Looking at Christianity from the outside, formerly inside, but ultimately dispassionately. There are very few aspects of Christianity, if any at all, that don't seem to have their roots in some way, in Paganism or earlier monotheistic religions. I do imagine that the re-branding of previous pagan festivals was vital…

Yeah, that's just disgraceful. As a man it sickens me how some so called men behave. You would obviously have more experience of the subject than I would. And there are clearly men of every race who are just creeps and jerks. I was simply stating how her encounters tend to go. As they happen quite a lot, it really can…

That's the way to go. In Ireland it's integrated too. The best player on my under-tens football team was a girl. And she was a great, great player. That was twenty years ago.

My Indian wife would agree with this 100 percent. The way men stared at her in India was an eye opener for me. Shocking. I've seen it bad in Kenya at times, but in India it was off the scale. She did say it usually isn't white guys who do it here in London. She's not a racist, just her experience as an Asian woman.

R.I.P Ned. Gone too soon mate. Terrible story, repeated over and over again all over the world. My deepest condolences to all involved. We have to work harder on helping those with depression in anyway we can. Love to all and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to you and yours. x

My country isn't in Nato and never has been. I don't give a shit personally about Nato or post-Nato. Putin is a massive piece of shit, who is steadfastly rolling back human rights. This should not be without consequence. Governments will always be absolute hypocrites and pretty much everything they do is hollow

I am in western Europe and the general sense of what Russia is doing here, is that it is going backwards in an effort to shore up the power of Putin. He is buying the support of the orthodox church through bringing in laws that repeal basic human rights. Wether it is in cases like Pussy Riot or gay rights. We don't…

He was Irish.

Ah. High spirits. What a brilliant underrated film.

Good stuff. I am a leftie but always like to hear different opinions to my own and I like to challenge my own opinions too. A lot of conservative media I find just seems like angry shouting. Will give this a look. Thanks

The Guardian is certainly not as left wing as it used to be. Quite a few very non left leaning articles these days, which is good. As a euro-leftie it's still my goto news site.

Good on you, a kid with principles. It is absolutely ridiculous and worthy of The Emperors New Clothes or something. It's so bloody obvious. Let's at least acknowledge it!

Haha. I can only imagine how much more it applied in your case. In my childhood church going days the attitude among the congregation was like "Yeah he looked like us, he must have" forget geography, or basic facts of genetic distribution. I felt like I must have been crazy or something. Why hadn't anyone mentioned…

Ha yeah. Me too. I am blonde and blue eyed, my best friend as a kid back in Ireland was from Israel originally. He looked not a whole lot like me. I remember looking around and thinking. Really? No one is going to say anything? :)

You can try that. I believed in Santy (what we called him in Ireland) as a child. It added a layer of magic to Christmas, genuinely wonderful magic. I think if I hadn't come to the solution gradually as I did, it would have been more of a shock. but my parents let me figure it out for myself without just telling me…

I do hope so. I will try my best to keep up the standard. :)

Being a woman you would know better than I would. So I concur. The current state of men and what they find attractive in general does alienate and disappoint me so maybe that's more evidence of your case. Dark hair would certainly be my preference if I have one.

Really? I am Irish. I do not care less about hair colour, neither do very many people I know. I have found that people usually like what is uncommon in their society. My blue eyes went down a treat in Africa and India whereas in Europe they get one of two remarks but not many.

The fact that he was instrumental in empowering previously disenfranchised, black women through one person one vote, meant he made an amazing contribution. More than enough for one lifetime. There is only so much one person can do and I can think of very few who did as much as Mandela.

I am in living in London but from Ireland and it's the same there. Christmas is a secular holiday really, with Pagan and Christian roots. My Hindu born, wife-to-be, and my Muslim friends say Merry Christmas all the time. I am an atheist and so do I. There is no issue here. This whole subject is very strange to me.