Temple Takes is a new feature. They are think pieces written by members of the William Temple Foundation designed to provide comment and insight on news events as they happen.
The true genius of university education is that what prove to be the deepest influences on you in the long run are often people, places, experiences, ideas and graces which you hardly noticed when they first came into your student life.
We must stop blaming others for our discomfort. The cost of living with false promises is that it continues to dehumanise, it allows distrust to fester, and provides a veil to hide our diminishing sense of values.
As 600 innocent people drown in the search for a better and safer life, will compassionate pragmatism ever replace hostility?
The signals that we must stop unsustainable behaviours and practices are overwhelmingly clear, whether from natural systems, or society or from specialists in technology.
A Coronation is not just a graduation for the monarch. The Coronation was a rite of passage but it was also a leap of faith. Far from it being ‘hopeless’ to read meaning into the Coronation, the meaning was already there.
Many will argue that the coronation and the monarchy represent thousands of years of British history, running like a continuous thread. Yet, succession has rarely been straightforward. It is a story of claims, usurpation, conquests, seizure, offers, treaty, and acts. That’s even before we consider primogeniture.