Did I miss the moment – perhaps it happened over the summer – when Nigel Farage was installed as leader of the country? I ask because a man who has serially failed to get elected to the House of Commons seems to be running the show. Not only will parliament spend the next four years, at least, making real Farage’s dream of a British exit from the European Union, we now know it will also be consumed with another Farage obsession: the return of the grammar school. No doubt we should brace ourselves for legislation bringing back “proper dress” for the theatre, restoring imperial weights and measures, and making the London tube’s Circle line a circle again (to take three items that all appeared in Ukip’s 2010 manifesto).

Published by: The Guardian

You read of the latest suspected chlorine attacks on Syrian civilians, which activists and rescue workers say came in the form of barrel bombs dropped on Aleppo by a helicopter pilot serving Bashar al-Assad. You see the pictures showing children clutching oxygen masks, grasping for breath. You see people hosing down the young and naked, desperate to wash away any trace of the burning, stinging chemical.

Published by: The Guardian