Melanie McDonagh

The Templeton Prize is known to lots of people from Richard Dawkins’ intemperate denunciation of it in The God Delusion in which it features as the unspeakable temptation for scientists to do business with the God lobby. But having been to the ceremony last night in which it was awarded to the former Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks – who, unusually for a winner, featured, mike in hand, in a performance of a hymn to celebrate Israel by the Shabbaton choir - I’m still at a bit of a loss as to what it’s about. The billing is that it 'honours a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery or practical works.

It’s not every day, you know, you get to see a bit of the elbow of Thomas a Becket. In fact, since 1538 when his bones were unceremoniously exhumed from their shrine at Canterbury, the chances have been pretty sparse. So if you haven’t been to catch up with that bit of the elbow which has just been returned from Hungary, now’s your chance: run and catch it.

A retired diplomat I know had no doubt about where the blame lay for the Queen’s Very Rude episode. 'Sounds as though the officials let her down badly - twice - in filming private conversations and then not vetting them,' he observed acidly. And certainly it does seem as though the broadcasters’ cameraman at large – representing the BBC, ITV et al -  may have to have his right-to-roam licence revoked for any social gathering involving HM. The reason, I’d have thought, why he was let loose at cocktail and garden parties was that the Palace thought he, or rather his bosses, could be trusted with the content. More fool them.

A few things come to mind as a result of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s bombshell revelation that his father was not, after all, Gavin Welby, but the late Sir Anthony Montague Browne - a discovery he made by dint of Charles Moore, of this paper, and his conversations with members of Sir Anthony’s family. One reaction is something like admiration for his mother, Jane, who, at the age of 86, has had unexpectedly to enter an entirely new world, that of the self-exposure which is endemic in her grandchildren’s generation but most certainly wasn’t in hers. She has, she says in her riveting piece in the Telegraph, had to clarify the circumstances of her son’s conception because of his present position.

As I’m sure is the case with many of you, I’ve been giving serious thought to how best to Stand Up To Terrorism, Show The Terrorists They Cannot Win and Maintain Our Values. The Belgian Prime Minister said we should all be doing this, followed in short order by every other European politician apart from Marine Le Pen, who has a different take on the whole thing. Again no doubt in common with everyone else, I’ve been brooding over the German Chancellor’s observation that 'our strength is in our unity and that is how free societies will prove themselves stronger than terrorism'.

Of all the frankly riveting stuff in the Daily Mail’s serial of what it calls 'The Unknown Queen' -- nicely timed for the Queen’s 90th birthday -- is there anything less surprising than the revelation she was/is opposed to gay marriage? Is the head of the Church of England a Christian? Well, it seems so. ‘There is,' say Richard Kay (a friend of the late Princess Diana) and Geoffrey Levy, 'one area of social policy where Her Majesty holds more traditional views…same sex marriage.' Talking about the issue in the home of a close friend around the time the legislation was being passed by Parliament, the Queen is said to have expressed her frustration and unease.

A friend of mine, another journalist, is getting terrifically worked up about the Department for Education’s persecution of exclamation marks. He’s busy writing a defence of free punctuation and because he’s a better stylist than the people laying down the law on this one, this will sting. Apparently, exam bureaucrats told teachers and moderators at a briefing run by the Standards Testing Agency last month that the use of an 'exclamation sentence' must start with either a 'how' or 'what' and must be a full sentence – including a verb. So, 'What a delightful home yours is!' is fine; 'Awesome!' is not. Naturally, there’s going to be a backlash.

Among the treats the mothers of Britain can look forward to on Mothering Sunday there are some rum offerings. A company called Nosh Detox is offering a hamper including something called a Nux Vom drink, and the Guardian has helpfully drawn up a list of mother-related films you only take your mother to if you want to terminate the relationship. Meanwhile, the profile of the mother as depicted in the gift sections of M&S and Waitrose is that of a woman with a penchant for anything pink, who loves imported roses and has a thing about prosecco. Her day is made if you take her out to tea. I quite like prosecco, I suppose, but my own tastes run to burgundy, daffodils, Hotel Chocolat supermilk and handmade cards. My own mother is grateful for anything.

Can you think of anyone who isn’t actually better in work than out of it? My mother took early retirement – I mean, early for Ireland where the retirement age was 65 for both men and women (and given that women live longer than men, how did the iniquitous disparity, whereby women live longer than men but retire earlier, last this long?) -- and I can date her decline as a person from that point. She loved her work as a secretary. I can think of men who retired from the paper I work for as soon as it was commensurate with their having a final salary pension, but it didn’t make them happier. For most of us, work is tantamount to an answer to the question: who are you?

It reflects rather well on Richard Dawkins that he still hasn’t joined his followers – the religious connotations of the word are intentional – in objecting to the Church of England tweet on Friday about praying for his recovery from a stroke. https://twitter.com/c_of_e/status/698249409663000577 Presumably the CofE did so on the basis of Christ’s exhortation to 'Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you', as well as genuine affection for the old boy. But of course the kindly post got the inevitable response from more than 1,000 outraged Dawkinsites: 'Sarcastic or ignorant?' one asked.

Further proof that social media is fundamentally evil comes by way of Facebook's Motherhood Challenge. It has been doing the rounds for about a week, and asks women to contribute by posting a series of photos that make them 'happy to be a mother'. They are then encouraged to 'tag' people they think are 'great mothers', so they can then post their own pictures. Duly, the exercise has been criticised by other Facebook users as smug, as well as insensitive to women with fertility problems. It’s only a matter of time before this incisive comment moves on to the issue of why fathers too aren’t outing themselves as happy, proud parents.