Clarissa Hard

Clarissa Hard is an academic and writer based in Oxford

How terrorism changed Christmas

Christmas is traditionally a time of joy, merriment and peace on Earth. Not so in the little town of Erbach, Germany, this year, where depraved individuals destroyed a living nativity scene, tortured two donkeys, vandalised and looted the Christmas market, and proceeded to smash up and defecate in a nearby Protestant church. Tidings of comfort indeed.  No luck

christmas markets europe

It’s time to legalise pepper spray

When faced with mortal peril, the average member of the British public might prefer to defend themselves with something more robust than a bottle of whiskey. Last Saturday, passengers on board a train found themselves in this dire predicament. The ‘frail / Travelling coincidence’ – as Philip Larkin described the same journey through Doncaster to

Should this teacher really have been struck off?

Alex Lloyd, a former teacher and head of sixth form in Bournemouth, has been drummed out of the profession for making remarks that many would find intemperate, even insulting, but few would seriously call career-ending.  In 2022, Lloyd led a PSHE lesson on so-called ‘honour’ killings. When two pupils giggled during his lesson, he shouted