By James Lee

As Left Foot Forward points out, David Cameron has contradicted himself: this month he called for immigrants to have more “understanding of British values” as part of his strategy to tackle extremism, but at the same time is cutting funding for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) that enables those very people to integrate into society.

The revoking of arms licences to Libya and Bahrain won’t last. British firms will be back, argues John Kampfner.

When Robin Cook tried to tighten rules on British arms sales to dodgy regimes in 1997 he was told by Tony Blair’s team to grow up. Planned changes to criteria for weapons exports were so watered down that they made no inroads into the trade. Cook’s professed “ethical dimension” to foreign policy was stillborn.

By Asad Badruddin

The battle for blasphemy reform is not over. It needs a change of strategy. Currently it has consisted of people demanding a change in the laws but to little effect. There is a need to get various influential lobbies and stakeholders involved. One of them is the mosque.

By Cyril Almeida

Events, dear boy, events. Would that the American and Pakistani governments had taken to heart the apocryphal advice of Harold Macmillan.

When Raymond Davis preposterously shot to death two Pakistani youths in broad daylight in downtown Lahore and a rescue vehicle crushed to death a third Pakistani, the two governments did what they do best: they screwed up.

By Simon Woolley

I’m at a loss to see what all the fuss is about in regards to Radio 4 seeking to broaden its appeal beyond the white ABC 1 (35-55) age group. The rational is clear: In future years it will be this group that will be the station's main stay audience, as it is now, which is a worry say the authors of the report because it is this group that is in decline.

By Shiroma Silva

“Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself,” said Regan of her father. It’s a sentiment that comes through clearly about the central character in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s latest production of King Lear. Playing the traditional old man who gets madder as the play progresses, Greg Hicks depicts the ageing King as a character who, though lost in madness, has a self-taunting self-reflective quality.