Connecting people to jobs and to each other is absolutely vital to a city's economy (and to the wider economy).

People rightly want our political leaders - on all sides - to concentrate on minimising the damage to jobs, living standards and our savings from the banking crisis.

At times unpopular measures are needed in order to change behaviour.

Like many of my friends and colleagues, I can't get enough of Obama news; latest polling, speeches, visits, reaction of world leaders.

There's a loss of faith in the banking system that for so long has been the backbone of prosperity and growth.

Funding for sports (and the arts) are often the first things facing the chop in difficult times.

In politics, the number of women in the cabinet has fallen and, if current poll trends continue and Labour loses a number of marginal seats, the number of female MPs is likely to drop significantly.

Indeed, when all parties campaign effectively the overall effect is to push up voting rates, as you see in tight marginal seats or close general elections. That must be good for democracy.

Today the demands are for even higher standards in the quality of care, for greater flexibility and convenience in treatment times, and for more prevention through screening and health checks.

At its most basic the democratic contract is a simple one: the right to vote comes with a responsibility to society, through tax payments and citizenship.

Sixteen- and 17-year-olds pay taxes and can join the army, so surely they should in turn be given their right to vote.

Today, death is your opponent.

your right standing with God and your connection to Him remains your strongest defense in the day of calamity.

People who have survived atrocities often tell their stories in a highly emotional, contradictory and fragmented manner.

You can become just as hooked on sugar as on drugs, tobacco or alcohol. The sugar affects the same areas in your brain.

Two weeks is about the ideal length of time to retire.

Imagination took the reins, and reason, slow-paced, though sure-footed, was unequal to a race with so eccentric and flighty a companion.

We need to return to the cosmopolitanism of Alexandria of yore, and marry that with the tolerance and democracy of Europe today

A woman's love Is mighty, but a mother's heart is weak, And by its weakness overcomes.

If you want to get on in this world make many promises, but don't keep them.

"if a rock falls on another rock on the other side of the moon, how does Islam explain it?" "Who Cares?"