Chris Bayliss

A sigh of relief at this point may prove premature, but perhaps we can permit ourselves a modest expulsion of breath. So long as we do it slowly and inaudibly, and without making any sudden movements. At the time of writing, Donald Trump has just finished his address at the World Economic Forum at Davos, where he managed to speak for just over 40 minutes without fundamentally pulling the rug from under the constitutional order of Europe. Despite being highly critical of the entire political and economic trajectory of the continent, many European heads of government will be quietly relieved that this big set piece statement did not include any catastrophic bombshells.

In Birmingham, schoolchildren as young as five have been reportedly asked to write Valentine’s Day cards to asylum seekers. One group of children were said to have created heart-shaped messages with slogans like ‘You are welcome here!. Let us count the ways that school children sending Valentine's Day cards to asylum seekers might be misinterpreted or otherwise lead to unintended consequences. Let alone whether it might cause alarm to parents, and generally reinforce the idea that the people in charge in this country are either profoundly naive or politically malevolent. Firstly - how might a Valentine’s Day card be interpreted by the intended recipients?  In most of the world, the celebration of what we used to refer to as St.