"Part of the reason that perverted brands of Islam can be so influential is because too many high-profile figures who claim to be preachers of Islam actually have no religious qualifications, but attain their status by amassing notoriety and controversy. The most high-profile hate preachers in Britain in the last decade — Abu Hamza and Omar Bakri — are nothing more than self-appointed loudmouths, who drown out qualified imams who preach genuine Islam."

"...[T]here are good reasons to have a healthy flow of foreign students in the country. Our strength is our openness. Reducing the number of foreign student visas is counterproductive. The United States tried it after 9/11 but has now reversed its approach, realising the harm it is doing. We can only remain an outward-looking and vibrant society if we remain open to the world beyond our borders. It is precisely many of these foreign students who will help their countries to reduce terrorism over the long run."

"...Labour knew it wouldn't bring in much money. They didn't really do it for the economics. They did it for the politics. The 50p band has symbolic value. They took polls about it in advance and found that asking the rich to contribute more would be popular."

"But the biggest rebuttal to this deal's critics is simple: it belongs to the shareholders. This begs the question of what those who oppose the deal want the government to do. Nationalise Cadbury? Pass a law to forbid it? The truth is that although these critics don't like the deal, they recognise that it will be a decision voted for, ultimately, by its shareholders. Since Cadbury has been a public company, anyone could buy shares in it, and the bald fact is that very few of those shares were owned by members of the Cadbury family. However much Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson express their regret and determination to keep jobs in Britain, all parties know the decision is simply not up to them."

"Where the inquiry can be the most fruitful, though, is in asking the former prime minister about how he managed to approve a war with such derisory postwar planning. Not even Mr Blair could assert that the years following the Iraq war went well. Many civilians were killed needlessly."

"...[I]t is the flagship recruitment organisation for the future of our military. Senior military officers appreciate that some budget cuts are inevitable, but they are aghast one so significant will be not just scaled back, but abolished in its entirety. While the purpose of the OTC is to provide military and leadership training to future officers, it does much more than that. It also serves to create a civilian leadership more appreciative of the military, and who empathise with our troops."

"...[T]he culture in government needs to change from one in which IT projects are regarded as a panacea, to a more hard-headed culture in which they are an investment on behalf of the public, pursued only after rigorous cost-benefit analysis."

"...[T]he point about the ability to spot opportunity and to make use of connections is that they are attitudes. That means everyone can learn how to develop them. The government can help break down barriers, but ultimately it is up to each of us to write our own success story."

"And yet the media bear some responsibility. Not only do they give Islamists a very large platform to air their views, they also often make them seem more authoritative by referring to uneducated preachers as 'clerics'. That gives the impression that they speak for Islam, when in fact they only speak for themselves. A journalist would not dream of calling someone a surgeon or a general just because they had put on the right clothes, and yet they throw titles such as 'Muslim cleric' around like confetti."

"...[T]here is only one way to beat terrorism over the long term: reduce the motivation for young people to radicalise in the first place. It is no good trying only to dismantle terrorist networks. As the Christmas Day attack shows, a determined terrorist does not need a group to stage an attack — they just need the kind of know-how they can access online."