civil liberties and the war in Iraq, which has surely been the biggest issue of the last [...]